About ALMA

Two centuries ago, Catholic schools were founded in the United States to serve immigrant and other communities on the margin in a Gospel-centered environment that honored the inherent dignity, gifts, and culture of each child, family, and community. Thus, educating children and nurturing the fullness of who they are has always been the soul—or, in Spanish, alma—of Catholic schools.

These schools have long stood as sacred spaces of hope for families and communities. At the same time, the Catholic Church in America is facing a demographic imperative that cannot be ignored, and our schools are begging to be transformed and reanimated by the beautiful and growing diversity of the universal Church. In 2009, with the publication of To Nurture the Soul of a Nation, the University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) renewed its commitment to Catholic education's great legacy of service to immigrant and historically underserved populations by giving special attention to the fastest-growing school-age population in the United States—Latino children.

Since 2010, the Catholic School Advantage Campaign (CSA), through a number of different innovative outreach programs, has sought to catalyze a vibrant national movement guided by two distinct objectives: (1) Promote the unique value of Catholic schools to Latino families, and (2) Help schools respond to the unique needs of Latino families. In a similar vein, ACE's English as a New Language Program (ENL) has been working since 2005 to ensure that multilingual students are afforded the same benefits of a quality Catholic education by preparing teachers and leaders to both understand and respond to the unique academic needs of these students, as well as nurture their cultural heritage and faith.

Today, we continue to build upon the great legacy of Catholic education in the U.S. through the formal partnership of the CSA and ENL programs as the ALMA Initiative. Through this work, we have seen that our Church and schools not only serve multicultural and multilingual communities—they are transformed by them. We firmly believe that by helping schools leverage the linguistic assets and cultural richness of students and families, they become places to work through differences, encounter others, and prepare the next generation to be a powerful force for good in our world today.
 

EMBRACE

Embracing the immigrant and multicultural Church as both the great legacy of Catholic education and a path to future vitality

EDUCATE

Educating multilingual students by forming educators and leaders to employ research-based practices that promote student success

EMPOWER

Empowering multicultural communities as sources of expertise, wisdom, and faith