Jillian Bernas
While in ACE I taught 5th-8th grade students Spanish and Religion at St. Ignatius, Martyr Catholic School in Austin, Texas. I am very grateful for having taught my first two years with the support that ACE offered. Those first two years of teaching I remember as full of people wanting the best for me and my students. All of my classmates, professors, community members, fellow faculty members, parents, and friends were all there cheering me on, many having been in similar situations. I appreciated the opportunities ACE gave me to develop skills as a teacher and as a person that in turn serve those under my instruction.
I may have wondered far from home, but I have not wondered too far from ACE. In this past year since graduation I have been studying Spanish in Costa Rica and working in Santiago, Chile as a part of the ChACE program. Last August Tony Groseta, Caty Hughes, and I began our new “jobs” studying Spanish at a language school in Tamarindo, Costa Rica while enjoying the beach culture there. We arrived in Santiago in October and began settling into our new routine at beautiful St. George’s College. After Christmas, we started off our summer vacation (southern hemisphere) accompanying the high school students on a mission trip to the island of Chiloé before taking off on our own adventures to Argentina and Brazil. Since then we have had a slough of visitors that have encouraged us to get out and see more of Chile’s sights. We have recently started classes in the beginning of March and look forward to a change of pace from our previous globe trotting lifestyles.
This year I will be teaching 6th grade English and working with the Religious Education office. St. George’s College has a strong tradition of English instruction and Catholic Social Justice and I look forward to serving the school in these two capacities.
Greg Gomez
1. What was your ACE site/ school/ grade level/ subject taught?
ACE school - St. Malachy Catholic School...Los Angeles CA...where I taught and still teach 6th, 7th and 8th grade science and religion.
2. In general, how would you describe your ACE experience?
Are you serious...I already wrote my capstone!!! But for the record...There is a prayer in the Lead Kindly Light prayer book which sheds some light upon the ACE experience...called Service its most appropriate lines to this conversation are this...I left to serve and I was served. I went to teach and I was taught. I went to mend the broken and I was broken. I went to help and I was helped. I went to love and I was loved…a bit cliché but sometimes you don't have to search too hard for the words associated with an experience because somebody else has already captured them. ACE's unpredictable nature on several fronts (community, teaching, personal faith) leads to an equally unpredictable growth. The only options when faced with the challenges that the thousands of variables may bring to any ACE teacher are to adapt or surrender. And for those within the alliance (even for the few who leave the program...their growth being somewhat unseen) the latter is not an option. The ACE experience is growth and I am thankful.
3. What have you been doing since you graduated from ACE?
Since I have graduated from the program I have been continuing in that growth. The rub of the post-ACE world (even those who leave Catholic education for well paying jobs...their growth being somewhat unseen) is that the yearning to make a difference isn't quelled through the participation of the program. Rather its existence is affirmed and stirred within...with the constant feeling that ACE was indeed the perfect choice, which set your foot on the right path to serve others in this beautiful life. I enjoy continuing in that service at St. Malachy this year with two other gifted ACE teachers. And although I know my "site" will be changing soon, I am certain that the commitment inspired be ACE to teach others will remain.
4. How have you stayed connected to ACE?
As many know, it is kind of hard to get away from ACE out here in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, I don't know how many more times I can cope with losing to Marshall Davidson in ping-pong. I am energized when I see the ACE contingent "representing" out here in LA. I look forward to gatherings of the ACE Fellowship out here (although they have been less frequent...understandable with our leaders for the first half of the year having just brought new life into this world). And then of course there are the necessary phone calls to the friends you made...with whom you share empathy or envy considering the conversation, friend and mood. Those calls and those cross-country visits are essential because they are the moments in which you can share those two words "You too" as you discuss how the impact of ACE has not left nor seems to be on its way out.