Throughout the pandemic, Catholic school teachers have gone above and beyond to keep students engaged in learning, whether in the classroom or online.
The Fulcrum Foundation supports educators in the Archdiocese of Seattle through educational leadership grants and leadership training programs such as GRACE (Guiding Regionally, Advancing Catholic Education) and the Leadership Academy. Currently, 165 GRACE teacher-leaders and 40 Leadership Academy participants serve in Catholic schools.
Fulcrum also partners with eight Catholic universities: Creighton University, Gonzaga University, Loyola University Chicago, Saint Martin’s University, Seattle University, University of Notre Dame, University of Portland, and University of San Francisco. PACE, the University of Portland’s Pacific Alliance for Catholic Schools, has been instrumental in providing young, aspiring Catholic educators in archdiocesan Catholic schools.
Programs like PACE prepare educators to face challenges head-on and bring creative problem-solving to the classroom while growing as people of faith.
“We encourage our teachers to step outside their comfort zones and remember that all adventures worth taking involve risk and challenge,” said Gary Beckley, the assistant dean of the PACE program.
PACE teachers live together in community, sharing housing to foster professional and spiritual development. With Fulcrum’s support, PACE now has four houses in the Archdiocese of Seattle at St. Benedict, St. Paul, St. Catherine, and Bellarmine. In total, 21 PACE teachers are working in 12 different schools across the archdiocese.
“Our teachers, through formation, will grow in faith, build community, and take the time to pray and worship together,” said Gary. “Each of the seventeen PACErs in the Archdiocese of Seattle has answered and continues to answer the call to live the Gospel values, teach others, and serve.”
“We are so grateful for the PACE program in the Archdiocese of Seattle,” said Kristin Dixon, the superintendent for Catholic schools. “PACE is a program that launches new educators into the classroom with support from the University of Portland, their community members, the school leadership they serve in, and an area supervisor. This multi-prong approach has led to many of these educators becoming life-long Catholic educators, many of whom we have seen continue to teach in our schools after their two-year service. We are now seeing some of these PACErs build the leadership capacity of our schools and become our GRACE teacher-leaders and administrators.”
For more information about leadership development, contact Kelly Surapaneni, coordinator for leadership development, at kelly.surapaneni@seattlearch.org.