Trying to better serve Catholic elementary schools in its own back yard, Loyola University is setting up a tuition-free master’s degree program for recent college graduates who teach for two years in the Chicago archdiocese.
Degree candidates will teach and take courses at the same time. The big benefit for students is the free master’s degree, worth $18,000.
But the Loyola program, which was announced Thursday, is looking for a different kind of student–someone willing to live with other teachers near the schools they serve and survive on a stipend of roughly $14,000 a year.
“They live together, they share finances, they pray together, they eat together–it’s very much like how religious life was in its early years, except it’s a temporary commitment,” said Sister Margaret Farley, director of school personnel for the Chicago archdiocese.
Although there’s no requirement to continue working in Catholic schools after graduation, university leaders expect some students will be inspired to stay.
Other private programs help place college graduates in Chicago Catholic schools, but Loyola is the first university to set up a formal agreement with the archdiocese, Farley said. Loyola is one of 11 universities nationwide to replicate a program begun at the University of Notre Dame, which established a teacher-recruiting initiative for Catholic schools–the Alliance for Catholic Education, or ACE–in 1994.
Notre Dame will provide financial support and guidance to Loyola. ACE serves 25 dioceses in 14 states, although it doesn’t place teachers in Chicago Catholic schools. Seventy percent of ACE graduates are working in education-related fields. Most of them were not education majors as undergraduates.
Rather than growing its program, Notre Dame administrators opted to support other universities in starting their own initiatives.
Loyola’s program will be led by an ACE graduate, Jennifer Kowieski. While in ACE, Kowieski taught 2nd grade in St. Petersburg, Fla., and after graduation taught for three years in a Chicago Catholic school.
Kowieski views Loyola’s program as a chance to serve schools and turn more top graduates toward a teaching career.
“I joined ACE thinking it would be a great experience and then I would move on with my life,” she said. “But my experience in ACE completely changed my perspective. Before, my focus was on me and what I would get out of things. Now my focus is on how can I help other people.”
Loyola’s program will start off small, with a maximum of about a dozen students in the initial year. Recruiting will begin soon and the first class will start this summer.
Because some funds for the program come from the MacNeal Health Foundation, affiliated with MacNeal Hospital in Berwyn, students will be placed first in Cicero and Berwyn.
Archdiocesan officials say the Loyola initiative is desperately needed because many religious orders no longer serve Catholic schools. Today, 97 percent of archdiocesan teachers are lay teachers, up from 87 percent in 1985.
