PLACE Corps, LMU School of Education’s nationally celebrated Catholic school teacher preparation program, commissioned 24 new teachers on July 28, 2002, during a Mass in Loyola Marymount University’s Sacred Heart Chapel. The teachers, comprising two Partners in Los Angeles Catholic Education cohorts, will begin their assignments in the coming semester.
“My fellow educators: let your lights shine!” said LMU Chancellor Michael Engh, S.J., who celebrated Mass with the educators. “God is at work in your lives to illuminate the path for the students entrusted to your care.”
Cohort 21, with 16 members, and Cohort 22, with eight members, were commissioned together due to past pandemic considerations. The dual commissioning was a first for LMU SOE.
“The PLACE Corp program embodies the Jesuit mission,” said Michelle Young, dean of the LMU School of Education. “PLACE Corp members shine as sources of inspiration for their students and communities. They challenge their students to think harder, to apply themselves, and to see beyond themselves toward their own responsibilities to build the world we want to live in.”
In addition to launching the new teachers on their careers, PLACE Corps honored Sacred Heart High School, an all-girls Catholic High School in Los Angeles, and presented the Father Albert P. Koppes, O.Carm. Alumni Award.
Sacred Heart Principal Raymond Saborio accepted the award, which recognizes the school’s two-decade relationship with PLACE Corps. Since 2001, the year PLACE Corps was established, 21 PLACErs have been placed at Sacred Heart. This upcoming school year, 10 PLACErs, current students and graduates, will be on the school’s faculty.
Greg Nakashima, a member of Cohort 9, received the Koppes Alumni Award, given annually to a program graduate who has made a significant contribution to LMU’s Catholic teacher service corps and “who would make Father Koppes – ‘the father of the PLACE Corps’ – proud.” Nakashima was PLACE’d at Sacred Heart High in 2009 and continues to teach there. He was recognized for exemplifying service, leadership, mentorship, and as a role model for the PLACErs he teaches in graduate courses. Father Koppes, the founding dean of the School of Education, also served LMU as associate chancellor of the university and was an academic vice president. Koppes, who died in 2019, is a member of the LMU Faculty Hall of Fame.
Cohort 21 is composed of four LMU students and others from Azusa Pacific University, College of the Holy Cross, Fordham University, Gonzaga University, Loyola University Chicago, Marymount California University, Mount Saint Mary’s University, State University of New York College at Buffalo, University of Notre Dame, Whittier College, and St. Mary’s College of California.
Cohort 22 is composed of students from LMU, Cal State Long Beach, St. Louis University, St. Martin’s University, UC Irvine, UCLA, University of Portland, and Villanova University.
During their two-year commitment, program members live together in intentional community while exploring and strengthening shared values rooted in Catholicism. The program provides inclusive experiences with a commitment to social justice. PLACE Corps is a proud member of the Catholic Volunteer Network (CVN) and the University Consortium for Catholic Education (UCCE).
PLACE Corps is built upon three pillars – professional development, intentional community, and Ignatian spirituality – and its members earn a master’s degree and teaching credential while serving as full-time teachers in primarily under-resourced Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Diocese of Orange, and Diocese of San Bernardino.
“Whether the days are cloudy or bright, you are carrying on the creation that God began when God separated light from darkness,” Father Engh told the PLACE Corps members. “God bless you in your noble mission to change the world for the better, one student at a time!”
