This summer, LMU’s PLACE Corps (Partners in Los Angeles Catholic Education) welcomed its 14th cohort of teachers during a Commissioning Mass at the university’s Sacred Heart Chapel. The mass was presided over by Bishop Edward Clark, auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. With 33 new teachers set to enter Los Angeles Catholic schools, plus the 29 returning from cohort 13, the 2014-2015 corps is the largest in program history. The newest cohort includes 10 male teachers, the largest number to join the program since 2003, and nine graduates of Jesuit high schools.
Also recognized was alumna Bridget Dixon-Nuno from the seventh cohort, who received the 2014 Fr. Albert P. Koppes Alumni Award, an annual recognition given to an individual who has demonstrated a positive impact on Catholic education through a commitment to the program’s three pillars of professional development, community living and spirituality.
PLACE Corps – a program within the LMU Center for Catholic Education – is a nationally recognized Catholic teacher service corps. Participants 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. During their two-year commitment, program members live with one another in intentional, spiritually-based communities.
Current PLACE Corps teachers serve in 35 different Catholic schools in Los Angeles, and since 2001, program participants and alumni have taught and served at 100 Catholic schools. Many have gone into Catholic school leadership or pursued further graduate study. Eleven alumni have served as principals within the Los Angeles Archdiocese and 13 graduates have gone on to earn (or are currently earning) doctorates in education.
Watch the Slice of LMU video from the Commissioning Mass and Ceremony:
