house property name change

alexia kelley:good afternoon, everybody, andwelcome to the white house. my name is alexia kelley andi'm deputy director in the white house office for faith-basedand neighborhood partnerships. and on behalf of our office,i want to welcome you all and thank you for joining us today. we're honored to have all of youwith us to celebrate these nine champions of change in catholiceducation and we're really looking forward totoday's program. we have a full schedule inwhich we'll have the opportunity

to hear from ourchampions directly. i want to offer a specialthanks to the national catholic education association, karenristow and her team for their help in partnership. and also marie powell with thesecretary of education at usccb for their help on this. and we want towelcome all of you, many leaders and champions incatholic education in schools as well for joining us here today.

and special welcome to guestsfrom the archdiocese of washington, thediocese of arlington, and the diocese of baltimore. thank you, so much. we've been really proud andhonored to work with our colleagues in the officeof public engagement. this is their program. and with that i'd like to turnit over to erin hannigan who will get us started.

thanks. erin hannigan:good afternoon, everybody. audience members:good afternoon. erin hannigan:that's a good response. (laughter) as alexia said, myname is erin hannigan. i'm here at the white house inthe office of public engagement. and i work on the championsof change program. and we're really excited tohave you all here today to

honor these important leaders. on a personal note i'm reallyexcited to be here to honor these champions. i come from a family of catholiceducators and attended a catholic university as well, so i'mreally excited to hear their stories and learn aboutthe work that they do in their communities. i also want to encourageeveryone here today and viewing online to check out more aboutour champions by going to

www.whitehouse.gov/champions. again that'swww.whitehouse.gov/champions. now, before we begin ourdiscussion with our champions, we have a few more speakers. the first up is myboss, jon carson. he's -- jon is a deputyassistant to the president and director of the officeof public engagement. jon? (applause)

jon carson:good afternoon, everyone. jon carson:welcome to the white house. i will be very brief. i just have two things. i'd first like to tell you alittle bit about the champions of change program. and then i have an "ask" foreveryone watching online here, the audience, and ofour champions as well. you know, in the united states,and you heard the president talk

about this a little bit lastnight at the state of the union, there's a lot of issuesthat are being debated. there's a lot of thingsbeing talked about, but one thing this president andthis administration understands, is that whatever is goingon here in washington, every day across this countrythere are millions of people, just like ourchampions here today, who are making theircommunities stronger, who are lifting people up,who are acting as examples and

making positive change happenin their own communities. and that's what wewant to celebrate with champions of change. we've had different themesthat we've celebrated. we had people who are workingin their communities to prevent domestic violence. we had one of the funner ones,we had a group of chefs who partnered with a local schooldistrict to implement the ideas of "let's move!"

at that's school district. and, however, very, very few ofthe themes we celebrate i think are as important as the group ofchampions who we have here today who as you hear their stories,and i've read them all, are so concretely and directlymaking peoples lives better, serving as examples, andmaking their communities a better place. so with that, here is my ask:please help tell their stories. please help tell your stories.

if you're watching online, ifyou're here in the audience, and to our champions, we'veoften noticed people who are making change like you are inyour communities are often quite humble, reticent to tell othersabout sometimes not just the accomplishments, buthow tough it has been. but what we have seenwith this program, what i think we all know,is that when you do tell your story, when you doshow that it can be done, that you can be part ofmaking your community better,

you inspire othersto do the same thing. so that's our ask, whether youblog about it, tweet about it, write about it, tell someonein the church parking lot on sunday, please help share yourown story and share the stories of our champions ofchange who are here today. with that, i would like tointroduce someone who has been a partner of ours at the office ofpublic engagement who i know is well known to many of you,the director of the office of faith-based initiativesand community partnerships,

joshua dubois. joshua dubois:well, good afternoon, everyone. joshua dubois:oh, come on, good afternoon! audience members:good afternoon! joshua dubois:this is an excitingtime to be honoring champions of changefor catholic education. we are so delightedto have you all here. we've been looking forwardto this day for a long time. and just really an honor to beon the stage with folks who are

impacting kids and indeedentire communities all across our country. on behalf of the presidenti want to thank you as well. he obviously had a little bitof a speech last night and so now is traveling aroundtalking about that speech around the country. but he did ask me to dosomething when i told him about today's event. i've been working for thepresident for a number of years

now so when he asks you to dosomething, you have to do it, so just bear withme, please, sorry. if everyone could raise yourhands like this, please. in the back there, too, please. could you move themlike this, please? i promised president obama iwould shake everyone's hand at today's championsof change event. i'm sorry, guys,but i did my job. listen, we are really thrilledto be here with you to honor

nine champions of changein catholic education. and i'm honored tointroduce these champions in just a moment. and then we're going tohear directly from them in our panel conversations. so i run the office offaith-based and neighborhood partnerships in our13 partnership centers across government. and our job is to come alongsideand support local faith-based

and nonprofit organizationswho are serving people in need. we do that on hungerissues, on veterans issues, on foreign aid and development. and there's no more importantpoint and area of service than around education, of course. and that's why we're so honoredto have these champions here with us today to talk abouthow they're improving the educational futuresof our young people. you know, in fact, catholicschools are the largest

faith-based schoolinggroup in the country. along with otherprivate schools, catholic schools have beenrecognized as national treasures by our department of educationand not only important to the people who use them, butimportant to the common good of the nation as a whole. catholic schools step up tothe plate on behalf of -- amen to that. you know, catholic schoolsstep up to the plate on behalf

of all children, catholicand noncatholic school children alike. one of my favorite stories isthat in the days and months following hurricaneskatrina and rita, catholic schools respondedquickly and compassionately to all victims. many catholic schoolsvoluntarily enrolled large numbers of students displacedfrom public and private schools. catholic schools were the firstschools to reopen in new orleans

following hurricane katrina. there are 201 catholic collegesand universities educating the next generation ofleaders and innovators. a number of these are alsoproviding programs in teacher education and school leadershipfor catholic prek through 12th grade in our communities inorder to sustain the promise of a high-quality education. in fact, although thereare nine folks here, we actually have tencatholic school champions

being honored today. father william leahy,president of boston college, is also one of ourchampions but was not able to join us in person. you can read about his greatwork at bc and his creation of the roche center forcatholic education at whitehouse.gov/champions. congrats to theassociation of jesuit colleges and universities.

and their president, greglucey, for the jesuit college recognitions today. let's give them a roundof applause as well. i also want to emphasizethat next week is catholic schools week! yay! you know, from january29th through february 5th, catholic schools around thecountry will observe this week and really celebrate theimportance of catholic schools to our nation as a whole.

and that's why we wantedto have this event today, and we were planning itintentionally preceding catholic school's week so that we canspread the word about how much catholic schoolsmean to our country. now, without further delay,i'd like to introduce you to the white house champions ofchange for catholic education. first we have bertha castanedafrom washington, d.c. bertha is a senior atarchbishop carroll high school in washington.

she maintains a 4.0 plus -- idon't know what the plus means but somehow that's above ana -- gpa in the international baccalaureate diploma program. one of the toughest college prepcurriculums available worldwide. she's involved in almost everyfacet of school life taking advantage of extracurricularactivities as diverse as lacrosse, stage and crew,and national honor society. let's give bertha anotherround of applause. next we have reverend charlesl. currie from washington, d.c.

father charles currie has spenthis entire professional life in higher education as a facultymember, administrator, president, and most recentlyhe served as president of the association of jesuit collegesand universities, the ajcu, serving 28 jesuit collegesand university institutions. father currie has encourageda commitment to education for justice and co-founded thestudent-led ignatian family teach-in for justice, theignatian solidarity network, and the jesuit commons.

let's give father curriea round of applause. our next champion isreverend john p. foley, s.j., from chicago, illinois. after serving the jesuitmissions in peru for 34 years working primarily in education,father foley returned to chicago in 1995 to collaborate inestablishing the christo rey jesuit high school. father foley established thechristo rey jesuit high school in 1995 and served asits founding president.

he later became president ofthe christo rey network which includes 24 similarly modeledcatholic high schools. he is presently the chairemeritus and chief mission officer of the network. let's give father foleya round of applause. our next champion issister ginny jones from new orleans, louisiana. sister jones has been a sisterof the holy family for 42 years. she has served as a schoolprincipal for 27 years at

various catholic schoolsand is from the great city of new orleans. let's give her around of applause. our next champion is peterkrebbs from larchmont, new york. peter has been the president ofall hallows high school for the past nine years. as president he serves as a ceoof the school and works closely with the principal and boardof directors to maintain the standards of excellencethat have become associated

with all hallows. in between his years ofservice at all hallows, peter worked at the archdioceseof new york where he created the office of educationaldevelopment. let's give peter krebbsa round of applause. our next champion isannette mickey lentz from indianapolis, indiana. annette has served thearchdiocese of indianapolis as a teacher, principal andadministrator of the office of

catholic education for 50 years. since 2009 she hasserved the archdiocese of annapolis as chancellor. she created the mothertheodore catholic academies, a consortium of schools tostrengthen catholic education in urban areas. let's give mickey lentza round of applause. next we have sister rosa mariaruiz from tucson, arizona. sister ruiz has served catholiceducation for over 50 years.

she has been superintendent ofcatholic schools for the diocese of tucson, inarizona, since 1997. her tenure has seen the openingof three new high schools and an elementary school. and she created an endowment anddirected the development of each school's strategic plan. our next champion is yvonneschwab from columbus, ohio. yvonne has been the principalat saint james the less catholic school for the last eight years.

she received the 2011 nationalcatholic education association distinguished principal award. ms. schwab helped ask james theless catholic school become a model school, doubling thepopulation, raising test scores, engaging students inservice, and embodying inclusion and diversity. let's give yvonne schwaba round of applause. and last but certainlynot least, joseph womac from seattle, washington.

as the executive director of thefulcrum foundation for the past eight years, joe womac hasworked tirelessly on behalf of at-risk students in catholicschools in jeopardy of closing. under his leadership, thefulcrum foundation has raised $60 million which has enabledover 10,000 low income students to attend catholic schoolsin western washington. let's give joe womaca round of applause. and then finally one biground of applause for all of our champions of change!

and we're going to hearfrom them in just a moment, but first it is my honor tointroduce roberto rodriguez. roberto is the president's pointperson for education policy here in the white house and hasbeen working closely with the catholic school community fora number of years dating back to his service withsenator kennedy on this senate education committee. let's welcome roberto! roberto rodriguez:thank you. hi.well, good afternoon.

it's really an honor andprivilege to welcome you here to the white house. i wanted to stop by to say helloand to congratulate all of our champions today. on behalf of the white housedomestic policy council, i want to thank all of ourchampions and all of the leaders that are gathered here todayacross catholic education. those of you who are here inperson as well as those of you who are joining us virtually,we really thank you for your

commitment day in and dayout to our families and to our children. you heard the president lastnight in his state of the union address talk about building astrong america and building a strong economy. and key to that mission is tobuild a strong education system and make sure that each andevery one of our young people, beginning actually fromearly childhood education, spanning all the way throughelementary and secondary

education and higher education,receive the opportunity and the support they need to reallyreach their full potential. to prepare fully forcollege and careers. and most importantly to preparefor civic life and for full participation in our democracy. so our champions today are doingthat work, day in and day out, in classrooms, on campusesacross our country. with over 2 millionstudents attending nearly 7,000 elementary and secondarycatholic schools in america,

our administration wants to saythank you for your contributions that you've made and that you'llcontinue to make to the strength of our democracy, to theeducational landscape, to the lives of studentsand children -- students, children and their families,really, around the country. we know that thiswork is not easy work. it's often done with limitedbudgets and with resources. but as evidenced in thetestimonials today and through our champions, we know that ourcatholic education system really

approaches all of thesechallenges with great innovation and solutions to meet thosefinancial challenges and to make sure that our students get whatthey need to be able to succeed. you've stepped up to theplate time and time again. that goes all the way back tofollowing natural disasters like hurricanes katrina and ritawhere our catholic schools were first responders tofamilies, to students, to really help themget back on their feet. we know that our catholiceducation system is a lifeline

of support for neighborhoodsand families that are struggling around our country. and we're honored today to beable to have the opportunity to say thank you, to recognize yoursuccesses and your achievements, and to welcome you hereto the white house. so it's my pleasureto welcome you. and we want to thank you all forbeing here and for all that you do day in and day out to makea difference for america's students and families.

erin hannigan:thank you, very much,for our first speakers. we want to really get into ourfirst panel now so if you will bear with us for just a secondwe're going to shuffle some of our folks off and then we'llget started right away. i'm pleased to invite reverendbrenda gurtin mitchell who will be moderating the first panel. she is the director of theoffice of the faith-based and the community partnership atthe department of education. so with that, i'll lether begin the first panel.

joshua dubois:i am going to breakin for just one second, an unscheduled break-in. just one note. one of the key reasons, infact, the reason we are all here today, in addition tothe president's commitment to catholic education, is awonderful member of our staff who pulled us all together, iam going to have to head out and then come back but i want tomake sure we acknowledge her especially because she is notgoing to be that mobile because

good her broken foot. but alexia kelleyis here with us. she is again the deputy directorof faith-based initiatives. and worked in the usccb and thenfounded catholics in alliance for the common good. and has truly worked to connectthis administration with catholics around the country. so i just want toacknowledge alexia. reverend mitchell:well, good afternoon, everybody.

reverend mitchell:it is always excitingwhen i have an opportunity to represent secretaryduncan and the u.s. department of education as a formerelementary school teacher, it's being able toconnect all of these different lives that ihave been blessed to live. and it's also an honor when weget a chance to just pause from the every day stuff we all haveto deal with and count some of the blessings thatare living among us. and we sometimes takefor granted the things

that people do. this gives us a chance to juststop and say thank you in a very special way. and even as we thank these ninechampions that are being lifted up, it's also a way that we saythank you to all of you because we are interrelated in all ofthe work that we do to make sure that we're creating a cultureof success for our children and creating an educational systemregardless of what the platform is where every young personhas an opportunity to get a

quality education. and catholic education, insecretary duncan's words, is a key part of the landscapeof education for the united states of america. so we come today to say thankyou and to say congratulations. and i get a chance to lead usin to an exciting conversation, some storytelling. as people of faith, we know thatwe learn not so much by reading the stories, but by hearing thestories and being encouraged by

the work and the journeysthat others have taken. i do want to lift up a coupleof the facts around catholic education in connection withthe department of education. our administration hasspotlighted organizations such as christo rey networkand the founder is receiving an award today. we've also sponsored a numberof the christo rey interns at the department of education. one from don bosco, christorey high school in tacoma park.

we have with us today --marie, would you stand? marie anderson is with us today. as i've had the pleasure oflearning more about the catholic schools education programthrough our office of nonpublic education at thedepartment of education, i've come to recognize that 30%of the total catholic enrollment is made up from young people. people of color fromminority communities. and that extraordinary effortshave been made to reach people

whether they arecatholic by faith or not, but they need the accessto quality education. and so we celebrate that. we celebrate your commitmentto serving the underserved and sometimes the unserved andunrecognized in our communities. for the 2011-2012 school year,the department of education named 49 private schools as blueribbon schools and recognized those schools recently at agathering in washington, d.c. forty-six of the 49are catholic schools.

one of the messages thatresonated for me in the president's state of the unionaddress last night was the need to continue to increase theprofessionalization of our teachers and the opportunitiesfor teachers to teach. and we have a teacherambassador fellow's program. and we hope that you willencourage people to sign up and become a part of that program aswe aggressively recruit and work to retain teachers who areconcerned about helping us to uphold the highestpossible standard of

educational excellence. and so with that, thoseare my opening remarks, and now i'm going to turnto our champions for today. and we've asked each of themin a storytelling fashion to respond to some questions. and if they really are offputby the question that i ask, they're smart enough thatthey'll figure out how to say what they want to say -- -- and leave a message thatwill make you be glad that

you heard them speak. they have previously beenintroduced so i will simply introduce them by name and titleand then direct a question. so first we're going to hearfrom reverend john p. foley of chicago. he's the chief missionofficer and chair emeritus of christo rey network. and here is your question:tell us a little bit about what inspired you to launch christorey in chicago and what's one of

the most critical lessons thatyou've learned as you have been involved in that work? reverend foley:thank you, very much. those are easy questions. reverend mitchell:i know they would be. reverend foley:i love it. i love it. so first of all, thanks to thewhite house for the invitation to be here this afternoon andcongratulations to my fellow champions of catholic education.

what an honor to be inthis program with you. we began, christo reybegan -- what inspired us? what inspired us was how muchtalent was going to waste. what inspired us was that thereis a tremendous need for people from the center citynot getting a chance, not getting an opportunity toget a legitimate college prep, what i am goingto say legitimate, i mean something that willreally help them in college, something that will really bringthem up to par so that they can

go to college. so that was the inspirationthat got us going. and the biggest problem is easy,too, because how do you do that, well, how do you do that in theinner city when you've got to pay for it! that and the truth in the wholechristo rey model is that we asked a consultant, we hiredsomebody and said give us some ideas on how to fund a schoolwhere you don't have the resources to pay for it.

by the way, you have to be needyto come to a christo rey school. we have a cutoff, an economiccutoff that you can't be above that and come to our school. so we have a saying if you canafford to pay for it then you can't come. so we, our schools, we hiredthe consultant and he came back, i'd love to saythis was my idea, but he came back after about acouple of weeks, and he said, what if every student had a job?

so that was the creationof the christo rey model. our schools are two things:our schools are schools; and they are also temporaryemployment agencies. all the young people in ourschools are both our students and our employees. and they, by working fivedays a month, they earn, at full employment they willcover 60 to 70% of the cost of their private collegeprep education. last year -- we have 24-- we have 24 schools now.

this thing began in one school,we weren't sure at all it was going to make it for one school. but after a coupleof years we said, this is going betterthan we ever thought! let's repeat this throughout thecountry until today we have 24 and we're going for a few more. twenty-four schools throughoutthe country so we have almost 7,000 students andthey are, last year, in the 6500 students last year,they made $32 million for their

own education. so we're applauding marie andwe're applauding all of these young people thatgo to our schools. our schools are, the christorey schools are 50% latino, 40% african-american, andthe rest in there, too. so but we're talentbeing wasted, but that's what motivatedus and that's what made us want to get going. the whole idea isto provide access.

get kids to go to school. get kids preparedto go to college. last year, last year those whograduated in june of 2011 -- no, excuse me -- yeah -- and wentto college in september of 2011, 84% of our studentswent into college. reverend mitchell:amen. reverend foley:and at that same yearthose who were already in freshman year passed on tosecond year in college, 89%. so there is somethingabout the work program.

we have discovered in the workprogram something much bigger than we ever participated. it's an introduction to the realworld and it's a get-up-and-go, it's self-confidence. and i think my time is up. reverend mitchell:and we know father could talkto us about that all day. isn't this wonderful? isn't this wonderful. okay, so if i daredo a sound bite,

the takeaway is that you gotexpert advice and you made serious investment in educationand it's continuing to happen. so we thank you. we're going to get back to youwith another question i hope. next to me is sister ginnyjones and she's sister of the holy family. she is an educator and shejoins us from louisiana. and so the questioni have for you is, as we thank you for being here,you've been in education a

long time! sister jones:yes, i have. reverend mitchell:a long time. what keeps you there and whatmakes you feel that catholic education is important? and what makes agood catholic school? sister jones:well, let me start withyour last question. reverend mitchell:okay. sister jones:a good catholic schoolbelieves that all children

can learn. academics and excellenceare behind us. we believe in high test scores. and encouraging childrento do their best. now, you might say that'sjust what all schools do. what makes catholic educationjust that bit different is that christ is the center of allthat we do in education. we teach our children morals,and we share our values with them in encouraging them to dothe best that they can and to

use the talents thatgod created them to use. catholic education did play animportant role in new orleans after katrina 2005 because withall of the surprise and not knowing where we were, we knewthat it was important to be a light and a beacon to ourstudents and our parents in the archdiocese of new orleans. it was a tremendous privilegefor me to join our archbishop and our archdiocese to comeback and help rebuild our catholic schools.

i'm principal atst. mary's academy, which is owned by thesisters of the holy family, and is a hundredand 45 years old. reverend mitchell:wow! sister jones:prior to katrina, we were anall girls catholic high school, college preparatory,grades 6 through 12. after katrina, not only did weknow that we had to come back because our children are poorand powerless and we knew that we had to come back for them, weknew that we had to rebuild our

school on the same property thatwas slated to be green space because it was in a flood area. and we knew that it wasimportant for these girls that we would be backas a beacon of hope. the good news is that we wereable to come back and with the support of our archdiocese andthat of the sisters of the holy family, not only have werebuilt our high school, 6th through 12th for all girls,we also took in ages 3 through 5th grade and we let thatcontinue to be coed because

there were so few schools forthem to go to at the time. so while we enjoy and praise godfor our beautiful new facility, we are now looking forward torebuilding another facility for our elementary children. reverend mitchell:well, it sounds like she'sgoing to be busy for a long time still, don't you think? so i think that you saidsomething simple yet profound when you reminded us that all ofus should think that and believe that every child can learn bycreating an environment that is

based on a system of values anda system of concern for every child enhances the opportunityfor each of those children to find success. and so we thank you for yourpersonal commitment to it. and can't you just feelit even when she talks? doesn't she just exude that kindof outlook that's hopeful and would make a child want to makeher happy that they were doing a good job. why don't you giveher another hand.

i had teachers likethat, you know, and i just wanted my teacher tothink that i was doing what he or she wanted me to do. that was important to me. so our teachers are importantrole models in our community. and our faith leaders areimportant role models. and sometimes we underestimatehow much it means for us to just look at a child and say,honey, i know you can do it. just keep on pushing.

and i feel like this is a tableof people who represent that kind of energy. and i'm really happy thatwe have an intergenerational conversation going on uphere today as i introduce you to bertha. bertha castaneda is a senior atarchbishop carroll high school. i think it must be somearchbishop people back there; i see a whole lot ofhands going up in the air. and archbishop carroll is righthere in the nation's capital.

and so we're going to askher to be a marketer today. if she were trying to recruitfor archbishop carroll high school, what would be themessage for why we should choose your school over another? we're your audience now. we're ready to goto high school. we're pickin'. make us want to go! bertha castaneda:well, my name isbertha castaneda.

and first off i want to sayit's a pleasure to be here in front of everyone. and the reason i would choosecarroll beside any other high school is because carroll haschallenged me as a person and made me the person i am today. because if i went to any otherschool i wouldn't have faced some things that ifaced in carroll. like in carroll thepeople, teachers, students, everyone who works there isreally welcoming and opening.

so whenever i need something,need help with schoolwork or with anything else, i knowthere is someone i can go to. and if i ever felldown or something, there is also supportfrom my friends. i'm sorry, i'm a little nervous. reverend mitchell:you're doing fine. bertha castaneda:well, carroll alsohas an ib program which challenges studentsto excel in their academics. and if i, beginning -- let mestart from the beginning -- at

first i didn't want to go tocarroll because it was not my first choice but i'm happy isticked with it because if i went to any other school iwouldn't have gotten the same experience because i challengedmyself academically, socially, and mentally by involvingmyself with a lot of things. at my school i am very involved. i'm a paraminister, anaugustinian scholar, i play volleyball. i played basketball last year.

and i am the managerfor this year. i'm the manager for lacrosse. i'm also stage crew. and the list keepsgoing on and on. but in carroll, they had mademe feel open to being involved. like no one has eversaid, oh, why, bertha, why are you so involved,like, take a break. like everyone encouraged me todo better so that's the reason i would choose to go to carroll.

thank you. reverend mitchell:now, i know we have some onlinefolk out there from carroll, who are going to figure out howto cut that out and post it on carroll's website and send itto parents who are looking for a place for theiryoung people to go. and although you give theschool a lot of credit, bertha, we give you a lot of credit forhaving the personal initiative and drive to take advantage ofopportunities that have been presented to you.

and we encourage you to keepdoing that and be an excellent role model for other youngpeople across our nation. let's thank bertha again. well, annette mickey lentz ischancellor of the archdiocese of indianapolis. and i didn't get achance to tell her this: i'm from indianapolis. annette lentz:are you? oh! reverend mitchell:all of my family isstill in indianapolis.

so just because sheis from indianapolis, i know she is going to have somegood stuff to share with us. but we want you to tell us aboutthe mother theodore catholic academies and the kind ofinnovation that's going on in those schools. such a pleasure to meet you. annette lentz:again, it's a pleasure to be here. i'm humbled. i'm honored. and love being nextto youth as well.

fifty years later it kind ofreminds me of long times ago. and father foley with regardto the christo rey school, obviously, i heard hispitch and we have a school. so i guess before i focusjust on the academies, i would just say that i'm sortof this type of person over time in education that when i wouldteach and especially as a principal, i was the person whowent to all of the seminars, got ideas, never reallyhad maybe my own, and then came back and decidedwe're going to do this.

and i know when that happened myteachers would always say where is she going again, now whatare we going to have to do? i'm sure you can allidentify with that. but one of those times waswith regard to just looking at consortiums and howcan we do business better in urban education. how can we reallybecome more effective? how can we become efficient? how can we work together so thatour children and our families

that we serve in the center ofthe city in the urban area are not forgotten, are learning,are treated equally, and are allowed to stay in ourschools until they finish and graduate from high school. that was a challenge. and just like all of you, iam sure here at the table and beyond, we know funding isdifficult and yet we can't always just be aboutthe business of things. we have to look at what is bestfor the kids and find a way to

make it work. so i heard just in generalnew models, consortiums, nothing was reallycarved in stone. came back and really got thechallenge in front of our archdiocese, which is awonderful catholic community who wants to serve and saidlet's try to do something different for our families. we did. we moved forward. it wasn't simple.

it still is not simple. but it was a wonderfulopportunity to allow our schools to remain anchors intheir neighborhood. we took six of ourcenter city schools, we put them togetherin a consortium. individual school buildings,but shared leadership, shared resources, sharedwhatever we could do. shared maintenance,transportation and the like. everything that would help themmove forward so that we could

hold on to them. and then we as anarchdiocese managed them. they are diocian schools. and so we have grown, thisis five, six years ago, it's still a work in progress. we still continue to bechallenged by the demographics. we just were able toget vouchers in the state of indiana. this past year we hadtax credits before that.

i believe that is just going toreally open wonderful things for these children andthese families. it has already shown in his pastyear in the archdiocese since july's inception ofthe voucher program, 2,000 additionalchildren in our schools, many of those in center city. so we have embracedthe challenge. we have great support, as isaid, by the business community. our clergy.

our team in the catholic centerthat focuses on our education. you know, youcannot do it alone. and these families appreciateeverything you do for them every minute in which you do them. and there are no regrets. so one of the things that i ammost proud even though as i said it's still getting there,and will we ever arrive? yes, we will. when?

i do not know. but in my 55th year, maybe. i don't know. but it has certainlybeen good for our people. reverend mitchell:thank you, thank you, thank you. so she said to us that we haveto embrace the challenges, be willing to change, andthen share the responsibility, have the consortium, have peopleworking together because all of us working together can alwaysdo more than when we're trying

to hang out there by ourselves. so we thank you for sharing yourexperience and we pray that god will continue to give youstrength to be the leader that you've been in indianapolis. annette lentz:thank you. reverend mitchell:thank you. now we have peter krebbs whois the president of all hallows high school in bronx, new york. and we're seeing your name onone side and we're seeing all

hallows on one side and thenunderneath that we're seeing the word "innovation." what kind of key innovationshave you implemented to help embody the work of educationand create some stability in the education communityfor the bronx, new york? peter krebbs:again, thank you. reverend mitchell:cutting edge. peter krebbs:well, i don't know cutting edge. and thanks also to the ncea,dr. karen ristow and robert

bimonte for nominatingme for this. so it really is good to behere and to tell the story. how much they're innovationsi will leave up to other people to decide. all hallows high school wasfounded in 1909 so we are around a while, but we were foundedin four brownstones in harlem. unfortunately we don't own anyof those brownstones any more. so it's still a struggle. but we moved in1920 -- they moved,

i wasn't there then -- -- in 1929 they found what wasdescribed as a beautiful piece of property up in the countryand that's where we are now. it's also known asthe south bronx. where we are is the 16thcongressional district and that's the poorestcongressional district in the entire united states. the average, the averagefamily income in our district is 19,311.

we charge 5700 in tuition. and if i were to get ahundred percent of that i would be fairly okay. but we don't get that. seventy-eight percent ofour families need help with the tuition. and that's mainly from alumni. what we have provided them, andagain whether it's innovation or not, is structure and astability that in many

situations in ourarea is not known. for instance, i'm there,well, a total now of 18 years at all hallows. the principal is there a totalof, well, 16 years as principal, but really he started schoolthere as a freshman in 1969. so we're not going to counthow long ago that was. and we also have 14 of ourfaculty members are former students at the school. so we provide a solid structurethat in our environment is

really important. and we start every day bywelcoming every kid as he comes to the school with a handshake,a greeting, you know, good morning, welcometo school, how are you. and we do the samething in the afternoon. that provides us not only awelcoming atmosphere and it is a welcoming atmosphere and youcan feel it when you come into the building, but it provides uswith knowledge of what's going on with every student.

and that leads to whatwe do and we do a lot with counseling and guidance. we have a groupcounseling session. we knew he had to do thisbecause there's a lot of problems in the inner city andhow our kids cope with those problems both at home and inthe streets that had to be taken care of so that theywere going to learn. and we do that. and we not onlyexpect them to learn,

we don't -- we'll tell them thatthere's four letter words that are never allowed in ourschool and that's like fail, won't, can't. and we expect themall to do their work. we'll work with them. so that we regularly -- an offyear for us would be to have only 98% go to college. this year is our hundredthgraduating class, and we've challenged them,and they're a great class,

we expect them to have ahundred percent go to college. and good colleges. we have, in fact, we want thecollege kids to come back and talk to the current studentsabout what they do and how they should prepare. so last year we had nine ofour kids who were studying at columbia. they came back and theyspoke to the current seniors. a big part of, and i don't know,it's certainly not innovative,

but it's an important partin catholic education, is the spirituality. we leave no doubt thatwe are a catholic school. the school was founded by,at that time, remember, 1909 in harlem, but it wasthe irish christian brothers. now they're justchristian brothers. but we do follow the spiritof brother edmond rice. i think you would find everykid in our school would know who he is.

and what the spirituality ofchristian brothers school is supposed to be about. to make all of this work andagain whether it's innovation or not, is the alumniinvolvement in the school. we could not do itfinancially without that. as i said, tuition is 5700. that is out of a cost,we're managing to get costs down to maybe 7200. and that difference is primarilyto alumni who we use the phrase

with them you come to the schoolfirst and you learn and then you go out and earn andthen you return. yourself and what you've earned. reverend mitchell:all right. those are my buzz wordsfrom his presentation: learn, earn and return! can we go for that? and i think also when youtalk about whether or not it's innovation, it is basic.

and sometimes weforget the basic. the little things that matterto set the tone for the day. to make everybody feel welcome. to know that peopleare being heard. that we're just not numbers. that they're human beingsthat are in our hands and in our charge. and i think if we just thinkabout our personal experience, the context that when people canlook us in the eye and they can

talk to us and they arewilling to touch us, it does help encourage ouryoung people to reach for higher heights. we have about four minutes left. and so what i want todo is just put out one little quick question. and i am just going to give eachof you a chance to give a ten second -- 25 second response. if this was the only thing thatyou could say to this audience

today that would make themwilling to be even more engaged in educational successfor our children, what would be your last word? this is a sessionabout good news. we hear all the badstuff all the time. today we want tohear some good news. what can we do to help? father foley:i love it. dream. innovate. don't be afraidto take a chance.

the hero of our story is theman who told us to go ahead and start the school even though wehad never -- we didn't know if it was going to work or not. he was going to look prettysilly if it didn't work. nobody knew me so iwould get away with it. reverend mitchell:dream. okay, sister ginny. sister ginny:well, i would say whenyou pass on your values, your morals, and yourlove of god to children, you've given them the tools thatthey need to be strong citizens

and useful to society. reverend mitchell:okay. mickey? annette lentz:ah! i would certainlysay create, have faith, not only in yourself butthose with whom you lead, your youth and realize thatthey are hope for the world, the church ahead. reverend mitchell:all right. bertha. bertha castaneda:i would say encouragement. never -- like alwaysencourage the people,

the youth in our communitybecause they need your support. that's how i am in this spotright now because i had a lot of encouragement. peter krebbs:be proactive. bean agent for change. we're up here aschampions of change. but it's very important,become involved, be an agent for change. make things happen. become involved.

and so i do, with alumni allthe time and our alumni are certainly the demographics andethnicity has changed over the years, but once they all gettogether and become involved with each other, they're all,in our case, all hallows people, and they'll all make it better. reverend mitchell:amen. amen. and a closing thought i'dlike to leave with you. i'm not sure who quoted it inthe beginning but i've been quoting it or misquoting it foryears that life is like a tiny

minute, only 60 seconds in it,forced upon you, didn't seek it, didn't choose it, butit's up to you to use it. give account if you abuse it. it's just a tiny little minute. but eternity is in it. what will you do with the minuteyou have to help be the change you want to see. thank you for the opportunity toshare with you this afternoon. erin hannigan:another thank you to thefirst panel and to brenda

while we get repositionedhere for the second panel. now, we're excited to begin oursecond panel in just a second. i am going to reintroduce alexiakelley here who is going to be leading the second panel. alexia is a senior policyadviser in the white house office of faith-based andneighborhood partnerships. so alexia will lead the secondpanel and we're looking forward to a great discussion. alexia kelley:okay, we're getting setup here.

hi, again, everybody. i am really pleased to introduceour second panel of champions for change incatholic education. we look forward to hearing theirreflections on the innovation and creativity thatthey have brought, the many contributions they havemade to catholic education and so i'll, just like brenda,i will introduce them. you have already heardabout their great work. i will introduce each ofthem and ask the question,

ask a question, and thenwe hope to have time for one extra question. so starting withsister rosa maria ruiz, she's the superintendentof catholic schools for the diocese oftucson in arizona. so sister ruiz, of all the manycreative innovations and best practices that you haveimplemented over your career, what do you think has beenthe most important factor in addressing the unique challengesand opportunities facing the

catholic schools intucson and what is the secret of your success? sister rosa marie:well, i'll say children. you know, if we adults arein the job that we have, it's because of children. and we better do a goodjob taking care of them. so that's when i can see thatif adults need more preparation, professional development,especially in religious education, because wehave catholic schools,

and remember i amcoming from arizona, no catholic colleges so we haveto work harder to make sure that our teachers are preparedto teach and take care of our children. and every time i see theneeds of children in any way, then i know that there is a needfor staff development somewhere. and i want to sharesomething else here. it's not part of the question,but i want to tell you that we do have a christo rey schoolin tucson that has made a

difference on the southside of tucson which is about 90% hispanic. and about 85% of them are in thefree and reduced lunch program. and now we're veryproud that some, this year for the firstyear, some of them will be finishing college. that's san miguel, christorey high school and run by the christian brothers,lasallian christian brothers, so we're very proud of them.

and now that i have a chance totalk i want to share with you our partnership with notre dame. besides the ace teachers, theliteracy program, curriculum and lots of help thatwe get from them, we have the first --we have a pilot study, it's a notre dame ace academies. and they are taking care ofthree of our needy schools on the south side of tucson. and you should see, this is thesecond year and it's really is

making a difference. those children are so proud tocome to school and we have the families and the teachersand everybody that is proud, they are so proud to bemembers of the ace academies, and they are really, we aregettings to children ready to attend the christo reyschool and to do a good job in the future. alexia kelley:thank you, so much. let's give sister ruiz a hand.

and now reverend charles currie,s.j., is the past president of the association of jesuitcolleges and universities. father currie, tell us a littlebit about the jesuit commons, a new initiative you haverecently launched and how it relates to jesuit universitiesand colleges and how are you inspired to start this effort? reverend charles currie:thank you, alexia. it's a real pleasure andprivilege to be here and to be with this great group and i wantto acknowledge the folks who

helped me do whatever iwas able to do at the ajcu. they are all sitting uphere in the front row. very much aware ofwhatever i was able to do it's because of them. the jesuit commons is a goodexample of a point that mickey was making about collaboration. it's an extraordinarycollaborative effort and i have just been tryingto make sure it happens. there are so manypeople involved.

the idea came initially aboutfive years ago at a meeting in denver when a jesuit fromaustralia was describing what he was doing with refugeesin a refugee camp in thailand. burmese refugees in arefugee camp in thailand. and immediately this group ofabout two or 300 people had a real serendipitous moment,that this is an extraordinary opportunity to take thisidea and run with it. the idea of a commons, toemphasize the fact that it's not an effort to help somebodybut to do something together

with folks. and what it involves is anattempt to relate all of the educational resources jesuitshave around the world with the marginalized populationsjesuits serve around the world. and the most concrete expressionof you that right now are two refugee camps, one in malawi,one in kenya where we're doing this with the jesuitrefugee service. they have an extraordinaryeducational effort around the world in primary andsecondary education,

this is the first timethey have been able to do higher education. this meant building a building,bringing in electricity, bringing in the internet,getting 40 computers. and today there are 80 refugeestaking online courses from about a dozen ajcu schools herein the united states. and an extraordinary experience. i was over at this camp in kenyajust a couple of months ago, 80 refugees, extraordinaryconditions of deprivation

and yet they cometo class every day. some of them walk twohours to get there. one fellow paralyzed fromthe waist down comes in a combination wheelchair,bicycle, a mile each morning. he has little pads onthe back of his wheels, one has jesuit commons, theother has no pain/no gain. so it's an extraordinaryexperience of collaboration, worldwide collaboration. we are looking now to expandthat in another five or six

refugee camps and the experienceof the volunteer faculty doing this has been extraordinary. the relationship theydevelop with the refugees. and so it's been a greatexperience just to see this idea develop. and as mickey said it's allbecause of collaboration. alexia kelley:thanks so much, father currie. and now yvonne schwab who is theprincipal of st. james the less catholic schoolin columbus, ohio.

mrs. schwab, you helpedst. james the less catholic school become a model school. doubling the population. raising test scores. engaging students in service. and embodying inclusionand diversity. what are you most passionateabout communicating to others about this model andabout your experience? mrs. schwab:well, first i'd like to say thati'm very honored to be here and

i'd like to thank thencea for nominating me. but if i talk about whati'm most passionate about, like sister, i'd have tosay it's the children. it's from the children that weget our strength and that we get our drive and our desire tomake things better for them. i'm also blessed with the mostsupportive staff that anyone could ever ask for so when icome up with some crazy idea they don't go, no way. they say we'll try it,whatever it, we'll try it.

to talk about our children, theycome from all over, vietnam, cambodia, china,russia, nigeria, mexico, el salvadore and allover the united states. they have all different face,different income levels, differences family structures. we're like a windowto the world. i guess we're our own littleunited nations there, you know? but that gift of diversityallows us to relate to all of our children as in the waythat christ would want.

we believe that we are asecond home to our children. whatever they need wefigure out a way to get it. i had one 8th grader sayto me before he graduated, it might sound weird for meto say this, mrs. schwab, but i really loveto come to school, because when i comehere, there's no chaos. i know you'll be here. i know the teacherswill be here. i'll have class.

i'll get lunch. and if i need something,somebody is going to help me do it. that's the kind of hope thatwe hope to give to everyone. that's what catholic schools do. that's what ourfaith calls us to do. our population is 50% esl. 80% are below poverty level. and yet for the last twoyears we've met average yearly

progress in every subject,in every grade level. when i call to the downtownoffice they're like, okay, what are you going to do now? because we don't doanything the normal way. our homerooms are communityhomerooms so our 6th, 7th and 8th graders areall in homeroom together. and that way they canmentor each other. the 6th graders can go to theolder students for help and they all learn to be with eachother and be part of a family.

we have saint familiesat our school. each one is named after a saint. and there are membersof each grade level in that saint family. and we meet withthem every month. we go to mass together. we do activities together. so the kids all getto know each other. we had trouble with ourchildren doing their homework.

some because theyweren't able to do it. some, you know, no english isspoken at home so they weren't getting any help. so we started something calledhassle-free homework every morning for the firsthalf an hour of school. you have to have triedyour homework, though. you can't just say, so, whenthey come to school if they don't understand their homeworkwe're there to give them help. we offer, if they need coats,hats, food, rides home,

we figure all ofit out for them. that's what it meansto be a family. all of our students take spanishso most of our spanish speakers help the english speakers learnand our english speakers help the spanish speakersin english class. and they all take americansign language so we're a trilingual school. i am very proud of that. we have institutedauthentic service learning.

this is really a program thati'm very proud of because it comes from the children. they study, they study issuesand they find actions that they can take to helpwith those issues. for example, whenthe tsunami hit, they studied all about thetsunami and what happened. and they did fund-raisingand different activities. we taught the school about whatthe tsunami was and its effects. we raised enough money to helpa fishing village get a new boat

so they could restarttheir village. we also helped with therafique project in africa. we helped to furnish a dorm forchildren whose parents died of aids-related illness. then when the economy took alittle turn, our children said, well, you know, it's greatto be helping everybody, but we have children reallyclose to home that need help. and realize that our childrenaren't rich but they really know how to help other people.

so when they saw theeconomy they said, we need to help closer to home. so we partnered up with a groupcalled the "run the race" which provides an aftercare programfor children on the west side of town who don'thave anywhere to go. we also helped a group called"a kid again" which helps terminally-ill children. so that way our children learnhow to be global citizens as well as helping close tohome and what they can do

to help other people. i could tell you stories all dayabout the kids but i know i am probably going to run outof time so i just have to get two in. you know, with martin lutherking day last week and we all know martin luther king'sspeech "i have a dream," well, martin luther had a dreambut so does martin salsado. and martin salsado'sdream is to go to school, to be able to go to college, andnot have to fear or worry about

what's going to happento his children. to his parents, i'msorry, to his parents. they don't need tolive in fear every day. and my last story is about kennyand it's my favorite and i'll try to do thiswithout tearing up, but kenny came to us in 7thgrade, way below grade level. he had the misfortune of seeinghis father lost to violence right in front of him. he worked and he worked andthen he went to high school.

in his sophomore year of highschool he ran all the way across the football field to hug me tosay i passed all parts of the ohio graduation test, ican think about college. and i'm proud to say thatkenny entered college in the fall of this year. alexia kelley:thank you, so much,yvonne, for sharing that. and now joseph womac, who isthe executive director of the fulcrum foundation inseattle, washington. welcome, and thank youfor making the long trip.

joseph womac:thank you. alexia kelley:so our question for you,joe, is what do you find most critical and also mostsatisfying in your work at the fulcrum foundation and howhas your experience with ace, the alliance for catholiceducation at notre dame, influenced your work today? joe womac:good questions. first, i want to also say thankyou to the white house for shining a light on theexcellence of catholic schools

and the important rolethat they play in society. i also secondly want to thankwhoever organized the event by giving me a chanceat the last word -- -- although father currie haspromised me he has been working very hard on his rebuttalto whatever i have to say. so i'll save some time for that. the fulcrum foundation forwhich i've had the privilege as serving as the executivedirector for the last eight years is an amazing organization.

it's hard to boil down into justa couple of things what is most critical and most satisfyingabout the work that we're doing. but i think that it could besummed up by the first eight champions that we have heardfrom today because they're working with kids,many of them are, or they are themselvesinspiring stories in education. i, in my job, have the privilegeof championing people that work in catholic education buti'm not directly working with kids myself.

but what is most critical? i think i would say isunderstanding first that catholic schools work with kids. and it's not in a conversationthat we're having about catholic education, period. it's about education. it's about the lives of childrenand the difference that good schools make in those lives. and the platform that catholicschools can be to a better life.

and i have seen first hand overand over again thousands of times in the stories, thelives of the kids that we send to school at thefulcrum foundation, their lives are very satisfying. and so that we need tounderstand that catholic schools work. we could talk a long timeabout what makes catholic but i think that we have hearda fair amount about that today. what i would say, though, isis that the other thing that we

need to critically understandisn't just that they work, but there are millions of emptydesks in catholic schools all over this country. so for me when i ask myself thequestion what makes a school a great school? to me the answer to thatquestion is not what percentage of the kids got whatscores on what tests. or what percentage of what kidswent to those schools and then went on to college.

to me what defines a greatschool is the difference in the life of the kidsthat go to that school. if you take that schoolaway what does that do to the community? if you insert the schoolinto the community, what does that do? and so to me catholic schoolsare some of the best schools that ever were because we couldsee over and over again that when you insert a catholicschool into the life of a

child at risk, theoutcomes are phenomenal. we heard about it. ninety-eight, 99% of thesekids go on to college. kids that come from backgroundsthat usually maybe 20, 30, 40% would go on to college. and so we need to preserve,we need to preserve these institutions because of thedifference they're making. if they didn't work we wouldn'tbe having this conversation. so it's critical that weunderstand that they work.

and that we need to dosomething to preserve them. there are millionsof empty desks. there are familiesthat would fill them. and what we need to do is weneed to leverage new ways of getting those desks filledbecause it is not as easy as it used to be. and i commend the role thatchristo rey has played in finding an innovative wayto fund schools that serve at-risk kids.

i think that that's ahuge component of this. my organization, thefulcrum foundation, is a funding organization,so we leverage resources. we raise money. and we give it out whereit's needed the most. and it's been very satisfyingto do that and it is extremely satisfying to see theoutcomes of those investments. they're what we do it for. really quickly onthe ace program.

the ace program is an amazingteaching in-service program run by the university ofnotre dame as part of a consortium of programs. the university of portlandhas one called pace. i think there are 13 of them. i'm a graduate of it. you give up two years ofteaching in a catholic school that they send you to. you live in a community.

and at the end of the processyou have two years of teaching experience in a catholicschool and a masters degree to show for it. i also have that program tothank for introducing me to my beautiful wife. as well as ruining any plansi had for a corporate career! so i can't separate itfrom anything that i do. (laughter and applause) alexia kelley:let's give joe around of applause.

thanks so much, joe. both joe and sister ruizmentioned the ace program. so we're excitedthat that model, ace, and then programs like it,that you lifted that up. so building on what severalof you have mentioned about engagement of community and alsothe needs in the community and the schools for staffdevelopment, for resources, et cetera, what do you think aresome ways that we can motivate all americans, particularlyin underserved communities and

especially in community andfaith-based groups to become more active in educationand in their local school? yvonne schwab:well, i think one ofthe things we need to do is get them into our schoolsmore so that they can see what we're doing. and on that note i invite anyof you to come to columbus, ohio and i would love foryou to come see the school! alexia kelley:thanks. other thoughtson that question? reverend currie:i think just the experienceof seeing both the need for

education and the responseof people getting it. i mean, my experience with therefugees in that camp in kenya to see the appreciation ofthese folks who have literally nothing, to see howmuch they appreciate it. this fellow in a wheelchairparalyzed from the waist down, his big concern now is how canhe pay back for the privilege he is receiving of an education. to be exposed to that kind ofappreciation and also the need for the education, i thinkthat really encourages you

to get involved. sister rosa marie:you know, i thinkabout, of course, i have been in educationfor many, many years, 50 years as a sister,50 years in education, i started teaching threedays after my profession. now, but, you know, when isee the children coming in in prekinder and they grow up andthey give you lots of headaches and you try to help them and youthink you are going to lose them and you meet with parents andteachers and then you the see

them finish high schooland graduating and going into college. if people can seethat that is worth it. it is worth it to spend all thistime helping them and finding ways of helping them andsee what happens at the end. because they will be the futureleaders of our church and our society and webetter do a good job. alexia kelley:thank you. joe?

joe womac:i just want to sort ofbuild off that and just say that i think the realchampions are sort of the millions of anonymousparents and families and students out there. what they do through theirlives in choosing what's best for their children, i think itdispels a myth that parents from certain backgrounds, fromcertain walks of life, don't want what'sbest for their kids. that they don'tvalue an education.

i think that that's a falsehood. that in the champions, thetrue champions out there are dispelling that every day byfighting for what's best for their children and makingchoices that they can make for their children. and i think our responsibilityis to rise up to that level of commitment that those familieshave for their kids by if some family wants something weneed to provide it for them. if that's best for thekids we need to provide it.

and so to me it's just rising upto the inspiring sacrifices that parents make fortheir kids every day. alexia kelley:thank you, joe. so one more questionfor the whole panel. what would you say or describemaybe one of the greatest challenge you faced in your workin catholic education and how did you overcome it? yvonne schwab:well, the first yearthat we -- we have a large spanish-speakingpopulation and i don't speak

spanish so the first year thatwe had spanish-speaking students coming to our school, of course,the children can speak english but the parents cannot. that was a big challenge. and we were all, like, oh,what are we going to do? so the whole staff took aprogram called command spanish where we learnedsome spanish phrases. now, i don't speak alot of spanish, but i can say, puedo ayudarle.

how can i help you? now, when they answer me, idon't know what they're saying but at least i said it. so that was one ofour big challenges. now we have everythingin two languages. you get paper home, english onthe front, spanish on the back. you know, everything isbilingual at our school. and that was a big challenge anda big -- i think it also speaks to the population that we'realready at our school that they

were open, welcomingand inviting. we were an immigrant populationof italians as we started as a parish and we're headed towardan immigrant population again. so i think that speaks to notonly the students coming in but the students that were there. sister ruiz:you know, or greatestchallenge in the diocese is to try to build upthis catholic identity that teachers are greatand they want to help, but their religious educationended up when they received the

sacrament or confirmation. and, remember,like i said before, we have no catholiccolleges in arizona. so that's ourgreatest challenge, to make sure -- and now theyare supposed to have level 1 religious certification but weneed to start to provide the classes and weneed to help them. and that's what weare trying to do. but that's what i, you know,is our greatest challenges.

that's besides money, of course. alexia kelley:thank you, sister ruiz. father currie? father currie:i, when i first becamepresident of a college it was in a survival modeand we weren't sure we were going to open day by day. i think the biggest challengewas to get people to believe, believe in the place. and i'm a firm believer myselfin anything can work if you

believe enough in it and youare willing to work at it. and that was i think the biggestchallenge to get enough people to believe in the placeand be willing to work. and it still exists today. joe womac:it would be easy to say thatthere's not enough money, but i do think that the moneychallenges of our catholic schools are a symptom of i thinkmore important underlying issues that represent thelarger challenges. and i think that inspiringstories of some of our champions

here today, the thingsthat they've done, to do things in a new wayin catholic education tell a story of, i think, whatthe biggest challenges are. that we know catholicschools work with kids, but they don't necessarilywork financially in all neighborhoods any more. and so we have to find newways of providing that type of education that's always worked. and getting people to excitedlyembrace a new idea to kind of

get out of riskaversion, it takes, it takes a lot ofconvincing sometimes. and so i think we need newinitiatives and getting people on board with thosenew initiatives. even though they might not worki think is a huge challenge in catholic education. so let's give our panel afinal round of applause. congratulations to each of you. thank you for yourleadership and your service,

your contributions tocatholic education and your broader communities. you really embody thefundamental american value of service. so thank you for all thatyou're doing and thank you for being here. so we're going to moveinto some closing remarks. okay, thanks, erin. we can stay.

so we want tocongratulate -- congratulate ourchampions today. we know that all of youparticipating today and i certainly have been inspired andencouraged by the amazing work of the championsthat we're honoring. on behalf of our office, theoffice of faith-based and neighborhood partnerships andour entire white house team that worked on this project, we wantto thank all of our guests for participating today, bothhere in person and virtually.

it means very much, it meansa lot to have you all here as leaders and innovators incatholic education to chat to celebrate these championsamong you and among us. i want to welcome now to thestage maureen dowling who is the director of the officeof nonpublic education in the department of education. maureen and her team have beengreat partners in helping us work with ncea and helpput this event together. and she's going to give a littlebit of information about her

office at the department ofeducation which can really be an open door and a resource for youand the work that you're doing. so thank you, maureen. maureen dowling:thank you, alexia. and greetings to everyone. and to the champions of change,what elegant and life-empowering contributions you have made notonly to catholic education but to our nation. it has been humbling to sit heretoday and such a privilege to

listen to your stories. thank you for sharingthem with us today. as alexia mentioned, i amthe director of the office of nonpublic education at the u.s. and i am so pleased to bejoined here today with my staff, amy huber there who is playingthe champion tech today and deborah southwelland jerry kyle, brian martin and pamela allen. it's been a pleasure workingwith alexia and erin to help

facilitate this. and we so appreciate all ofyou who got in that security information by thedeadline to the office of nonpublic education. we're part of a larger officecalled the office of innovation and improvement. and the assistant deputysecretary of that office is jim shelton. he's sorry he couldn't behere today to congratulate

the champions personally. but he sends hisappreciation for your commitment and your leadership. just in a nutshell, the officeof nonpublic education is a liaison office to all thenonpublic schools across the united states. independent schools, faith-basedschools and home schools. i'm sorry to say we don't getany money from congress so we have no money togive you directly.

however, as many of you in thisaudience know there are some wonderful federal educationbenefits and services that are available to your studentsthrough programs that are administered by the department. and i know some of youhere in this audience, your students and teachersparticipate in those programs such as title i and title ii,a professional development. so our responsibility as theliaison office is to help maximize the participationof private school students in

federal education programs. within the department weadvocate on behalf of nonpublic school students. we scrutinize everyletter that comes across. every policy. every regulation. every piece of guidances toensure maximum participation of your students, but also tomake sure the autonomy and independence of privateschools is maintained.

in fact, in our work, and youhave a wonderful team as i mentioned earlier that isworking on behalf of catholic school students and teachers andother private school students across the u.s., we want tobe, as we say in text language, your ffb. which stands for your"favorite federal bureaucrat." and that's whatwe seek to be -- -- on your behalf. i'm so delighted that thisprecedes national catholic

schools week next week and it'sone of the other activities that we do as the liaison is wecorrespond and communicate on a regular basis with the nationalprivate school organizations like the national catholiceducational association, ncea, that is here represented today. and a host of other privateschool organizations and home school organizations also. now i was just thinking i'm aformer catholic school teacher and principal so to make thisa genuine catholic education

event, there is one lastthing i'm going to need to do here, alexia. we always give homework. always! so here is the homework for thechampions and also all of us here in this audience today. on behalf of the children andthe eloquent stories you have shared with us today, on behalfof the children i'm going to encourage you and askyou to say this with me.

i'll say it first andthen you can join me. and i hope it will be asworth it said an encouraging thing for everyone. it goes like this:good, better, best. never let it rest untilyour good is better; and your better is best. will you join me? everyone:good, better, best. never let it rest untilyour good is better and

your better is best. again, champions,congratulations! thanks for yourinspiration today. alexia kelley:just wrap up? thanks so much, maureen. as -- what? do you want to take a picture? okay, we're going to takea picture in just a minute, but i just wanted toleave with a few more

points about follow-up. as maureen mentioned, catholicschools week is next week and we're really excited about theopportunity for this event to help shine a light on next week. so we encourage youto tweet about today, e-mail your friends about today. this live stream will be up onthe white house youtube channel following this event soyou can share that link. and the photos and thebiographies of our wonderful

champions will beup online, too, at whitehouse.gov/champions. so, whitehouse.gov/champions. so i encourage you to link tothat site and spread the word about the champions toinspire and encourage others in their communities. and just share the good newsof their incredible work. i also wanted to just sharecontact information for our white house office forfaith-based and neighborhood

partnerships and just recognizejerry flavin who is with our sba faith-based office, smallbusiness administration. roxana barillas who iswith our usda faith center. she works on the reduced pricedlunch and summer food programs all which are availableto catholic schools, to nonpublic schools. so she's someone if you're notconnected to the summer food service program or theschool lunch program, roxana is the person to talk to.

and then brenda's colleagueken bedel is here with the education center. so we are a network of 13faith-based and neighborhood partnership centers at differentfederal agencies that can really be an open door. so if you're working with thecommunity organization in your faith-based organization in yourarea or your school is doing work in hunger, in smallbusiness startup and they're interested in that, these folksare your open door like maureen

is at the department ofeducation and brenda at these different federal agencies. so our website isalso very easy. it's whitehouse.gov/partnerships. whitehouse.gov/partnerships. and i think you allgot the toolkit. the common goodpartnerships toolkit guide. so that's your kindof resource there. and i think now i'm very honoredto introduce our final speaker

today, we're very pleased tohave with us denis mcdonough who is the deputy nationalsecurity adviser and assistant to the president. works very closely withpresident obama on national security and other issues. and i know has been veryinspired by his experience in catholic schools andas a catholic american. so thank you, denis. dennis mcdonough:well, alexia,thanks so very much.

it's a real honor to be withyou champions for change. i'm a proud product of thesisters of st. joseph at st. michaels catholic elementaryschool in stillwater, minnesota. and a proud graduate ofst. john's university in collegeville where i got toknow an awful lot of benedictine brothers and obviously thesisters from st. ben's. and then i spent sometime with the jesuits as well at georgetown. so it depends on the crowdon who i claim -- (laughter)

-- but it also depends onthe crowd for who claim me. so i would just saya couple of things. i mean, i was just sitting in ameeting in a sit room that ran long and i was reflecting thatmy job perhaps as much as any of the jobs at st. johns reflectsthe motto of st. benedict of working and praying. and i'll tell you that i spendas much of my time when i'm thinking about my job and someof the very difficult things we go through and some of the verydifficult decisions we tee up

for the president prayingthat they turn out right. and that's as true lastnight, for example, when the seals carried out thisvery remarkable but also very nerve-rackingoperation in somalia. as it is when we wrestle withvery difficult policy decisions about assistance to countrieswho are struggling like haiti or throughout africa or otherwise. but it's almost every day if notwhen john brennan is giving me trouble for not having clearerhandwriting like he claims he

got from his parochialschool upbringing. or to frankly some of the very,very difficult decisions we make around questions likeuse of force, just wars, dignity of all individuals. on that range or thatcontinuum of issues, i think about catholic educatorswho throughout my life frankly gave me the opportunity thati have to work here today. i'll just close with one finalstory as it relates to this which is two of my brotherswho studied in rome,

and i never got to govisit them in rome. my folks had saved up sowe could, of the 11 of us, every one of us would get achance to go visit them on their summers somewhere in europe. and it did dawn on me a coupleof years ago that we got to go, you know, to fly into the citiesthat have the cheapest flights. i always wondered why wouldn'tmy folks send me to italy? and it turns out that those areprobably more expensive flights. anyway, i did finally get to goto rome and i got to go there

with president obamain the summer of 2009. and i got to ride intost. peters square in the president's limousine while thepresident and i talked about what catholic educationhad meant to me. but as importantly for me i gotto hear what catholic education meant to him. and by catholic education, idon't mean when he spent that couple of school years inindonesia with the catholics, but rather when he workedon the southside of chicago,

funded by the campaign for humandevelopment and working with unemployed steel workers. and so i hope when you allleave here today you're not only reminded of how much we admirethe work you do and you not only feel proud of the fact that thepresident of the united states and understanding thatthere is going to be times, perhaps even like today,or like last friday, when you disagree with adecision that he or his administration made, but i hopeyou feel proud of knowing that

he was informed. and i can assure you iscontinually informed and continuing to be informedby his catholic education. but i hope that you'll bereminded as well that there's a lot of people like meout there who think of you, i think of sister elaine andi think of sister shirley, sister mary marg, and a lotof the monks at st. johns who frankly made it possiblefor me to be here today, make it possible for me towalk into the white house

and work every day. and ultimately i hope makeit possible for me to make a well-rounded, well-informed, andultimately just and dignified decision or set ofrecommendations to the president as he wrestleswith these things. so thank you for allyou do for our country. thank you for, in particular,taking on this champions of change set of challenges, andplease know that you have an open door here.

there is a deep reservoirof goodwill including, i just hasten to say again on aday like today or a day like the last several days, when i'mconfident that there's several people in the room as there is aparticular mom in my family or a couple of brothers in my familywho aren't particularly happy with a decision,i hear from them. we should hear from you. and we welcome it. but we thank youvery, very much.

and thanks for giving me acouple of minutes to come by. erin hannigan:thank you to denis,to our moderators, and most importantly toall of our champions. if i can just get one moreround of applause for all of our champions. and with that ourevent has ended. but i hope again you all canlearn more about our champions by going towww.whitehouse.gov/champions to learn more abouttheir incredible work.

so thank you again!