As many already know, the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a bus tour, visiting dozens of their partner schools around the country. More information and a fun map here: http://ace.nd.edu/20/route. The bus tour is a fun way to spread the word about ACE, their work and their programs, and wherever the bus stops there’s always a pep rally. The names of all the ACE partner schools are printed on the sides of the bus and students enjoy the challenge of finding the name of their own school.

Barbara Johnston and I have been invited along on a few of their stops:

Dallas/Ft. Worth:

Washington DC:

Photo by Barbara Johnston / University of Notre Dame

Tampa:

Chicago:

And just last week I flew (The bus is nice and all, but I’m happy to fly!) to Tucson, Arizona to join the bus tour on an important stop. The ACE Advisory Board and many ACE administrators were there for a meeting and to visit the three ACE Academies in the Tucson area. The ND ACE Academies are a new Catholic school model developed by ND faculty with a greater collaboration and sharing of resources between the local community, diocese, school and ACE. More on that here: http://ace.nd.edu/academies/

For all intents and purposes I’m a lifelong midwesterner, so the scenery and temperatures of the desert Southwest were quite a contrast, especially after this past winter! One of the days ended early enough for me to do a little sightseeing on my own, and being the aviation nut that I am, I had to visit the famous aircraft “boneyard” at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. I also did a quick drive into Saguaro National Park and met some of the local “wildlife.”

On a strictly technical note, the sky in Tucson was so blue I had to adjust the white balance on my cameras to compensate. Heh…not a problem I deal with in Northern Indiana.

I made hundreds of photos in Tucson, so it was difficult to pick which handful to share on the blog. To see more, keep your eye on the ACE website: http://ace.nd.edu/blog/photos

Matt Cashore

Cue the Willie Nelson–we’re On the Road Again.

ACE co-founder Fr. Tim Scully, C.S.C. celebrates an outdoor Mass with the Advisory Council.

ACE advisory board members, including co-founder Fr. Sean McGraw, observe in the classroom of ACE teacher Linda Schoebel at St. John the Evangelist School in Tucson, Arizona, an ACE Academy.

Fr. Joe Corpora, C.S.C. greets students at St. Ambrose Catholic School in Tucson, Arizona, an ACE Academy.

Students at St. Ambrose School in Tucson, Arizona gather around the ACE bus to find their school’s name.

ACE teacher Matthew Gring wears a t-shirt proudly displaying the ACE Academy goals: College and Heaven, as he teaches his class at St. Ambrose School in Tucson, AZ.

The ACE Bus stops at Santa Cruz School in Tucson, Arizona.

What do I do on my free time? Airplanes!! Here’s a row of F/A-18 and F-4 jets stored in the famous Davis-Mothan AFB “boneyard.”

Colorful bug. Does it bite?

Saguaro National Park