The Seton Teaching Fellows program is a 1-year missionary commitment—with an option for a 2nd—in which Fellows serve at Seton network schools, playing a special role in vibrant catechesis initiatives to further the mission of the New Evangelization. As a Seton Teaching Fellow, you will receive incredible teaching experience, professional mentorship, and spiritual formation.
Seton Teaching Fellows is run by a national non-profit called Seton Education Partners. Seton Education Partners expands opportunities for parents in underserved communities to choose an academically excellent, character-rich, and—for those who seek it—vibrantly Catholic education for their children.
You will serve at a Seton network school with elementary and middle-aged children, sharing your gifts and talents to help them achieve their full potential. Your primary role will be to lead children to Christ by introducing them to the life-saving message of the Gospel. In your role, you will have an opportunity to grow as an incredible educator while helping your students grow in knowledge and virtue. Seton Teaching Fellows are devoted to ensuring that children in underserved communities make it to college and heaven. We can promise you that you will never be bored in your role as a Fellow!
Seton Teaching Fellows begin the year with a program and instructional orientation, which focuses on building community and sharing faith experiences with one another and an intensive introduction to the foundations, skills, and mindsets necessary to be an effective educator. Throughout their missionary year, Seton Teaching Fellows receive ongoing training to improve their service, learn new skills and be the best educator they can be.
Seton Teaching Fellows serve at Seton network schools in the Bronx, NY, Cincinnati, Ohio, Paterson, NJ, and Mission, TX.
It’s understandable to ask about safety when living in a new city or community. Our perfect track record when it comes to safety reflects how much we treasure our Fellows’ fiat and do everything we can to support their work, as well as dispels unfair stereotypes about the neighborhoods where we serve.
Out of an abundance of sensible caution, we take intentional steps to ensure our Fellows’ safety in several ways, including:
- We choose both safe and quality locations for all of our schools, staff offices, and Fellows’ housing. Our Fellows live in close proximity to their mission sites and public transit, and the routes they travel are taken into careful consideration.
- Fellows are not alone! STFs live in community and travel to school together. While our men and women do not share the same living quarters, they are housed in the same buildings and share the same professional placements. Also, a great deal of our school and network staff (many of whom are STF alumni) choose to live in our neighborhoods even after their year of service. They fall in love with our neighborhoods and raise their families there. Fellows are not outliers in a neighborhood, but instead become members of a community.
- We choose and provide safe housing. Also, all of our houses are equipped with security cameras and comprehensive alarm systems.
- Our Fellows have personal safety devices. Each Fellow receives an S.O.S. keychain out of an abundance of caution. We’re happy to report that no Fellow has ever had to use this device.
- We encourage safe travel through access to a public transit fund. If a Fellow ever feels unsafe, or has due cause for concern, they can be reimbursed for transit through a rideshare app or similar option. We do this so that making a safe decision is never impacted by monetary concerns. Fellows have not felt the need to use this fund either.
- Fellows receive intentional and practical training around living in a neighborhood that might be different than what they’ve experienced before. We advise practical safety tips that we would recommend for city-dwellers in any neighborhood or borough.
Well over 200 Fellows have served with us over the last decade and there has never been a Fellow (or any staff member) who has been physically harmed or a victim of violent crime. Every year, our Fellows who stay and work at our schools and network willingly choose to live in the very same neighborhoods where they served as a Fellow. Our alumni love the mission, know what it means to belong to a community, and feel safe in our neighborhoods.
There are, unfortunately, many unfair stereotypes surrounding the neighborhoods and communities where we serve. While there is a real need for the work we do as evangelists and educators in our schools’ neighborhoods, the fact that we are serving impoverished communities does not mean that our Fellows are exposed to high levels of crime or dangerous situations. We are blessed to walk with and accompany amazing children, young adults, and families who are living in these neighborhoods as well, entrusting the work we do to our heavenly Father.
While we of course encourage Fellows to use prudence, wisdom, and common sense like they would in any new city, we also take to heart…Jesus’ exhortation of peace in Luke 12:25-34:
25 And which of you by being anxious can add a cubit to his span of life? 26 If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? 27 Consider the lilies, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28 But if God so clothes the grass which is alive in the field today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O men of little faith! 29 And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be of anxious mind. 30 For all the nations of the world seek these things; and your Father knows that you need them. 31 Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things shall be yours as well.
32 “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions, and give alms; provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Your Seton Teaching Fellowship will begin in mid-July. Your official start date will be discussed during the offer process.
Yes, Seton Teaching Fellows are given a modest apartment or house in the community that they serve. Fellows live together in an intentional faith community, where they grow personally, professionally, and spiritually. Seton covers rent, including internet and utilities.
Fellows are not asked to “fund their mission” in order to be placed at a campus and serve as a Seton Teaching Fellow. If funding your role were required, that would mean you’d need to raise roughly $50,000! Instead, Seton Teaching Fellows are given a modest living stipend during the time of service.
Keep in mind that an important part of being a Fellow is sharing the mission, which allows for evangelization as well as increasing awareness of STF and our organization overall. All Fellows will participate in an initiative called Share the Good (STG). With STG, Fellows keep in touch with their friends, family and others in their network throughout the year with videos and email updates. A natural consequence of sharing the good is that we’ve seen greater awareness at colleges which makes recruiting more effective, in addition to friends, family members and other people in our Fellows’ networks wanting to become more involved and contribute financially. So we’ve set modest goals as an endpoint for our Fellows to shoot for and have built in lots of support around these goals.
Yes! Fellows are encouraged to live simply and to share communal costs. At the beginning of their year, Fellows work together to create a community covenant that will help you work together to live simply and on budget with the stipend.
No. In order to be most present to your community and your mission, we ask that you do not take an additional job.
Seton Teaching Fellows will follow the calendar and teacher absence policies of their Seton network school.
We recommend staying on your family’s insurance if it is an option; however, there is a possibility for you to obtain insurance through an outside partnership that we have with Notre Dame Mission Volunteers. Please note: Notre Dame Mission Volunteers receives funding for this through a federal grant program and is not guaranteed from year to year.
There is a possibility for you to obtain loan forbearance through an outside partnership that we have with Notre Dame Mission Volunteers. Please note: Notre Dame Mission Volunteers receives funding for this through a federal grant program and is not guaranteed from year to year.
We do! You don’t need any experience teaching, just a passion for working with children and a strong belief that every child can learn and grow in virtue. Fellows with a variety of backgrounds will only enhance our program!
As long as you’re done with your school by the middle of July, you are eligible to join next year’s cohort. The first few weeks of the fellowship are packed full between orientation and onboarding. Both experiences are essential to ensuring that you are completely ready for the start of the school year; thus, it is absolutely necessary for you to be fully present from the start. Prior commitments to school could prohibit this from occurring.
We cover your transportation to and from your placement site.
No—as long as you’re committed to a year of service and living simply in community, we invite you to apply. We cannot accept married individuals or those with any dependents.
Seton Teaching Fellows accepts students with various degrees; however, your stipend will be unchanged regardless of the degree or the experience that you have. The priority for the year is to serve the children at your placement school. So as long as an individual is prepared for this task, all graduates are invited to apply.
Yes, you will receive a modest monthly stipend. Additionally, we have partnerships that can offer you health insurance, loan deferment, full-time job opportunities, and even graduate school scholarships.