Will Newkirk: Education, Affirmed.

Experience the Episode

Presented by Institute for Educational Initiatives

From jack-o-lantern tales and top-o-the-chart treats, to the authentic power of truth and healing in the Indigenous experience

Will Newkirk, Director of the American Indian Catholic Schools Network, discusses standing together as co-conspirators of hope—at the intersection of Indigenous culture and Catholic identity—looking to the future by witnessing, sharing, and celebrating stories, as well as candy corn’s mixed upside and Star Trek’s spooky role in Halloween lore.

More

Meet the Faculty: Will Newkirk '14 M.Ed.

Will Newkirk ’14 M.Ed. serves as the director of the American Indian Catholic Schools Network. Before joining AICSN, he was the assistant director at the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Educational Initiatives, where he also worked on the pastoral team for the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) Teaching Fellows program. Will received his bachelor’s degree in political science from Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota in 2012. From 2012 to 2014, he was a member of ACE Teaching Fellows, in which he taught third grade at Saint Catherine School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and earned an M.Ed. from Notre Dame. While teaching for three years at Saint Catherine, he also served as the school’s athletic director.  He is currently earning his doctorate through Loyola Marymount University’s Educational Leadership for Social Justice program, where his research focuses on the stories of residential school survivors who went on to teach in AICSN schools.