Our Echo Application is closed for the Echo 21 class beginning in Summer 2024 . Our application for Echo's 22nd cohort (beginning in Summer 2025) will be available in early September 2024.
Forming lay leaders for service in the Church
Earn a Master of Arts in Theology at the University of Notre Dame while serving in a parish or school in one of the Echo partner dioceses located throughout the United States. Echo students benefit from a robust formation program that integrates their work, study, and life of faith in order to serve the Church and to explore a career in ministry, all while growing as a disciple and a leader in catechesis and evangelization.
- Study theology for two summers on campus at Notre Dame
- Work full-time during the academic year in a Catholic parish or school while taking courses online
- Engage in intellectual, human, and spiritual formation in community
- Receive a competitive stipend, housing, and health insurance benefits (basic medical, no vision or dental)
Echo features
Hear from Professor John C. Cavadini on why theological education is central to Echo's mission and what difference it makes in preparing students to serve the Church.
Who we are
Echo students are a gifted and diverse group of recent college graduates with a sincere desire to grow in knowledge, faith, and service through personal, communal, and professional formation. While living in community with others and working in their assigned parish or school, students live, learn from, and serve the mission of the Church and develop as leaders in evangelization and catechesis.
Hear from Echo's Director, Colleen Moore, on how Echo fills the needs of the Church.
Where we serve
Echo partners with Catholic dioceses across the nation that are eager to assist in the formation of future lay leaders. Partner dioceses provide the best resources for professional development in catechetical ministry, one-to-one mentorship, human and financial resources, theological reflection, and housing for Echo communities.
Benefits
Echo students receive many tangible benefits that spring forth from the foundational belief that those who commit themselves to serving the Church deserve the very best support, resources, and compensation. As John Paul II stated clearly in Catechesi Tradendae (15):
[The Church] is bidden to offer catechesis her best resources in people and energy, without sparing effort, toil or material means, in order to organize it better and to train qualified personnel.
We offer these outstanding benefits to enrolled students:
- a competitive stipend for your on-site parish or school service
- a tuition-free graduate degree in theology
- housing and utilities at no cost
- an educational allowance each summer
- full meal plan and rent-free housing during summers at Notre Dame
Hear from our current students, Lauren, Mackenzie, and Ryan, on what drew them to Echo:
Our alumni
Echo prepares lay leaders for a wide range of full- or part-time roles following graduation. Echo alumni have served in more than 60 dioceses in parish and diocesan youth and young adult ministry, adult faith formation, multicultural ministry, high school teaching, high school and college campus ministry, social work, direct service to the poor, and even law school and doctoral work.
Interested in learning more about Echo?
We're grateful for your interest! Use the links below to connect with the appropriate Echo staff person. We look forward to further conversation with you.
"I'm interested in applying to serve with Echo"
"I know someone who'd make a great applicant for Echo!"
Scott Boyle, M.A.
Director of Recruitment and Outreach
"I'm interested in exploring a diocesan partnership"
Colleen Moore, M.Div.
Program Director, Echo
Echo is so much more than an internship or graduate degree. It's a formation program that gives you the opportunity, resources, and guidance to grow in faith and professional leadership.
My experience in my Echo community, especially, gave me support in learning how to work in the Church and trained me in living out my daily life with others in a faith context.