Internships help inner-city youths attend Catholic high schools

Published: 2004-01-30

SAN DIEGO (CNS) -- Internship programs enable some 1,100 inner-city youths in five states to attend Catholic high schools, and as interns they put the skills and values taught in their classrooms to use on the job. The campuses around the country are modeled after Jesuit-run Cristo Rey High School in Chicago, established in 1996 to serve the predominantly Mexican Pilsen/Little Village neighborhood, the city's least educated population. The school's success has led to Catholic congregations and dioceses opening other Cristo Rey-like campuses in Los Angeles and Denver; Portland, Ore.; and Austin, Texas. According to Jeff Thielman, executive director of the Cassin Educational Initiative Foundation, based in Menlo Park, Calif., six more schools are scheduled to open this fall in Cleveland; New York City; Cambridge and Lawrence, Mass; Waukegan, Ill.; and Tucson, Ariz. An $18.9 million grant received last year from the Cassin foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will be used to develop additional Cristo Rey-like schools.

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