Work-study plan key to new Jesuit school

National Catholic Reporter, March 29, 1996 by Pamela Schaeffer

CHICAGO -- Drivers entering and leaving downtown Chicago on I-55 can see the Pilgen/Little Village neighborhood, with its rows of tenements, to the south of an elevated portion of the highway and just minutes from the Loop.

Sixteen-year-old Gustavo Rodriguez lives in that densely populated close-in southwest area where high schools are seriously overcrowded and plagued by high dropout rates, and gangs proliferate. He needs only one word to describe his feelings about attending Christo Rey High School, the new Jesuit school opening in his neighborhood in the fall: "Wow." For him, he said, it is a dream come true.

Rodriguez is a member of the liturgy commission and parish council at St. Procopius Parish in the Pilsen area, which Jesuits have staffed since 1992. He also directs a children's choir and often helps his father, Felix Rodriguez, custodian at the parish school. Fifth of six children in his family, Gustavo had hoped to attend Ignatius College Prep, another Jesuit school on Chicago's South Side, but high tuition costs ruled it out.

Chicago Jesuits regard the new school, with its innovative work-study program, as a venture full of risk and promise, but also an expression of commitment to this poor urban area. Already Christo Rey -- the first Catholic high school to open in Chicago in 33 years -- is being discussed by educators as a model, according to Jesuit Fr. Ted Munz, provincial assistant for social ministry and secondary education.

Chicago businesses signing on as partners in the enterprise -- and agreeing so far to provide enough jobs for 150 students -- view the project as all investment in future workers and a stronger community. Officials at Part American Bank in Chicago didn't even wait to be asked to join the program. "We heard about it through the news and we called the first thing Monday morning," said Rogello Lopez, the banking vice president and chief lending officer. Students will be "cross-trained" to assist as tellers and in the personal banking and lending departments, he said. "They will pick up a wide variety of experiences with us and get a clear understanding of how a bank works."

Munz, project director for the new school and soon to become president of Layola Academy in Chicago, the nation's largest Jesuit high school, said Chicago Jesuits have "historically provided education to immigrants." Cardinal Joseph_ Bernardin "fortuitously" asked Jesuits in 1992 to assume leadership of St. Procopius Parish -- a historic church situated in the heart of a neighborhood where the newest immigrants to Chicago traditionally have come, Munz said. Today those are primarily Mexicans, many of them wrestling with their new culture, struggling to understand it, wanting their children to assimilate and make a successful life in their new country, yet fearful of losing their traditional values. The median family income in the area is below $25,000, and the percentage of families in poverty is well-above the national average, according to Munz.

Education of all kinds and for all ages, formal and informal, is an enormous need, he said, according to a survey Jesuits conducted after moving into the area. Large Mexican families often arrive intact but later are torn apart by tensions and conflicts. For that reason, the Jesuits view Christo Rey as part of a broad educational program in the neighborhood, incorporating preschool, grade school and a range of adult programs that will help adults gain a variety of information and skills. "The sky's the limit. There are so many needs and so few resources," said Munz. "The parish is the ideal setting because people have a very strong trust in the church."

The per-student educational cost at Christo Rey will be $5,400, still out of reach for most families in the area, but the out-of-pocket costs will be far less: $1,500 at the most. Most of the difference -- $3,600 per student -- will come from salaries earned by students in school-day jobs at Chicago companies, but paid directly to the school. Five students will share each paid position, attending classes four weekdays and working the fifth. The school day and school year will be extended to offset the time spent out of the classroom. "Once we saw a way to finance the school," through the work-study program, "we also saw its greatest value might be as a new model of edition," said Munz, who knows of no other program like, it at the high school level.

Other funding will pay the remaining $300 per student and also help families unable to pay the $1,500. "We will offer assistance with that," Munz said. "We want families to know that if a student wants to come, they should come."

The first year, only sophomores and juniors will be admitted, with expectations of moving into a full four-year program in a year or two. Administrators will include Jesuit Fr. John P. Foley, who worked for 34 years in Peru, as president, and Benedictine Sr. Judith Murphy, former principal and president of St. Scholastica High School, as principal. They expect the school to start with about 150 students, building to 500.