Cristo Rey St. Martin College Prep in Waukegan celebrates 10-year anniversary
About 450 founders, students, parents, faculty, staff and volunteers gathered under a tent and in the parking lot of Cristo Rey St. Martin College Prep in Waukegan Aug. 29 to celebrate the school's 10th anniversary.
The school's student population has more than tripled to 370 students from the 95 who entered as freshmen in 2004.
"We're grateful to be celebrating the 10th anniversary of Cristo Rey St. Martin," said Preston Kendall, school president.
"Like many startups, we've done a lot of heavy lifting and are pleased to have created a solid organization that is uniquely positioned to break the cycle of economic oppression for decades to come for the young men and women who come to us from Waukegan and North Chicago."
The Rev. George J. Rassas, who led the founding group a decade ago, was joined by many of the original founders as he celebrated the Mass and talked about the challenges of starting the first Catholic high school in Lake County in 40 years.
At the time, and still today, the founding of the school is significant in a neighborhood where half of teens attend high school and less than 10 percent receive a bachelor's degree.
Recently, the private, college prep, Catholic high school welcomed more than 100 new students, its largest freshman class ever. In June, the school celebrated its largest graduating class ever, 60 students, many of whom are the first members of their family to graduate high school. They are attending colleges such as Dominican, Carthage, Loyola, Marquette, Holy Cross and Emory this fall with scholarships totaling $5.4 million.
"It is always amazing to think that, statistically, our students face some of the worst gun violence in the nation and an unemployment rate that is twice that of the state of Illinois (and Illinois has one of the highest in the nation)," Kendall said.
"Statistically, our students' backs are against the wall. But we have their backs. We refuse to let our students become a statistic."
After the Mass, the crowd was treated to a homemade tamale luncheon and students, who were allowed to attend out of dress code, headed with teachers and volunteers to a nearby park for tug-of-war and a morning of fun and games.
Cristo Rey St. Martin College Prep is one of 28 schools across the country from Waukegan, Chicago's West Side Austin neighborhood and Pilsen, to San Francisco and New York City that are part of the Cristo Rey Network.
Cristo Rey St. Martin and the Cristo Rey network schools are known for changing the urban landscape of education with their 100 percent college acceptance rate and innovative corporate work study program in which students work five days a month at businesses throughout Lake County such as Rust-Oleum in Vernon Hills, AON Hewitt in Lincolnshire and Advocate Condell Memorial Hospital in Libertyville.