The Ville neighborhood in North City has the same problems as most urban areas in major cities, including high rates of unemployment and crime. Fewer than 9 percent of adults have college degrees, and 36 percent never graduated from high school. About 90 percent of the families live at or below the poverty level, and most households are headed by a single parent.
But a small neighborhood school is giving kids a chance at a better future. De La Salle Middle School, established in 2001 by Christian Brothers of the Midwest, provides a rigorous, financially accessible education, service learning programs and life-skills instruction. “We nurture students academically, physically, morally and spiritually, transforming them and our community,” says school president Corey Quinn.
The approach works. “More than 98 percent of our students go on to graduate from high school,” Quinn says. “Eighty percent enroll in post-secondary programs, and 60 percent of those already in college have stayed there.” He attributes this success to motivated students, involved families, dedicated teachers and adherence to the school’s core values. “We care about our students and we hold them accountable for their behavior,” he says. “They appreciate it, and they respond to it.”
De La Salle’s influence doesn’t end at the classroom door. “An excellent education increases an individual’s opportunities and also has a ripple effect, creating stronger families and communities,” Quinn says. “Each positive encounter people have with our students helps obliterate prejudice and overturn preconceived notions about race. Our Readers 2 Leaders program, for example, sends eighth-graders to Catholic schools on the South Side, where they read and talk with younger kids. It builds bridges between two very different cultures.”
De La Salle is not an Archdiocesan school. “About 97 percent of our funding comes from community support,” Quinn says. Honored at the school’s recent Catch a Rising Star gala were Marty Ribaudo, who started the school’s baseball ream and helped build two additional classrooms; Fr. Mark McKenzie, SJ, who has raised thousands of dollars for the school; and the Ignatian Volunteer Corps, a group of retirees who run the school’s volunteer program. “These and other tireless sponsors have helped us grow tremendously,” he says.
Hope is contagious, Quinn notes. “Recently, a former student spoke to the kids at our monthly Star assembly,” he recalls. “This young man came from an unstable family. He hadn’t had an easy life. But he took the mike and said, ‘I am somebody! I am a graduate of De La Salle! I made it and so will you, but it won’t be easy and you’ve got to work hard.’” Hearing those words straight from the heart of a successful alum made a huge impact on the kids, Quinn says. “He’s living proof that hard work and persistence pay off. Students leave De La Salle not only with a first-rate education, but with the self-confidence to change their own lives, their communities and the world.”
By Tony Di Martino