New Book Profiles School Revolutionizing Secondary Education in America

CHICAGO, Jan. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- "More Than a Dream" by G.R. Kearney tells the improbable story of how a financially viable high school serves underprivileged children. Cristo Rey Jesuit High School has become nationally recognized as a ground-breaking financial and educational model for urban schools nationwide.

The model to fund the school -- a corporate internship program that generates revenue by sending a student to school four days a week and to a job one day a week -- had never been tested before. Cristo Rey students forged ahead, starting entry-level jobs in Chicago companies and began funding 65 percent of the cost of their education.

"I stumbled into the middle of this story eight years ago when I agreed to volunteer for two years at Cristo Rey," said the book's author G.R. Kearney. "Two years in which the unfolding lives of the young men and women at Cristo Rey -- sometimes desperate and sad, sometimes joyous, often precarious -- substantially altered my understanding of the world and my place in it."

The book tells the success stories of four young people from a poor and largely Hispanic community, who, in four years of high school, cross a divide that often takes several generations to bridge.

Through Cristo Rey's innovative curriculum, creative financing model, and intense devotion to the needs of underprivileged students, the lives of thousands of families continue to be changed. It has sparked an education revolution in urban America and the book leaves every reader with a bold challenge: Attempt to change what seems unchangeable.

The school's success led the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to donate $15 million to replicate the Cristo Rey model across the country. Since its creation, Cristo Rey's graduation rate has continued to increase and is now on par with nationwide standards.

"More Than a Dream" is available through Loyolapress.com, amazon.com or your local bookstore.

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