Saint Patrick High School welcomed 15 eighth-grade students from the San Miguel Gary Comer Campus on Thursday, November 10. The students were treated to Saint Patrick’s “Shamrock for a Day” interactive experience. Students attended classes, toured the facilities, took part in a physics experiment, got acquainted with the computer lab, ate in the cafeteria, swam in the pool, participated in physical education, witnessed a demonstration by the school’s STRIKER robotics team, and watched the Shamrock Drumline perform. Following the Drumline performance, the San Miguel students were allowed to test their own talents on the drums. This group is the first graduating class, and the Saint Patrick community will gladly welcome these young men as students next year. We look forward to seeing many of them at the Placement Exam on January 14, 2006, as we begin to establish a tradition of San Miguel students continuing their Lasallian education at Saint Patrick.

San Miguel Schools of Chicago is a community of compassion that provides an innovative and accessible education in the Lasallian tradition for children of inner-city families. The San Miguel Schools of Chicago have become a model of hope and strength in communities where the cycle of poverty and violence takes away the dreams and goals of its residents, especially the youth. The San Miguel Schools believe that character, zeal, and opportunity, rather than social class and environment, are the determining factors for achieving one's goals.

The Back of the Yards Campus serves a predominantly Latino population in an area where there are six active gangs and dozens of weapon-related crimes every month. The Gary Comer Campus, founded in 2002, serves primarily the African-American population in the Austin neighborhood, on the West side of the city. Ninety-four percent of all students are classified as low income in an area where 350 crimes are reported to the police within a two-week period and within one-mile radius of the school.

The San Miguel School model has brought success and hope to these two communities and the numbers speak for themselves. Although both neighborhoods where the San Miguel Schools are located have the highest high school drop out rates in the state, 99% of San Miguel graduates of high school age currently attend high schools or pursue a GED!