The Cristo Rey Network

​In 2007, Holy Family High School joined the Cristo Rey Network and became Holy Family Cristo Rey Catholic High School. But what does it mean that we are a Cristo Rey school?

The Cristo Rey model is an innovative combination of rigorous academics and real-world corporate work experience which provides students from economically challenged families the tools needed to persist in college, flourish in life, and break the generational cycle of poverty. The first Cristo Rey school--Cristo Rey Jesuit High School--in Chicago, IL opened in 1996 under the leadership of John P. Foley, S.J. The success achieved there inspired educational leaders across the country to apply the model in other cities, and within five years other Cristo Rey schools began to open across the United States.

​Today, The Cristo Rey Network® is the only network of high schools in the country that integrate four years of rigorous college preparatory academics with four years of professional work experience through the Corporate Work Study Program. Comprised of 35 Catholic, college- and career-preparatory schools that today serve 12,012 students across 22 states and collectively claim 15,505 graduates, the Cristo Rey Network delivers a powerful and innovative approach to inner-city education that equips students from families of limited economic means with the knowledge, character, and skills to transform their lives. The impact is evident: Cristo Rey students are three times more likely to complete a bachelor’s degree by age 24, compared to the total U.S. low-income population. Learn more at www.cristoreynetwork.org.

The first day of operations in 1996 at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago, paving the way for Cristo Rey Network schools across America