Grant awarded to Chicago Jesuit Academy (CJA)
The Foundation is pleased to announce their support for the CJA. CJA is a full-scholarship lower and middle school for young men from modest economic backgrounds who could not otherwise access.
They partner with numerous organizations who are addressing the challenge of college completion. CJA works in concert with scholarship granting organizations such as the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund and LINK Unlimited, high schools such as the Noble Network of Charter Schools and Loyola Academy, and colleges such as Loyola University’s Arrupe College and Denison University. Each of these institutions is contributing to the fact that college completion rates in Chicago are steadily climbing. However, they remain persistently low, especially for African American males who still only earn bachelor’s degrees at a rate of 10%. CJA’s College-Persistence Program is able to leverage the strong relationships that we have built with our students and their families to provide a unique level of personalized care as our alumni navigate the often non-linear path through adolescence. A grant from the Kathryn B. McQuade Foundation would help to expand the College-Persistence Programs as the number of alumni served grows from 206 in 2018-2019 to nearly 300 by 2020. Specifically, they would allow CJA to hire an additional College-Persistence Counselor in the 2019-2020 school year.
The specific program goal is for 97% of CJA alumni to graduate from high school. Thereafter, the goal is for 50% of CJA alumni to graduate from a four-year college or university, 25% of CJA alumni to graduate from a two-year college or technical training program, and 80% of non-degree earning alumni, representing 25% of total alumni, to be meaningfully employed within three years of earning a high school diploma.
Like the Kathryn B. McQuade Foundation, CJA is concerned with helping children gain access to educational opportunities and develop the skills necessary to break out of material poverty and realize their potential. This focus on long-term outcomes is exactly why CJA established and continues to build the CollegePersistence Programs.