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Jun 1, 2007 9:08 am US/Mountain
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Denver High School Attains Perfect Graduation Rate
by Brooke Wagner
DENVER (CBS4) ―
A high school in Denver is boasting a 100 percent graduation rate for the class of 2007. Arrupe Jesuit High School is a small college prep school in northwest Denver. A total of 46 seniors will graduate June 8.
The school is the vision of Father Steve Planning. He based Arrupe on a similar school created in Chicago's south side -- Cristo Rey.
"In a neighborhood with gangs, drugs, all the woes of the inner city, Cristo Rey has about 80 percent of its students pursuing post graduate degrees," he said.
It's that kind of success that inspired Planning to find a way to offer a private school education to some of Denver's inner city students.
The school offers a work study corporate program so students can earn the money to pay their tuition.
"It took a while for us to clarify and make clear what our mission is: No, we're not a trade school, we're a college preparatory school and we accept nothing less," Planning said.
Planning and other Jesuit leaders soon learned they did not have to settle. Arrupe Jesuit opened 4 years ago, and students quickly learned they were ready to face any challenge.
"It just opens doors for people," said graduating senior Micaela Escontrias. "If Arrupe wouldn't have been there when I went to high school, I don't know what I would have done."
Now Escontrias is part of the success story -- she's heading to college this fall, just like ever other senior graduating from Arrupe Jesuit.
The students have earned more than $2 million in merit-based scholarships.
The school has a dress code but not an uniform.
"A dress code teaches kids how to dress, whereas an uniform gives the kids an outfit to put on," Planning said.
Making such choices helps the students when they move out of academia and into the business world.
"They walk into an interview with confidence because they know exactly what the office environment is going to be like," Planning said. "So they're not wondering, 'How do I dress? How do I behave?'"
That confidence, combined with the education, has all of these graduates jumping over the hurdles which have kept many of their peers in poverty.
Oscar Lomeli is one of three Daniels Scholars from Arrrupe Jesuit. Through the scholarship his college education is paid for in full. He knows he is setting an example.
"I think it provides the community with hope to let parents know kids can strive to go to college," Lomeli said.
"There are schools like this that will help, step by step, to take them to the next level."
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