De La Salle North Catholic High School

Description

Based on an innovative educational model from a high school in an inner-city, impoverished Chicago neighborhood, and part of a network of 25 schools (as of 2004) throughout the United States, De La Salle combines a small-school concept and college-prep curriculum with a unique corporate internship program. Through this program, each student works one day each week at area corporations and organizations in entry-level professional jobs (clerical and administrative tasks) to not only give them real life job skills among professional adults, but also allows them to earn a significant portion of the cost to educate them at the high school. These students are from the most underserved area of Portland (North and inner-Northeast) and would not otherwise be able to afford this type of education. We are a very diverse school with over 50% of the students of color and less than half of them of the Catholic faith. Our goal is to not only prepare these students for college, but also through the internship program, to expose them to a working world that they may not have known before.