A Letter from the Chairman and President Dear Friends,
We are pleased to put into your hands the Annual Report of the Cristo Rey Network for Fiscal Year 2009. We are even more pleased to share with you the fact that our work continues because of the generosity of many good friends, people who identify with our mission of Transforming Urban America One Student at a Time. In a recent Time magazine article on the current state of Catholic education, our Network was singled out for its innovative model and called “an island of success in the Catholic ocean.” We continually remind ourselves that this model is only fourteen years old. In these few short years we have grown to 24 schools around the country. We presently have six communities who are researching the possibility of founding even more schools. This year we are educating over 6,000 students who by working five days a month are contributing over $30 million to their own education. In these troubled economic times we are blessed with more than 1,500 jobs provided by people who value the services our students provide for their companies. The Cristo Rey Network is the soul of this new movement in Catholic college prep education. The Network exists to help advance all the schools in the right direction: making young people who were left behind into missionminded followers of Jesus Christ. Thank you for helping to advance the work of Christ the King, discovering and building upon all the talent that exists in our inner cities, taking young people who are in danger of being left behind and making them into tomorrow’s Christian leaders. May Christ the King reign in our hearts. Gratefully,
John P. Foley, S.J. Executive Chairman 10
Robert J. Birdsell President and CEO