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Sarah Costa is entering her freshman year at the University of Notre Dame, where she earned a full scholarship. While she’s nervous about going 800 miles from home, she says it’s a dream come true for her and her family.
“Five years ago, I couldn’t have named that many colleges,” she says. “My zoned schools don’t have the best reputation. Armstrong [High School in East Highland Park] has a low graduation rate, which isn’t very encouraging. I wanted to be where college is the standard, and not shooting for the stars.” The graduation rate at Armstrong is 67%, according to U.S. News & World Report.
Costa’s future changed when she was accepted at Cristo Rey Richmond High School, which opened in 2019 in the Museum District.
“Our goal is to get students to and through college,” says Lynn Waidelich, principal and chief academic officer. “We promise students and their parents a 100% college acceptance rate, and our first two graduating classes have accomplished that. But we don’t stop there — we stay in touch and offer support until our graduates walk across the stage and get their college degree.”
Cristo Rey is part of a national network of 39 private Catholic schools for students with limited economic resources. At Cristo Rey Richmond High School, 98% are students of color — and they are 250% more likely to go to college than peers in similar income brackets.
“As soon as I walked through the door at Cristo Rey as a freshman, I had people asking me my plans for college,” Costa recalls. “I was 14 and had no idea what I wanted to do, but they were always asking lots of questions to get us thinking about our future. We heard the word ‘college’ at least 20 times a day.”
Sarah Costa (Photo courtesy Cristo Rey Richmond High School)
Cristo Rey demands high academic standards, requiring each student to take at least one Advanced Placement class. Costa completed Advanced Placement classes in language and composition, U.S. history and calculus. She graduated with a 4.2 GPA and was class valedictorian.
“My mom is eternally grateful for Cristo Rey,” she says. “She knew I would be successful but never could have envisioned all of this — a speech at graduation and a full scholarship to such a prestigious school.”
Costa says that, without financial assistance, her life would have turned out differently. Her mother is still paying off student loans, and Costa didn’t want to pile on more debt. Tuition at comparable private college prep high schools in Richmond is around $25,000 a year, and tuition and living expenses at Notre Dame exceed $83,000 a year. Paying off a 30-year loan with 5% interest doubles the cost of college.
Cristo Rey not only helps students earn college scholarships and make smart financial decisions, but its tuition model also allows students like Costa to get a high-quality education and job experience. On its website, Cristo Rey says it costs more than $17,000 per student in the previous academic year. Students work at local companies to earn about half of their tuition. The rest is covered by private donors and parents, who pay on a sliding income scale. For most students, that means a cost to a family of no more than $200 per month.
Cristo Rey Richmond partners with 50 area businesses, representing health care, insurance, government, personal services, finance, law, banking, the arts and nonprofit sectors. Students work five days a month in groups of four, giving corporate work-study partners the equivalent of one full-time employee.
“There are so many benefits to having these kids,” says Peter Quinn, Cristo Rey Richmond High School board chair and CEO of Riverfront Investment Group. “There’s an intangible cultural benefit — our associates want to work for a company that has a purpose, there’s an important workforce development component and these students do really good work in a really cost-effective way. There are multiple ways you win as a corporate work-study partner, in addition to doing something good for the community.”
Peter Quinn, Cristo Rey Richmond High School board chair (Photo courtesy Cristo Rey Richmond High School)
Class of 2024 graduate Ricardo de la Rosa says working for Davenport & Co., Kinsale Capital Group and Bon Secours Richmond Community Hospital helped steer his career path and prepare him for the real world. He’s earned a scholarship to Virginia Military Institute, where he’ll study civil engineering. “I’m the first in my family to go to college and it feels really good,” he says.
His classmate Jose Bautista says he also made the most of work-study programs. In Dominion Energy’s talent and acquisition department, he noticed which applications made it to the top of the pile, what schools those candidates attended and what degrees they’d earned. After a work-study at James River Insurance, they hired him as a summer intern for $17 an hour, which helped him buy a car. At Troutman Pepper law firm, Bautista, who’s the first in his family to attend college, relied on his employers for guidance.
“Virginia Tech has been my dream school, and I got to meet so many alumni, make connections and get phone numbers,” he says. “When I found out I got a full ride to their aerospace engineering program, one of the ladies there was the first person I told. She got super excited and hugged me. It was really nice because she felt so proud of me.”
When hearing about the many success stories at Cristo Rey, Quinn can’t help but think about all the other kids in Richmond who aren’t afforded the same access to a college preparatory education. “One of the things you realize when you get involved with Cristo Rey is how much talent goes to waste in our city — and it’s just wrong,” he says. “These kids are unbelievably talented and having an environment like Cristo Rey allows them to understand that. The talent is there — it just needs a platform to discover itself.”
Cristo Rey Richmond wants to grow from 240 students to 350. They have the space on the former Benedictine College Prep campus, but to supplement the tuition, they’ll need to sign on 40 more work-study partners. Quinn hopes more companies like his will see the benefit of partnering with Cristo Rey.
“Richmond has tremendous resources for economically disadvantaged kids, whether it’s day cares, after-school programs and middle school education, but we’ve never had a high school like this,” he says. “It’s the last mile in the pipe — this is why Cristo Rey is so important.”
