Program Overview

ICA’s Corporate Work Study Program

In 2009, Immaculate Conception Academy joined the Cristo Rey Network of schools to give young women with limited financial means the opportunity to receive a high quality college prep education. As a Cristo Rey school, each student at ICA participates in the work study program. Students not only earn money to defray the cost of tuition charged to families, but they also are gaining valuable work experience.

ICA’s CWSP employs student workers at Corporate Sponsors throughout the Bay Area. Sponsor companies contract with Immaculate Conception Academy’s Corporate Work Study Program for full-time, entry-level, clerical positions. A team of four ICA students shares one full-time job. Students rotate their schedules, each working five full days every four weeks. Academic schedules are structured so that students never miss class.

The Cristo Rey Network

Cristo Rey Network ® Schools bill themselves as "schools that work." A Cristo Rey Network high school provides high quality, college preparatory education to students from low-income households. The bedrock of a Cristo Rey model high school is the Corporate Internship or "work-study" program, which places students into entry-level, clerical positions and generates much needed revenue for the school. At full enrollment, Cristo Rey Network high schools are able to cover up to 90% of their operating expenses through the work program and a modest tuition.

The Corporate Work Study Program began in 1996 with the founding of the Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago. The Cristo Rey model expanded to a nationwide network with funding from the B.J. Cassin Educational Initiative and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations. The Cristo Rey Network's 24 schools engage with over 1,000 corporate sponsors to educate and employ nearly 6,000 students.

By partnering with local businesses and non-profit organizations, Cristo Rey schools are changing the face of urban education in the United States.