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In 1910, the Brothers of the Holy Cross founded Holy Trinity High School in order to educate the under-served Polish community in Chicago. Since that time, the school has grown along with the city. Our student body is increasingly diverse. Today, 98% of our students are from minority populations, and they come to Holy Trinity from more than 130 grammar schools, spanning 50+ zip codes. Even though the demographics of our student body have changed, our commitment to educating low-income, urban youth is as strong as ever.
Over the past 100 years, Holy Trinity has continually demonstrated its belief that every child deserves a quality education. Unfortunately, that is often difficult for children who grow up in challenging circumstances. Many of our students experience overwhelming instability at home, danger on the streets, and temptation from their peers. For a student who may never have received the encouragement of a parent, a teacher, or a coach, the drive to succeed must be carefully nurtured. That's why Holy Trinity focuses not only on educating students' minds, but also their hearts-teaching them to aspire to success and to understand that such success is within their grasp.
The Holy Trinity difference comes from individualized attention from our dedicated faculty in a safe, family environment. For many students, Holy Trinity is not just a place of scholarship. It is also a sanctuary and even a second family. Although the world outside of our doors might be volatile, Holy Trinity fosters a culture of safety, respect, and structure. As a result, students want to be here. The daily attendance rate is well above 95 percent. Approximately 70 percent of our students participate in extracurricular activities, getting to school early and staying after class for athletic, artistic, and academic pursuits. Combined with challenging academics and the most generous financial aid program in Chicago-over 95% of students receive scholarships or aid-Holy Trinity is a unique and inspiring place. The result of a Holy Trinity education is success. Since 2006, 100% of our graduates have been accepted into some of the best colleges and universities in the country.
WomenOnCall.org has provided us with help and expertise that we would not otherwise be able to afford. We met all of our wonderful volunteers at the 2010 Meet & Match, which was our introduction to the great work of WomenOnCall.org. In just a couple of hours, we were able to connect with more potential volunteers then we had contacted over the course of that year. The impressive volunteers that we met made this event an annual one on our calendar.
Thanks to the success of our WomenOnCall.org volunteers from the Meet & Match event, we have started sending out alerts through WomenOnCall.org. So far, more than ten new volunteers have responded and will be spending time at Holy Trinity this year! Holy Trinity has benefited from both long- and short-term volunteers. Catherine Siebel provided consulting services that led to a $75,000 grant for our Resource Learning Center. Creighton Hartanov and Sarah DeRuntz spent the summer mentoring two students in our Friends for a Future corporate internship program. Betsey Robinson volunteered to teach a cooking class with one of our clubs, Holy Trinity Women in Action, and it was so popular that she now teaches classes to our newly formed Culinary Club every two weeks. We look forward to bringing in even more volunteers from WomenOnCall.org through the great response we receive from alerts, as well as the Meet and Match this February.
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