Recently, Georgetown University received the Cristo Rey Partnership Award for its work in providing assistance to a local high school.The first-ever Cristo Rey Partnership Award identifies individuals and organizations that provide resources and support for the Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School, according to Georgetown’s Web site. The award was given to the university at the high school’s Rey of Hope Gala on Oct. 30.Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School, which opened in August 2007, is a private Jesuit high school in Takoma Park, Md., catering to low-income students from the D.C. area. It is part of a network of 22 Cristo Rey schools in the country, the first of which was started in Chicago in 1996.In exchange for their tuition, Don Bosco students work one day per week at local businesses and organizations such as National Corporate Research, C-SPAN and Georgetown University.”What makes [the school] so unique is that students work one day a week in a real corporate job getting real `corporate America’ experience, and then come back and go to school with us four days a week,” said Annie Schlecher, who teaches sophomores at the school.Georgetown University has been involved in the school since its opening. It currently employs 19 students from the high school, provides resources and tutors to the school through the Georgetown University Cristo Rey Tutoring and hosts a summer vocational camp for incoming high school freshmen.”Working with the students of Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School gives all of us at Georgetown the opportunity to live the ideals of service that we uphold as a university,” said President John J. DeGioia, according to the university’s Web site.The tutoring program was started by Karina Ramirez (NHS ’10) and Reina Garcia (COL ’11) both of whom are graduates of the Chicago Cristo Rey high school.”I fell in love with [Cristo Rey Chicago]. It did so much for me. I wouldn’t be at Georgetown if it wasn’t for Cristo Rey. I may have gone to community college,” Ramierz said. “I wouldn’t have believed in myself as much as I do.”Like many of the Georgetown service organizations, tutors feel that they have a real impact on the lives of the people they are helping.”Because they know that someone cares and wants to help them, [it] gives them encouragement and confidence in their school work,” student tutor Mya Jones (COL ’11) said. “I think that is really important especially when you have to travel hours to school and your home life is not that good. It is important to have someone in the background supporting you.”The school opened last fall with an inaugural class of 125 students. Patrick Martin, business manager of the Don Bosco Cristo Rey, said the most difficult aspect of opening the school was recruiting students.”It was really remarkable when we started recruiting students – we had no school to show them, no building, we had no faculty to show them, we had no students. . That inaugural class really came here on faith,” Martin said.For many of the students at Cristo Rey, the school provides opportunities that would otherwise be unavailable to them.”The goal of the Cristo Rey program is to prepare students for the rigors of college,” Claire Wyrsch, the school’s the director of development said.”[Cristo Rey] is for anybody who really wants to have a good opportunity to work, to have good résumé for college, and to do well in college,” Cynthia Reyes, a Christo Rey freshman said. When asked where she hopes to go to college, Reyes quickly responded: Georgetown.”The goal is to have our students ready to go to college and to have them accepted,” Wyrsch said. “I know the rate of acceptance is 99 percent for the entire Cristo Rey network . it is preparing them not only to get into college, but to be successful.””