De La Salle North Catholic High School, in North Portland, is an extraordinary place. Not only do we provide a rigorous, faith-based high school-education but also a professional internship program for all of our students to help them defray the cost of their education. The Corporate Internship Program promotes self-sufficiency by providing career & life-skills training, personal mentoring and paid employment.

Called the "School that Works," De La Salle was the first school in the nation in 2001 to replicate this work-study program modeled after Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago. Currently there are 19 "Schools that Work" in the United States, all in urban areas such as Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Denver, and many others, with more opening in the future.

These schools are strategically planned in inner cities by the Christian Brothers, the Jesuits, and other religious orders to return back to their historical mission of serving the underserved. The majority of students are non-Catholic, non-white, and from economically challenged families.

De La Salle North Catholic High School opened with 71 ninth graders during 2001; we now have four classes (9th through 12th grades) and a population of 250 students. Now that we have moved into our new "home," we have plans to grow the student body up to no more than 350 students (while still keeping the average class size small).

The decision to open De La Salle was determined by the dropout crisis in the city's poorest schools. In north and northeast Portland, more than half of the students do not achieve the minimum standards for state benchmarks by the eighth grade. African American and Hispanic youth's cumulative drop out rate is 47.6% and 59.6% respectively. In our community's two public high schools, the drop out rate is two and one half times higher than Portland's average rate.

The goal of this inner-city high school is to develop tomorrow's community leaders by making quality education accessible to aspiring and motivated young people. The program provides ethnically diverse youth opportunities to succeed through small classes, high expectations, personal attention, active participation in the Corporate Internship Program (CIP), and a prolonged school day and a 10 1/2 month school year.

With the help and support of sponsoring corporations and non-profit organizations, every student works one full day each week to offset the cost of his/her education and to experience a real-world workplace environment. Through their employment, students earn 70% of the cost of their education.

Organization's qualifications: De La Salle North Catholic High School is an extension of the 321 year tradition of the De La Salle Christian Brother's education. Today, the Christian Brothers operate 960 schools in 80 countries around the world. In the Lasallian heritage, students develop the ability to become part of a heritage that declares, "Enter to learn, leave to serve."

Locally, the Christian Brothers sponsor De La Salle and La Salle High Schools in Oregon, and LaSalle High School in Yakima, Washington. The Christian Brothers have been operating schools on the West Coast, in Oregon, Washington, California, and Tijuana, Mexico since 1868. Today, they operate 19 schools, serving over 9,000 students.

Please contact us for further information, or better yet, call us and arrange to come out to see our school. We'd love to have you visit our "School That Works!"