19AJanuary 26, 2019www.thetablet.org

On a recent morning at Our Lady ofSorrows Catholic Academy in Corona, stu-dents were awarded for their outstandinggrades in school.

But what is truly outstanding aboutthis school is that over 99 percent of thestudent body identifies as Latino.

“It’s amazing, we’re 99.9 percent proudhere,” said Dr. Cristina Cruz, principal.

This is far from the norm across theU.S. In fact, a report published by BostonCollege back in 2016 said while there areabout 8 million Hispanic school-agedCatholics in the country, only about300,000 of them are enrolled in Catholicschools – that is less than four percent. Butthe Diocese of Brooklyn bucks that trend

with about 32 percent of students identify-ing as Hispanic or Latino.

But why is this number so high? Itcould have something to do with access toscholarships.

“The tuition is almost $5,000 (at OurLady of Sorrows). That’s a lot of money fora family who makes hardly anything,” Dr.Cruz said.

During a panel at the CatholicUniversity of America, it was suggested thecost of Catholic schools is a key barrier toLatino enrollment, but many studentswithin the Brooklyn Diocese benefit fromthe Futures in Education program, whichprovides scholarships to students whoattend Catholic academies and schools.

“The scholarships are so important toour diocese, because there are many peoplethat would like to send their children toour schools, many of them are immigrantsand they struggle,” said Msgr. JamieGigantiello, diocesan vicar for develop-ment. “They would not be able to sendtheir kids to our schools if it weren’t forthe scholarships of Futures in Education.”

At Our Lady of Sorrows, 147 studentswere awarded Futures scholarships worthmore than $290,000 this academic year.

“Thank God for it,” Dr. Cruz said. “Tobe honest, without them (scholarships) wewould be shut down.”

Scholarships Foster Strong LatinoPresence in Catholic Schoolsp by Emily Drooby

p Students from Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Academy in Corona are proud to receivea Catholic education, made possible for nearly 150 students and their families throughscholarships provided by Futures in Education.

p Dr. Cristina Cruz, Our Lady of Sorrowsprincipal, is proud to lead a schools that is99.9 percent Latino.

Photos © Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Academy