San Miguel Schools of Chicago is a community of compassion that provides an innovative and accessible education in the Lasallian tradition for children of inner-city families.

History

Nobody knew what to expect back in 1995 when the first San Miguel School in Chicago was founded. Starting out in a convent dining room in the Back of the Yards neighborhood with a staff of four, only eighteen students, and a small pilot grant, San Miguel had small facilities, minimal resources, and huge dreams: to provide an innovative and accessible education in the Lasallian tradition for children of inner-city families.

Thirteen years and more than 550 students later, the San Miguel Schools of Chicago have become a model of hope and strength in communities where the cycle of poverty and violence takes away the dreams and goals of its residents, especially the youth. The San Miguel Schools believe that character, zeal, and opportunity, rather than social class and environment, are the determining factors for achieving one's goals.

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The greatest miracle you can perform is to touch the hearts of your students and inspire them with the Christian spirit.

- St. John Baptist De La Salle

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The Back of the Yards Campus serves a predominantly Latino population in an area where there are six active gangs and dozens of weapon-related crimes every month. The Gary Comer Campus, founded in 2002, serves primarily the African-American population in the Austin neighborhood, on the West side of the city. Ninety-four percent of all students are classified as low income in an area where 350 crimes are reported to the police within a two-week period and within one-mile radius of the school.

The San Miguel School model has brought success and hope to these two communities and the numbers speak for themselves. Although both neighborhoods where the San Miguel Schools are located have the highest high school drop out rates in the state, 98% of San Miguel graduates of high school age currently attend high schools or pursue a GED! Kids' reading levels have gone up more than 2 full grades in a 6 month period, and math has improved by almost an entire grade in the same time period.