June Mission Moment: UMCL Supports Cristo Rey St. Martin College Prep

UMCL’s Second Mile Giving program invites our church community to donate above and beyond their standard tithes to support mission-focused organizations locally and worldwide. This month we’re celebrating one of the organizations we support through Second Mile Giving, Cristo Rey St. Martin College Prep.

What is Cristo Rey St. Martin?

Cristo Rey St. Martin (CRSM) is a learning community that exclusively serves families with limited economic means in Waukegan and North Chicago. CRSM empowers young people of limited means to become men and women of faith, purpose, and service. Through a rigorous college preparatory curriculum, integrated with relevant work-study experience, they are committed to graduating students ready to succeed in college and life.

CRSM boasts some impressive statistics that showcase their commitment to their mission and success in serving local students:

• High school drop-out rates at local public schools remain close to 50% but at CRSM over 96% of the students who start with CRSM in 9th grade go on to graduate from CRSM. For the Class of 2025, it was a whopping 98%!
• Less than 15% of high school graduates in Waukegan and North Chicago enroll in college. In contrast, 100% of CRSM seniors were accepted to at least one bachelor’s program for the last 7 years in-a-row, with 91% directly enrolling into a bachelor’s program.
• CRSM Alumni graduate college at 3.5 times the rate for students from the lowest quartile of family income nationally. In fact, CRSM students are now graduating from Bachelor’s programs at the same rate as young people from the highest quartile of income.
• CRSM students represent 10% of all pell-eligible students in the area and 71% of all Bachelor's degrees earned.