| 4/2/2009 3:55:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | Sisters who receive Opportunity Scholarships think of Sacred Heart School as 'another family'
D.C. Opportunity Scholarship students and sisters Brenda and Kather-ine Martinez said every teacher at Sacred Heart School in Washington wants to help them succeed.
"If I'm not understanding something, they help me after school," said Martinez, an eighth grader who will attend St. John's College High School in Washington next year and participate in the JROTC program there. One day, she hopes to be a veterinarian, or perhaps an architect. Being at a Catholic school has also helped Martinez understand her religion and grow closer to Jesus, she said.
David Martinez, Brenda and Katherine's father who is an immigrant from El Salvador and an active parishioner at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart in Washington, said sometimes his daughters come home and teach him things about the Catholic faith that even he did not know.
"They are taught about their religion, and how to respect God, and love everybody," he said.
But David Martinez, who works as a cleaning supervisor, said his daughters would never have the chance to go to Sacred Heart School if they did not receive the D.C. Opportunity Schol-arship, because he and his wife would not be able to afford it.
The scholarship program, passed by Congress as a pilot program five years ago, gives low-income families the ability to choose a non-public school for their children by providing them with monetary assistance of up to $7,500 for each child. Recent congressional action could end the program at the end of the 2009-2010 school year if it is not formally reauthorized by Congress and the D.C. City Council.
Martinez, who with his daughter Brenda has written letters and e-mails in support of the Opportunity Scholarship Program to Congress and local leaders, said the first thing he noticed when his daughters changed schools is that they were excited to learn and go to class. Brenda Martinez said she thinks of Sacred Heart as "another home, another family."
At Brenda and Katherine Martinez' former neighborhood school, students would routinely repeat grades, and some of them joined gangs, Brenda said.
Brenda Martinez said "the police would be there all the time," and her teachers didn't have time to help her with school work. She said her mother "wanted different options," for her daughters, and that is why she applied for them to receive the Opportunity Scholarships.
Katherine Martinez, a fifth grader, said she never knew the Act of Contrition before coming to Sacred Heart, but now, with the help of her religion teacher and her mother, she almost has it memorized. She added that even though her teachers are busy at Sacred Heart, they are always kind and patient.
Katherine Martinez said she hopes to one day follow in her sister's footsteps and attend St. John's College High School, but she understands she might never get the chance because the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program may not be reauthorized, and her parents can't afford the tuition.
Sandra Rojas, the principal of Sacred Heart School, said the scholarship program provides students with educational options.
"It's an opportunity to come to a school of their choice, where they have the academics that they choose," she said. At Sacred Heart "they have a Catholic formation, a more structured environment and more discipline."
Rojas said students at her school have written letters in support of the scholarship program to D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty and they plan on writing letters to President Barack Obama.
Today, 879 Opportunity Scholarship students are attending Catholic elementary and high schools in the District.
At the archdiocese's six inner-city elementary schools, these students constitute from one-quarter to two-thirds of the total enrollment.
|
Article Comment Submission Form
|
| VATICAN | CATHOLIC RESOURCES | Parishes of the Archdiocese
