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Laila |
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Over 6,000 inner-city students are recipients of the Inner-City Scholarship Fund's Cardinal's Scholarship Program (CSP) including Laila, a seven-year-old math whiz attending St. Helena's school in the Bronx. The second-grader is not at all shy about her acumen with numbers. Visitors to the school often find Laila in front of the blackboard working through any two-digit addition or subtraction problem. Laila does her part to study hard and do well in school. Ask Laila if she likes St. Helena's, the smile on her face provides an answer before any words come out of her mouth. "I love it," she beams. "It's the best, best school anywhere. I never want to leave!" St. Helena's is Laila's only chance to get the kind of education that will allow her to break free from the poverty and despair of her Bronx neighborhood. Laila's mother, Patti, a single parent, works up to 14 hours a day at two low paying jobs to provide for the family, which also includes her elderly mother. Living below the federal poverty level is a hardship for Patti making it difficult to pay for Laila's tuition.
The Cardinal's Scholarship Program (CSP) covers up to 75% of the full cost of tuition, with a maximum amount of $2,100 per student. Even though Inner-City Catholic schools are extremely efficient and charge well under the actual cost to educate a child, tuition is still a major burden for Laila's family. Patti dreams of something better even if it would be easier to have Laila go to public school. She's trying desperately to keep her daughter at St. Helena's even if it means increasing her work schedule to 16 hours. She's thankful for the high-quality Catholic education that Laila's received while at St. Helena's, knowing that it is fully preparing her for the next stage of her education and future.
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