In early July 2000, B.J. Cassin and his daughter Cate came to Chicago to see Cristo Rey Jesuit High School and San Miguel, a Nativity-style middle school run by the De La Salle Christian Brothers.  San Miguel began in 1995, and Cristo Rey started a year later.  These coeducational schools serve the near southwest side of Chicago, a predominantly Latino community with the lowest educational attainment and highest dropout rates in Chicago.

Both schools excited Mr. Cassin, a California venture capitalist who recently had completed two terms as chairman of the board of trustees of St. Mary's College in Moraga California.  He had been concerned for some time about the disproportionately small number of young people from low-income urban areas attending college.  He was impressed that 80 percent of Cristo Rey's graduates went on to college and that almost all of San Miguel's graduates had enrolled in some of the best secondary schools in the city. 

San Miguel, similar to 64 other Nativity-style middle schools around the country, employed a small army of volunteers and professional staffers who provided intensive instruction to 75 students, 25 per grade.  Cristo Rey had developed the unique Corporate Internship Program in which all students earned a significant portion of their tuition by sharing entry-level clerical jobs.  The school achieved a rare feat for a private high school serving center-city youth - covering 85% of its operating costs through revenue from the work-study program and tuition. 

A private Catholic high school for low-income students that worked financially and a small middle school program that had tremendous success with high-risk pre-adolescents appealed to Mr. Cassin.   Both models made private Catholic education accessible to young people who otherwise could not afford it.  Brother Ed Siderewicz, FSC, the president of San Miguel, and Father John Foley, SJ, the president of Cristo Rey, asked Mr. Cassin to consider assisting others around the country interested in creating schools like theirs.  The next morning Mr. Cassin called Father Foley and Brother Ed to announce that he was establishing a foundation to do just that.