As we close our first semester, we are thrilled to announce the receipt of a generous $1,750,000 contribution from The Gellert Foundation.
The Gellert Foundation has a long relationship with ICA Cristo Rey, from their first gift of $5,000, in 1977, to this largest and last gift. They have continued to believe in our mission of empowering young women through education by granting funds for building efforts, student-centered workspaces, and, most significantly, for scholarships. As the foundation sunsets, we are most grateful to founders Carl and Celia Berta Gellert, as well as to the stewards of the foundation, for a 45-year partnership in which we have been fortunate to receive a total of $3,250,750 in financial support.
In Sept. of 1991, then-Principal Sister Carolyn McCormack, O.P. wrote in her grant request to the Gellert Foundation, “In the past two years, three of San Francisco’s oldest Catholic girls’ schools have closed (St. John Ursuline, St. Rose, and Presentation). Substantial evidence supports our belief that single-sex education is of enormous benefit to girls, and we are committed to ensuring that this option remains available to the young women of San Francisco.”
Today we are the only stand-alone all-girls Catholic college-preparatory school left in the city, and now serve 44 different zip codes within the city of San Francisco and beyond. We remain as strongly committed as ever to our mission to provide an outstanding college preparatory education plus 4 years of work-study experience to young women with limited economic resources.
We are extraordinarily grateful to the Gellert Foundation for their years of support of ICA Cristo Rey's activities and projects, which have, as they affirm, "contributed invaluably toward keeping the highest standards of our society."
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