Students and corporations team for tuition.

Just next door to Verbum Dei High School in Watts there's a black wrought-ironed fence with sharp prongs that stands guard around the perimeter at housing project, Nickerson Gar dens. It's not too unusual for a community to trade the sight of security fencing for its clear view of the outside world--public safety almost demands it to protect its citizens. The only difference here is that the fence prongs that typically curve towards the street to discourage the bad guys from free access and doing harm--face inward.

Scary images fuel the imagination and thus carry enormous power. The Nickerson Gardens security fence might easily conjure thoughts of containment, quarantine or perhaps more sinister motives. The truth is, believe it or not, the inward facing fence prongs were a manufacturing design flaw, sorry. The point is that fairness dictates whether media organizations have the responsibility to always drill deeper.

Since the 1960% Watts has weathered media portrayal problems from which it has been slow to recover. Some blame the media's "if it bleeds, it leads," approach to center-city news. It's believed that regular coverage of inspiring and uplifting stories simply don't capture and keep the public's attention. And, of course, there's only so much room for featuring puppies being rescued from wells.

For the over 223 students who attend Verbum Dei High, affectionately called "The Verb" (Verbum Dei is Latin for the Word of God), there is little time to ponder badly designed fences or well rescues, because they are busy being teenagers making history in partnership with over 60 blue chip Los Angeles corporations.

The Verb is a Jesuit-sponsored college-preparatory school for young men founded in 1962. The school maintains the mission of enabling young men, primarily with economic need from South Los Angeles, to helping themselves afford a quality college preparatory education.

After four decades of serving the community, however, The Verb found itself in financial difficulty as a result of the changing economy and low enrollment. Facing its fast-approaching demise, the school adopted an innovative corporate internship program developed under a Chicago-based organization called the Cristo Rey Network. The corporate internship program is funded by Silicon Valley-based venture capitalist B.J. Cassin and promptly matched by a $10 million infusion from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Quickest to sign on to this revolutionary new concept were some of the top law firms in Los Angeles and the country. A total of 16 prominent Los Angeles law firms provide internships and real-world experiences to Verb students via the Corporate Work Study Program, or CWSP. "These guys are great at doing little things we need--like delivering a file to a given floor at the last minute," offers Rosie Torres, Records Manager at Latham & Watkins, "you just ask and they do it--really fast!" The partnerships are simple. To offset the cost of tuition by 71%, each student works one full day a week and every four weeks, twice a week, to cover the rotating Monday. One full-time, entry-level office job supports a team of four students, for a cost of $25,000.

Verbum Dei's CWSP department handles all employment issues such as Workers' Compensation, Social Security, Medicare and tax withholding. The students are not on the payroll of the employing organization. Rather, they are employees of the school's separately incorporated program, which the sponsoring organization pays quarterly, annually or monthly for the services of the students.

The Gates Foundation calls the program a "truly cutting edge venture" and word of it is spreading fast. In 2001, the number of students enrolled at the Verb was at a record low of 142. Since the adoption of the CWSP, freshmen applications are up a staggering twelve times. Of the 208 applications received for admission for the upcoming 2004/2005 school year, 113 young men have been accepted and are currently preparing for the upcoming school year by attending the school's mandatory Summer Opportunity for Academic and Employment Readiness (S.O.A.R.) program. During participation in the SOAR program, each student undergoes a four week "boot camp" job preparation that concludes with a pass/no pass evaluation. The training includes sessions in office machine proficiency, public speaking, records management, first impression awareness, ethics, and office etiquette. Students conclude their summer SOAR experience through participation in high ropes teambuilding exercises.

The Verb's mission is to graduate young men who are spiritually rooted, intellectually competent and socially conscious. By combining these expected school-wide learning results with the efforts and commitment from law firms located in Century City, mid-Wilshire and downtown Los Angeles, (as well as other corporate partners in the financial, accounting, insurance and healthcare sectors), the Verbum Dei Senior Class of 2004 shared the camaraderie of 100% graduation and 100% college acceptance. To top off this historical achievement, several of the school's legal corporate partners offered Verb students summer employment, providing them with the opportunity for further development.

Freddy Fernandez, who will be a senior in the fall, is interning this summer at the downtown law firm of Bannan, Green, Frank & Terzian. All summer earnings go directly in the student's pockets; Freddy says he wants to express his appreciation to his parents by paying the balance of his fall tuition.

The Verbum Dei Corporate Work Study Program is a win-win situation. It's a win for The Verb's students and it's a win for the organizations employing them. Becoming involved as a CWSP partner, companies such as Girardi & Keese, Lightfoot & Vandevelde, Latham & Watkins and others, provide experiences that contribute to the student's professional growth and social development while changing the face of urban education in the United States.

Curt Flood, Jr., is the Vice President of the Corporation Work Study Program at Verbum Dei High School. Cristina Cuellar-Villuanueva, is a Program Coordinator for the Corporate Work Study Program at Verbum Dei High School.