Alberto Hurtado Programme

Beginning September 2007, Clongowes Wood College will offer bursaries to cover full board and tuition costs to seven qualifying students entering first year each year.  The College aims to establish a steady state group of forty two students (equivalent to 10% of the student body) on bursary support by 2014, the bicentenary of the College’s founding.

A Report and Implementation Plan was drawn up by a five-member Design Team under the leadership of Pat Nolan and constituted as a sub-committee of the Board of Management.  The Report was adopted by the Board on June 15th and by Fr John Dardis SJ, Irish Jesuit Provincial on 28th June 2006. It examines every aspect of the programme and makes detailed recommendations with regard to the rationale, structure, financing, implementation and promotion of the programme.

The Design Team consulted widely and a Questionnaire distributed to parents, staff and past pupil representatives, indicated that 85% of respondents were in favour of the initiative.

The programme draws its name from St Alberto Hurtado Cruchaga (1901-52).  Alberto Hurtado grew up in poverty in Santiago, Chile and received a Jesuit educational scholarship before becoming a Jesuit priest in 1933 and a teacher at the Catholic University of Santiago.  He gave up academic life to work with the poor and established El Hogar de Cristo, a charitable home for the street dwellers.  Padre Hurtado died in 1952 and a shrine in Santiago welcomes pilgrims who visit in increasing numbers since his canonization in 2005.

The Alberto Hurtado Programme (AHP) is influenced by a broad rationale including that of the Christian commitment to social justice, the founding ethos of Clongowes itself, and the desire to provide the opportunity of a Jesuit education for as wide a group as possible.

AHP students will be identified and selected through an ongoing and thorough admissions process facilitated by a Programme Coordinator and by a steering committee involving Fr Leonard Moloney SJ, Headmaster, and a number of staff members and volunteers.  The Programme Coordinator will be appointed in September 2006 and will be drawn initially from the current College teaching body.
(Mr. Martin Wallace was appointed Programme Coordinator in September.)

Students will be selected on the basis of a variety of criteria including financial need and the capacity to adapt to life in a boarding school.  Particular attention will be given to the family, community and educational background of the student with the emphasis on ensuring multiple layers of support including, where possible, onward access to higher education.

The AHP will be presented externally as a mainstream part of Clongowes life. Internally, AHP students will be identified only on a need-to-know basis to those charged with their care.

A permanent endowment will be established under the management of the CWC Foundation with a long term goal of securing a fund in excess of €20m to support the programme in perpetuity (based on a 5% annual return).  Within the context of the Foundation CT200 campaign, an initial endowment target of €5m has been adopted.  In addition, the Foundation aims to secure short term funding in excess of €3m to pay for initial AHP bursaries and setup costs in the first six years of the programme while the endowment is being established.

The Alberto Hurtado Programme is a major new initiative which will have an impact on every aspect of Clongowes life.  It will require significant moral, financial and practical support in order to succeed in its purposes.  The Board of Management, under the leadership of Mr John Tierney, and the Implementation Group will continue to work with the Provincial, the Jesuit community, members of staff, parents, supporters and current students to ensure its successful implementation.