BRIDGEPORT—The Inner-City Foundation for Charity & Education recently approved a grant request by the Catholic Academy of Bridgeport for $500,000 to assist students in need. Recipients of the funds shall be called “The Inner-City Foundation for Charity & Education Scholars.”
According to Angela Pohlen, executive director of the Catholic Academy of Bridgeport, “We are extremely grateful to The Inner-City Foundation for supporting the work we are doing. This grant helps us make a Christ-centered, academically rigorous education available to as many students as possible regardless of their financial circumstances.”
Each year, the Catholic Academy of Bridgeport educates 850 children in grades pre-K to eighth on four campuses in the city of Bridgeport. 85 percent of its families cannot afford the annual tuition of $5,150 so the school must annually award more than $2 million in need-based financial assistance. 100 percent of CAB students go on to graduate from high school versus only 70 percent of their Bridgeport Public School counterparts, and 99 percent of CAB alumni attend college or post-secondary school versus only 25 percent of BPS grads. According to Pohlen, “We achieve better results with fewer resources. Where the state pays over $14,000 to educate each student to achieve their results, it costs us a little over $7,000 to produce ours, and we get zero money from the state. That’s why grants like the one from The Inner-City Foundation for Charity & Education make all the difference to our success.”
Late in 2020, the Inner-City Foundation announced that it would be dissolving after almost 30 years of supporting the needy in Fairfield County. This grant to the Catholic Academy of Bridgeport is one of many the Foundation recently awarded. The Inner-City Foundation for Charity & Education has funded more than $15 million for scholarships to the Catholic Academy of Bridgeport through the years.
Pictured (l-r): John Kreitler, board chair, Catholic Academy of Bridgeport; Pam Pagnani, board member, The Inner-City Foundation for Charity & Education; Angela Pohlen, executive director, Catholic Academy of Bridgeport; Richard Matteis, board member, The Inner-City Foundation for Charity & Education; and Dennis Boyd, treasurer, Catholic Academy of Bridgeport.
