It is one of those innovative ideas that is a Catholic educator’s dream come true.

Create a college preparatory Catholic high school filled with students who are empowered to pay for their education by working at a job that fast tracks them into the highly competitive marketplace of the 21st century.

Cristo Rey High School in Sacramento, which opened in August 2006 on the site of the former St. Peter School in Sacramento, is part of the Cristo Rey Network of private Catholic high schools serving low-income students nationally.

A crucial ingredient in Cristo Rey’s master plan is its innovative corporate internship program, in which students work five days a month off campus for a sponsoring company. Wages earned are applied to offset tuition.

“We actually hand the students a check twice a year and they sign it over to the school,” said Sister of Notre Dame de Namur Anne Locke, director of the corporate work-study program. “It is an incredible educational experience for a 14-year-old. Students are treated with respect and become one of a team.”

Cristo Rey students are prepared for work during a three-week training session in August.

“Our goal is to get them to start to know one another, but mainly to introduce them to the skills they are going to need in the workplace,” said Katie Stuart, assistant director of the corporate internship program.

The sessions involve supervisors from sponsoring companies teaching job duties such as filing, data entry and business machines operations.

Last year 26 Sacramento-area companies, including law firms, banks, hospitals, accounting firms and advertising agencies, hired Cristo Rey students.

Sister Locke said when she talks with business people to tell them the mission of the school they say, “Well, of course, sister, this is what we should be doing, giving a Catholic education to every child, and this is the way to do it.”

David Lucchetti, president and CEO of Pacific Coast Building Products in Rancho Cordova, was among the first business executives to sign on to Cristo Rey’s work study program.

Lucchetti, selected by the diocesan Catholic school department in 1996 as Catholic School Graduate of the Year, liked the idea of supporting an educational program that “provides a good Catholic education for kids otherwise not able to afford one, involving them working in a business at a relatively young age.”

Cristo Rey sophomore Ana Carmona, 15, said one of the reasons the diocese’s newest Catholic high school was her first choice was because it offered an opportunity to receive job experience in the workplace.

Placed at Pacific Coast Building Products, Carmona worked through the school year carrying out clerical duties and continued on through the summer as the company’s receptionist.

“What I learned will help me throughout my whole life — how to greet people, talk to people you don’t know and get along with your co-workers,” said Carmona, who plans to attend college and then enter medical school. “Cristo Rey has been everything I expected it to be.”

Integral to the success of Cristo Rey’s work-study program are student performance reviews, conducted three times annually by supervisors.

“The reviews are a great opportunity for students to understand everything that is expected from them,” Stuart said. “Supervisors give them feedback on what is going well and where they may need additional training.”

Nicholas Ramirez, 15, a sophomore at Cristo Rey who has been interested in computers “pretty much my whole life,” found his placement at Big Hairy Dog, a Sacramento computer information systems business, a perfect fit.

Working with his supervisor, computer technician Michael Clark, Ramirez made sure printers and cash registers functioned properly and was involved in data entry and marketing tasks.

Ramirez “was a very hard worker who came into an unknown position and picked up the work quickly,” Clark said.

This summer Ramirez continued his Cristo Rey work-study program at the state Capitol at the office of Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara.

His supervisor, Jim DeBoo, chief of staff for Assemblyman Nava, who chairs the transportation committee, saw in Ramirez “a strong work ethic” who “will be successful in whatever he intends to do.”

Sister Locke said during the 2007-2008 school year Cristo Rey plans to add 25 more company sponsors for the work-study program, including more hospitals and media-related businesses.

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