Catholic School Scholarships

The Catholic Foundation secures grants and manages endowments to help high achieving students and children from low and middle-income families have the opportunity to experience the gift of a Catholic education. The Catholic Foundation manages 30 funds designated for Catholic schools with a combined value of over $10 million. Building our Catholic school endowment funds to our initial goal of $12 million will generate $480,000 annually to support Catholic education. For more information about creating a scholarship fund contact the Catholic Foundation at (915) 872-8412.

The benefits of Catholic education to our community

• Students who attend Catholic schools are more likely to attend church and remain active Catholics as adults
• Hispanic and African American Students who attend Catholic schools are 42% more likely to graduate from high school and 2.5 times more likely to graduate college
• 81% of students who graduate from Catholic schools attend college, compared to 44% of students in public schools
• 98% of low income, minority children graduate from Catholic high schools, compared to only 66% of all students in public schools,
• Catholic school students are more tolerant of diverse views, more likely to vote, more likely to be civically engaged, and earn higher wages than their public school peers.

Why support Catholic student scholarships?

Currently, there are more requests for scholarship assistance than the Catholic Foundation for the Diocese of El Paso, Diocesan Education Assistance Fund, and our local schools can provide. Yet many students attending El Paso’s Catholic schools are especially in need of financial aid. Nearly one out of four of the over 2,300 students enrolled in El Paso’s Catholic schools qualify for the federal lunch program. Many more families would like to attend but find the tuition out of reach.  While our schools work hard to keep tuition affordable—with tuition ranging from $4,100 to $7,850 per year—the need for financial aid outpaces the availability.

Our Progress

In 2009, Michael and Clara Miles established a fund for Catholic high school scholarships with a gift of $2.6 million. Their generous and thoughtful act laid the groundwork for what is known today as the Catholic Foundation’s Scholarship Program. Their impact on students attending Cathedral, Father Yermo, and Loretto Academy high schools is immeasurable.

A group of students who wanted to ensure the legacy of their math teacher lived on created the Luz Ulrickson Scholarship Fund for Cathedral High School in 2017. The Catholic Foundation welcomed the Teacher's Salary Subsidy Fund to the Catholic Legacy Fund, the Catholic Foundation's endowment program, 2019. The endowed fund was established by the Office of Education with a gift of $500,000 will help ensure that educators at each of El Paso’s 9 Catholic campuses in the Diocese of El Paso have the funds necessary for salary support. Catholic school educators are paid substantially less than their public school counterparts but stress that they love their jobs, love being in a Catholic school, and feel strongly that being a teacher is a vocation and a calling. Click here to learn more about Catholic school scholarship funds.

The Catholic Foundation is awarding $194,065 to Catholic Foundation Scholars attending El Paso’s Catholic Schools for the 2022-2023 school year. Most of the scholarship aid was distributed from scholarship endowed funds, with the remainder coming from donations.