ROOTED IN Support
Bishop Cummins Program: An Opportunity to Succeed Roberto Martinez knows the power of a Lasallian education, and the importance of making it available to boys whose families aren’t able to afford tuition at De La Salle High School. As the first in his family to go to high school, and the son of a single mother who worked hard to help him do well at Cathedral High School, a Lasallian school in Los Angeles, Martinez now says he is “paying it forward” in his job as the new Bishop Cummins Program Coordinator at De La Salle. “It’s personal for me to see these students be successful,” Martinez says, sitting in his office in the Learning Center, where the students gather after school for tutoring, mentoring, and camaraderie. “It’s my story too. I struggled growing up. I was in their shoes.” Martinez, who went on to major in Theology and Education at LaSalle University in Philadelphia and was for a time in the Brothers’ novitiate, has brought his passion for helping disadvantaged boys to De La Salle. His goal is to not mentor just the 66 students now in the Bishop Cummins Program, but to grow the program from five percent of the student body to approximately 10 percent of the school’s total enrollment. Martinez says he wants to ensure that the scholars get the services and support they need, academically, socially, and emotionally. That means getting to know and mentor them, communicating with their parents, including those who don’t speak English, and keeping in touch with their teachers, counselors, and coaches at De La Salle. The Bishop Cummins Program, which provides tuition for students whose family income is below the federal poverty level and would not otherwise be able to afford De La Salle, was created by Mark DeMarco ’78 soon after he became De La Salle’s President in 2007. DeMarco, who retired in 2021, brought in Greg MacArthur ’03 to run the program. MacArthur grew the program and nurtured hundreds of Bishop Cummins Scholars through De La Salle until he moved into the Health Physical Education and Recreation Department this school year.
“I always felt the Bishop Cummins Program was the mission of the school. It’s a great program.” 1
| Union Magazine
