Lizzy Alvarez loves colorful socks. Loves them. In fact, she refuses to wear white socks. Her zeal for vibrant footwear is not a statistic that would show up on a report card, but is exactly what makes her unique. The report card reads Elizabeth Alvarez, 16 year-old honor student in her junior year at Chicago Hope Academy High School. While the report card is very important, it can never fully embody the worth of a student. This is a fact not lost on the admissions committees of top universities or Chicago Hope. Students are more than a number, but rarely do high schools have the time to find that out. Chicago Hope enjoys the luxury of having a student body of less than two hundred. Every applicant goes through a family interview and every student is known by name. It is hard to get lost in the shuffle when there are only twelve students in each classroom.

Chicago Hope sends graduates to top universities across the nation (Columbia, US Naval Academy, Carnegie Mellon etc.). Like these stellar universities, we look beyond the report card. Leadership is not a stranger to Hope students and Alvarez is no exception. As co-captain of the volleyball and softball teams she is no stranger to success. When college admission teams look over her application they will see she played a vital role in the Eagles sweeping the Conference in volleyball and winning the Regional Championship in softball. They will also be on the lookout for what we already care so much about at Hope, how she did it. That her character and attitude were the catalysts for getting the most out of her natural abilities. If the harder we work the luckier we get, then Alvarez is pretty darn lucky. And she is not the only one.

Hard work has the incessant habit of resulting in success; a lesson instilled into every Hope student. When two applicants have similar grades and extracurricular activities, what is it that distinguishes one above the other? It will be those activities and qualities that bring a student off the page and become more than a series of letters and numbers in the eyes of an admissions board. It is those qualities that Chicago Hope cultivates. These are the qualities that make Lizzy who she is; for the same passion that determines her aesthetic sock choices she harnesses into her school work and extracurricular activities. Through its small class sizes Hope cultivates qualities of hard work, faith, and leadership that enable students to go above expectations. We are dedicated to taking our diverse and talented students and making them academically, spiritually, and athletically excellent men and women.