The donation button has been created to enable and allow alums to make contributions easily to the annual fund that is the goal of Alums and Friends at Saint Matthew's. 

The annual goal is $150,000. 

This money will be used to offer tuition assistance to families who want the best education for their child/ren but who are cannot afford the full cost of tuition.

You can discover more about the school here.

The following are some "testimonials" about the great things that are happening at Saint Matthew's School.  Donations to Alums and Friends help make these experiences possible.

           I was walking down the hall with our school nurse who also spends time in several other St. Paul Public schools.  As we walked down the hall she was telling me how much she enjoyed her 1 hour a week at St. Matthew’s and that she has such a wonderful feeling whenever she is in our school.  As we walked, down the hallway, we passed our 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classrooms.  In each room kids were engaged in the instructions – one room kids were raising their hands eager to answer a questions, in another students were in a circle on the floor as the teacher read to them, and another students were presenting a project as others watched intently.  When we got to the end of the hallway, she turned to me shaking her head and said – “I can’t believe I’m in St. Paul right now – what we just saw is why I love it here.”  The nurturing, educational environment was clear with our nurse even though she only spends one hour with us.

            One of the children selected from our younger grades was new to St. Matthew’s.  We knew very little about her when she was selected, other than there was extreme financial need and a strong desire from her mother to send her to a Catholic school.  When I first read her records I was scared of the challenge that lay ahead of our school.  At her previous school she often had to leave the class for behavioral problems and her mother was very honest to me in saying, that she was at the school at least once a week for problems they were having, and that her home life was often unstable due to problems with the child’s Father.  We took on the challenge, because we were hopeful our small Catholic school environment could make a difference.  We had her meet regularly with our school social worker and her teacher worked hard to create positive interactions with the student and her classmates.  The child was slow to believe that she could be a positive, happy person.  She was always intelligent, but this year she grew into a confident, positive, leader.  At one point her mother stopped in - she was amazed at how well the school year was going and almost seemed hesitant to believe it was true.  This past week the school social worker and I were discussing the year and the success we had.  When I brought up this child, the social worker had the biggest smile on her face and said “she is in such a good place right now, think of how much she has grown.  If that is all we had done all year, I would consider it a great year.”

            Last year a parent of a former student came with me in a bit of a surprise that her daughter was in honor’s classes at the local public high school.  She told me she went to her teacher and said I’m not sure if this is right, because she was a very average student at St. Matt’s.  The teacher told her that what might be considered average at St. Matt’s, they consider an honor’s student at their school and that they almost automatically put any St. Matthew’s student in honor’s classes.

         At Cretin Derham Hall high school we had 71% of our students on the honor roll this past year.  Last year we had 10 students enter the freshmen class of 375 students.  Throughout the year 6 of them were named a “student of the month” for a subject within the entire freshmen class.  6 in a class of 375.  They are able to come from a small school environment and excel in a large environment.

            In my 3rd year of teaching I was meeting with a child and her grandmother at conferences in the spring of her 8th grade year.  The child was raised primarily by her grandmother and occasionally by her mother as she entered her life from time to time before leaving again.  Her father was never part of her life.  During conferences, I mentioned college as part of her future plans.  The grandmother was surprised and said, “ you don’t think she could go to college?”  We continued for several more minutes discussing the high quality student her granddaughter was and how there was no doubt in my mind that she was “college material.”

A little over 4 years later that child stopped by school.  She had just finished her last day of high school and she made a point to come back to her grade school – to say hi to some of her former teachers and to share her future plans to attend a 4 year college the following year.  As we were talking I couldn’t help but flash back to 4 years earlier and the conversation we had at conferences.  Before she left I had to ask – “do you remember your last conference here when you were an 8th grader?”  She replied very casually and confidently – “Yeah, we talked about going to college.  Grandma remembers it too.”