MINNEAPOLIS -- Every graduation carries with it a degree of excitement.

But at the Cristo Rey Jesuit High School on Saturday, there was excitement and so much more.

"One hundred percent of our graduating seniors are going to a two- or four-year college this fall," said Micki O'Flynn, the college counselor with Cristo Rey Jesuit High School.

O'Flynn and other school officials say their students have succeeded despite coming from difficult, economically-challenged backgrounds.

"Our students overcome poverty, some of them come from fractured families," O'Flynn said.

Among those who've overcome, is Gabriel Morales.  During his junior year, Morales watched as his mother, father, sisters and brother left home to live in Mexico.

"I told them I wanted to stay here to graduate from high school, to go to college, graduate and make my family proud of me," Morales said on Saturday.

The curriculum at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School includes both classroom and "real world" experience.  Students work one day a week in a Minnesota company or non-profit organization.

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