ASSETS

ASSETS

Brook is a champion chess player who just won first place in the statewide “Rising Stars” competition. Aniya, Efrata, and a number of their friends are talented visual artists, singers, and athletes. On the Corporate Work Study front, Michael has just been tasked with reviewing resumes on LinkedIn and doing some coding on LinkedIn at fast-growing AI startup HouseWhisper. Vanessa has been transferring records to a new database for the archdiocese at a rapid clip, and our teams of students at Premera and Providence continue to earn kudos from their supervisors.

Most of our 60 students are bilingual, bicultural, and very proud of their various heritages.  The freshman class is taking World Geography this year, so they are learning about the many countries from which their families hail. The teacher of that class, Henok Elias, is himself a polyglot and a Renaissance man. Henok was born and raised in California by parents who migrated from Ethiopia. His first two languages are English and Amharic; Henok also speaks Spanish and “a fair bit” of Tigrinya. Henok, a man of deep faith, is also a Deacon in the local Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and a former rugby player at Pepperdine (where he first met our Principal Dr. Nadia Guy).

Too often in Cristo Rey schools, folks label students in terms of the real and significant obstacles their families encounter. Some think of our students in the abstract as “under-resourced” or “low-income,” which often indeed describes their families’ current economic status. 

Cristo Rey Jesuit Seattle, of course, exists to make sure those descriptors are temporary; our job is to provide a pathway to college and careers so that our students can “flourish as scholars and citizens,” as our mission statement so eloquently puts it.

Indeed, our students are already thriving. One of the eye-openers for me this year has been coming to understand just how many assets our students bring to school. They are not only smart, hard-working, joyful and charming, just like students in Jesuit schools all over the world, but they come with incredible life experience and resilience forged in the crucible of America’s wealth gap. By definition, our pioneering first class of students are already courageous (they chose to enroll in a school that did not exist, after all!) and possessed of what used to be called “sand,” also known as grit.

I have spent over 35 years working in Jesuit schools, mostly serving students whose families could afford private education. Many benefitted from private tutors and coaches in sports, drama, or voice. The vast majority have gone on to fulfilling careers, raised terrific children of their own, and embraced the Jesuit call to serve as people for and with others. I am so proud to know them and to have been part of their journeys.

That will also be the path of our students at Cristo Rey Jesuit Seattle High School—and they have a few additional advantages. Our students enjoy the benefit of small classes with talented, caring teachers who know their students’ stories intimately and who share best practices and techniques on a weekly and sometimes daily basis. The students learn from each other about their religious, linguistic, and cultural gifts and experiences. And then there is Corporate Work Study!

Through CWS, our students learn to navigate professional spaces at Microsoft and PACCAR and Alaska Airlines and the Space Needle, acquiring skills and mentors along the way that I wish I and my own children had benefitted from as part of their own Jesuit high school experience.

Our students will be ready for college and have far more professional experience than any of their college roommates. Even if they are still “facing systemic barriers,” by the time they graduate from CRJS, our students will know how to advocate for themselves and thrive in educational and workplace systems that may not have been designed for them, but which will benefit hugely from their energy, optimism, and skills.

No other students in Seattle have the opportunity to work one day per week during the school year in the area’s leading corporations and nonprofits. Few students anywhere in the US have the benefit of such a highly-trained cadre of teachers challenging and supporting them in a small-school setting each day.

Our students may come from backgrounds that appear to the outside world to be impoverished, but they are rich in linguistic, cultural, and family support. With these assets and the transformational educational and professional experiences they are gaining, their future is bright indeed. Thanks for being part of their journey at Cristo Rey Jesuit Seattle.