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Secret Sauce

  • September 2024
Secret Sauce

Jesuit education offers students rigorous, relevant academics, development of the whole person, and a commitment to “the faith that does justice.”

A Cristo Rey Jesuit school offers one more crucial ingredient to this mix: professional work experience via the Corporate Work Study program. CWS is the secret sauce that makes Cristo Rey Jesuit Seattle High School such a unique and powerful educational model for south Seattle and this whole region.

Cristo Rey schools provide students with professional experience every week, for all four years of high school.

Our corporate partners offer guidance and support—and are now learning how much energy and optimism a well-prepared CRJS student can bring to the office each day.

The week of September 16-21 marked another historic milestone for our new school, as students headed out to their first days of work in their crisp new CRJS uniforms (the PACCAR employees in ties and blazers, of course!).

After his orientation at Providence Health, I asked Cole, ’28, what he thought. Said Cole, “It was so great! I wish today were Monday so I could be going to work! (Cole said this on a Wednesday). My supervisor An and everyone at Providence are so kind and gracious. You can tell they really want us to succeed.”

Of her position at JLL@AmazonGREF, Atia says that she can already tell that her job is going to prepare her for her future, in college and beyond.

Atia, a talented and brilliant Rainier Prep alum, knows that she is going to college and then to the workforce, and she is glad to be starting early through CWS. Each student gets a grade each day that they work, along with commentary from their supervisors. Here is what we heard about Sofia and George of our new 9th grade class:

"On Sofia’s first day at T-Mobile, she met with the Talent Management team and immediately demonstrated her goal-oriented mindset. She proactively started working on her goals, development plan, and outlined what she wanted to achieve from this experience. Her initiative and focus set a positive tone for her journey here. I’m excited to see how she continues to drive her progress moving forward!"

"George had a great first day and showed a lot of enthusiasm. I was impressed with his dedication to quickly and enthusiastically completing his training. George eagerly greeted and learned from his new coworkers, and everyone was glad to meet him."

Our Client Relationship Manager, Zen Brown, came straight to her role at CRJS from her graduation at Gonzaga University in May of this year. Says Zen, “I was drawn to the CWS program because of the opportunity to help students unlock their potential and grow professionally in ways that most young people do not have the chance to experience. The program's focus on valuable skills and professional networking opportunities for underserved students resonated with my personal values and career goals.”

“It's especially rewarding to see students who arrived a bit reserved make friends and become genuinely excited about their work and school. The biggest gift that I hope students gain through their experience in CWS is the realization that the world is their oyster, with no limit to what they can achieve given the support system and network they have at CRJS. Students will gain newfound confidence in their abilities and a clear vision of their potential.”

Says Katie Seltzer, our Vice President of Corporate Work Study: “During my graduate work at Harvard Graduate School of Education, I recognized the opportunity of establishing a CWS program that was best in class. The skills that employers are most looking for today, including strong communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity, manifest in Cristo Rey CWS programs like no other school opportunities in the US.

From the alumni I had taught at Cristo Rey New York, I know firsthand the impact that building their social capital can have at a young age, especially since half of all jobs and internships are acquired through personal connections. About 65% of students from the top economic quartile have access to informal mentorship outside of their families, whereas only 38% students in the bottom economic quartile do.”

At the end of our 3-week Montserrat Summer Bridge program, Katie traveled with students Accenture’s office in Redmond to demystify the space of an office and to practice their professionalism outside of our school. Anyone who has ever participated in a panel discussion dreads that moment when the moderator asks, “Are there any questions?”—usually followed by silence.

Our students, however, had prepared questions to ask the professionals and applied their newly-gained active listening skills, asking excellent questions about the mergers and acquisitions of Accenture.

Katie continues, “At the core of the work study program is the relationship between students and their supervisor. We are already seeing the fruits—or at least the buds—of these relationships. At Agora Refreshments, during orientation, Louis ’28 revealed that he had recently bought a machine to kickstart his idea for making t-shirts. Andrew, the CEO, smiled and shared that he had done the same in college.

“Louis and his cohort will have the unique chance to engage and learn from entrepreneurs at the C-Suite level. In this small business, one of the fastest growing in Puget Sound, our students will have a front row view of the exciting growth and change happening at Agora—and they will be part of making it happen. Across all of our partnerships, the CWS program directly works to close the opportunity gap that our students would otherwise face.”

The ingredients of the Cristo Rey Jesuit Seattle secret sauce are being layered into our students’ lives each week. Thanks to their terrific preparation by Katie, Zen, and our faculty, and the support and mentorship of their supervisors, our students are growing right before our eyes. We cannot wait to taste and see what this rich and redolent mixture yields in their lives in the years to come!

Paul Hogan
CRJS President


 

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