So Far, So Fast!

While we head into the season Seattle knows as “the Big Dark,” the students at Cristo Rey Jesuit are still shining incandescently in our hallways and in workplaces throughout the Seattle area. The same youngsters who smiled sheepishly and looked at their shoes as they came in our front door on August 1st now proudly lead family tours at Open House and guide 8th grade “Wolf Day” visitors around campus.

Students were not sure exactly what to expect when they took a leap of faith by signing up for the pioneering class at CRJS. Transitioning from 8th grade to high school is hard enough for any student. Imagine coming to a school that had never offered a single class or graduated a single student—and still expected you to perform both in class and in corporate America!

Our students dazzle us each day with their work ethic, their insights in class, their willingness to greet visitors confidently, shake their hands, look them in the eye, and describe their assignments in law firms and tech hubs and healthcare companies.

Watching Rob, Aniya, Cole, Vanessa and their CRJS friends lead tours of 8th grade families at Open House made our hearts swell with pride. Student ambassadors described the Cristo Rey Jesuit “core values” and shared what they like best about their new school.

While our buttons were bursting at Open House, our eyes welled with emotion at our first Homecoming Dance, which came at the end of a joy-filled Spirit Week. That dance, attended by over 90% of the freshman class (as well as invited friends) was the surest sign yet that our formerly uncertain 8th graders have grown into a well-bonded group of friends tearing up the dance floor. As Curtis Leighton’s article in this newsletter describes, Romans Hall was transformed into a gorgeous autumnal paradise for Homecoming. But the real transformation has come in the lives of these amazing students.

Their growth has not happened by accident, of course. Thanks to intentional activities designed for the summer Montserrat program and the careful attention of our highly-attuned academic and corporate work study teams, our students have received superb “formation,” to use a Jesuit term. Led by CWS Vice President Katie Seltzer, Principal Nadia Guy, and Academic Dean Nolan Grady, our faculty have learned how to balance “high expectations with high support”—a mantra of the Cristo Rey movement.

Another Cristo Rey Jesuit core value is that our students be Open to Growth. Based on their remarkable growth in less than four months on campus, our students embody and animate that value with each passing week. We could not be more proud of them—and grateful to you for your support of this remarkable mission.