by admin | Jun 4, 2022 | President’s Pen
“It’s like a family,” is how most Cristo Rey St. Martin students respond when asked to describe the culture at the school. It’s not accidental. Building community, creating a culture of care and trust, fostering a compassionate but challenging environment where students find motivation and success is a deliberate act… a sustained team effort by faculty and administration over several years. Think of the challenge of maintaining a consistently high performing culture when 25% of your students turnover every year. At CRSM, culture is intentional. A quote from an alumna of CRSM ’10 captures an important aspect of our mission. In an address to our students after graduating Dartmouth, she said:
“One final note that I want to touch on is the idea of collective success. … Through my four years (at college), I’ve learned that having a degree shouldn’t mean I’ve “made it” …that my successes mean nothing if there are still so many talented and intelligent young people who are [not given a chance at success]. CRSM does an amazing job at advocating for collective success… Collective success is the only way to enact widespread change and I am proud to have graduated from a high school that is doing just that.”
Having a strong school culture paid off during the pandemic. Our school community found ways to maintain its sense of belonging and collective mission by maximizing opportunities to learn in-person and gathering regularly to serve our neighbors through food distribution events and vaccination clinics. As a result, when we returned this school year to full-time, in-person classes, our students’ performance went through the roof. This year, we had more students earning above a 3.0 GPA and fewer students with GPAs below 2.0 than ever before. As one senior said to me, “Mr. Kendall, we worked so hard and had to constantly adapt to everything COVID threw at us, but we persevered and, especially this year, it just feels like we came roaring back!”
At the end of every school year, our Principal surveys students and faculty. This year’s results proved positive beyond expectations. For example, here’s how students responded to the following statements:
- “At our school, programs and services are available to help me succeed.” 48.6% of students strongly agreed and 43.8% agreed
- “At our school, a high-quality education is offered.” 59.0% strongly agreed and 35.2% agreed
- “At our school, adults have high expectations for me.” 50.0% strongly agreed and 42.9% agreed
- “Staff in our school display a caring attitude toward students.” 46.9% strongly agreed and 44.1% agreed
Over 90% of students either strongly agreed or agreed to all those statements. Hopefully, this is evidence we are doing something right!
Teachers offered similar endorsements. When asked to identify CRSM’s greatest strength, here is what they had to say:
- “The greatest strength of CRSM is the shared purpose. More than any other school I’ve ever worked in or visited, I think the students generally feel that the teachers are collaborators rather than gate keepers. This creates a tremendously productive learning environment.”
- “The people. From students, to staff, to administration there is a great respect and drive for success. People are given freedoms, and in return they work harder perform at their very best.”
- “CRSM’s greatest strength (apart from its students) is that it keeps learning transparent. We are able to collaborate with teachers and admin and support staff. I think our students are constantly growing because the teachers have the freedom to grow and learn themselves.”
- “The community – students, families, staff – all focused on the mission”
“It’s like a family.” English grammar labels that a simile. But sometimes CRSM isn’t just “like” a family, sometimes it really is a family. At graduation this past weekend, I experienced a bittersweet family moment I will always treasure. Our mass and commencement ceremony had ended, the joyous throng of rightfully proud families and graduates had moved out from the gym and into the school parking lot accompanied by mariachi music booked by a grateful father for just this occasion. Many of us from the faculty and administration mingled, chatted, posed for pictures, and celebrated with the families.
As the crowd thinned, I made my way back inside the now quiet building and was walking the long hallway to my office when a voice called out. I turned and saw two parents literally running toward me, the mother crying. I immediately recognized them. Their twin girls had just graduated, the two youngest of their eight children. Their boys, the two oldest, entered high school before Cristo Rey St. Martin was founded but all six girls attended CRSM. Starting as a 9th grader in 2005, the oldest girl graduated in 2009, followed by her other sisters graduating in 2012, 2013, 2019, and the twins in 2022! The daughter from Class of 2013 was Valedictorian and one of the twins this year was Salutatorian for her class.
The oldest daughter is now a bilingual teacher with M.Ed. in Elementary Education & Teaching pursuing her second Master’s degree in Educational Leadership & Administration. Another daughter has a Bachelor’s in Social Work and a Master’s in Business Management working as a College and Career Navigator/Academic Advisor at our local Community College. Still another earned a BA in Computer Science from Georgetown and a BS in Computer Engineering from Columbia in New York. Yet another is at Lake Forest studying Education One of the twins is on her way to University of Illinois to study Civil Engineering and the other to Lake Forest College as an Education major.
As we closed the gap between us, the mother hugged me and said through her tears, “After 17 straight years, we won’t have anyone attending CRSM next year. We are all done! Thank you so much for… everything!” I hugged her back, saying, “I should be thanking you! Your family has been such a huge part of CRSM. You and your family have made CRSM like a family to so many. Thank you for sharing your daughters with us. We are so proud of each and every one of them.”
I shook the father’s hand and marveled at these two parents who worked so hard and gave their all to give their children a better life – true heroes. As we parted and I turned toward my office, I must admit I shed a tear or two, too. ¡Viva Cristo Rey!
by admin | Jun 1, 2022 | Alumni Spotlight
Inspired by Cristo Rey’s commitment for students to become people for others, three alums from our first and early graduating classes, are embodying the mission to give back and help fellow immigrants and neighbors in Waukegan through several high-profile non-profits in town.
The trio, all under 35 — Amanda Diaz-Bahena, along with her brother, Rameses Diaz, and Miguel Nuñez (their cousin) — recently brought the Ballet Folklorico Tayahua troupe of dancers to entertain the audience at the May 19th evening of Hispanic Culture at CRSM. The Waukegan non-profit dance studio is located in downtown Waukegan. It celebrates the rich diversity of Mexican and Mexican-American cultural heritage through dance and music, to pass the legacy and culture on to future generations, said Diaz-Bahena, President of the organization founded by her mother, Lupe Muñoz. Both Diaz-Bahena and Nuñez are graduates of CRSM’s second classes in 2008 (Formerly St. Martin de Porres).
In addition to the deep spiritual and cultural commitment of the dance ensemble, Diaz-Bahena and Nuñez also work days “trying to return the help people gave to our families when our immigrant parents first came to Waukegan,” says Nunez, vice president of the dance school.
Amanda Diaz-Bahena, President of the ballet troupe, is a victim advocate for the Family Advocacy Program at the Naval Station Great Lakes. The program is responsible for the prevention of and response to child abuse and neglect and domestic abuse/intimate partner violence in military families. Miguel Nuñez, VP of Ballet Folklorico, is Program Supervisor at The Community Center of Catholic Charities (formerly the Gary Graf Immigrant Center) in downtown Waukegan. It’s a first-stop resource center for immigrant families. Diaz-Bahena’s brother, Rameses Diaz, also works as the Development Director for the dance ensemble and was a Class of ’11 CRSM graduate.
Both Diaz-Bahena and Nuñez say they were inspired to seek careers in helping others from their high school days. They are especially grateful to Jim Dippold, Director of Campus Ministry, who was new at the school at the time.
“Mr. Dippold just radiated the love of God and went out of his way to help me and believe in me,” says Amanda. “We learned the power of volunteering and reaching out to help others was very important and it inspired us to pick the careers we have.”
Cristo Rey changed the course of their lives.
“I didn’t realize it at the time, but if it hadn’t been for St. Martin we could have gotten involved with the gangs and drugs that we saw many of our peers get into at the time,” says Diaz-Bahena. “I always say that I was a ‘nobody,’ that by the grace of God was picked to be a ‘somebody.’
Nuñez adds: “When my parents first arrived in the late ‘70s there was no help for them,” said Nuñez. “They couldn’t speak English and it was very difficult for them to navigate. It was great to bring the dancers to Cristo Rey, and was like a homecoming to see Mr. Dippold and realize all he and the school inspired in me. I knew in high school I wanted to someday help people like our parents. Our dance group too, is a way to honor our parents and make sure our Mexican culture doesn’t get lost in the assimilation.”
by admin | Jun 1, 2022 | Academic
Gratitude was the overriding theme Saturday, May 28th, when CRSM celebrated many historic achievements, including 100% of the senior class being accepted into four-years bachelor’s programs, for the third year in a row!
It was a joyful day with family, friends, teachers, staff, board members, Corporate Work Study partners and about 30 alumni packing the new gym to cheer for and bless the 101 graduates during the Baccalaureate Mass and Commencement Ceremony.
“It has been an honor to walk the journey with these seniors the last four years,” said Mike Odiotti, PhD, principal. “The hard work from the students of the Class of 2022 has paid off and this phenomenal class will leave a mark and example for many classes to come.” He cited the numerous challenges facing this class during the pandemic, including a junior year of remote and hybrid learning and checked off a list of benchmarks:
- Graduating seniors are headed to universities ranging from Brown, Fairfield, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Stanford, along with Grinnell. Holy Cross, Loyola, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and many more.
- 3.6 average G.P.A.
- 101 seniors is the biggest graduating class in CRSM’s history
- Launched the first Black Student Union
- First fine arts program
“In this room, I see so much hope,” said Emily, Valedictorian, who is headed to Washington University in St. Louis. “We did pretty good for a class who spent their junior year on ZOOM calls. But the bright side, we never gave up. This is a minority success story as well because we faced many obstacles. The world said this could not happen for us. But now, that world is full of possibilities that await all of us. Let’s make it happen.”
Senior Ezequiel who is headed to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the fall is the first recipient of the Fr. John Milton Science Scholarship. “Before Fr. Milton dedicated his time to CRSM we had very few students interested in STEM fields, but he figured out how to create a curiosity and passion in the sciences for our students,” said KumKum Bonnerjee, Science and Math teacher. “He would be so proud.”
“Here is light,” said Fr. Corey Brost, C.S.V., presider. “I am so grateful to be here today to celebrate the light these young men and women have brought to the hundreds of families you’ve fed in the parking lot, the vaccines you volunteered to help protect hundreds of people, to the immigrants you’ve helped at the border and who are facing deportation. You are bright lights in a time of so much darkness and our nation needs people like you to go out into the world and shine brightly.”
Dr. Odiotti shared a final message with graduates: “In the words of St. Ignatius, ‘Go forth and set the world on fire.”
by admin | May 31, 2022 | Development
From Brown University and Northwestern University to other prestigious institutions such as Stanford, Boston, Fairfield and St. Louis universities, 100% of the Class of ’22 has been accepted to four-year colleges.
On Friday, April 29, the seniors celebrated National College Decision Day, submitting their acceptances to the colleges and universities of their choice.
When Evelyn G. joins her classmates to walk across the graduation stage May 28, she will have plenty to celebrate. The 17-year-old will be the first in her family to attend college, when she joins a select cohort of five students awarded Loyola University’s Cristo Rey Scholarship. The scholarship covers most academic and living expenses.
“I’m excited to join another Cristo Rey family,” says Evelyn who will begin a 5-year bachelor’s and master’s program in social work. “I learned so much here through volunteering at the food bank, the vaccine clinic and soup kitchen about helping others and want to have a career helping others who struggle.
Other colleges and universities CRSM graduates will be attending include: Boston, Carthage, Grinnell, Holy Cross and Lake Forest colleges, and Johns Hopkins University Boston University and the University of Illinois.
“Today was especially exciting because we haven’t been able to host a celebration in three years,” says Lori Felix, College Counselor. “It’s fun to see the students hang out with their friends and enjoy the last few moments of their time together. We’re especially proud because so many of them are going to their dream schools. Affordability is always at the forefront, so we’re blessed that they are getting the backing to go.”
by admin | May 31, 2022 | Development
The Healthcare Foundation of Northern Lake County awarded CRSM a $15,000 grant for its extensive health outreach efforts to students and families during the COVID-19 pandemic.
CRSM was honored for “providing extensive parent education, mobile food drives and vaccination clinics to help families and Waukegan area neighbors during the pandemic,” said Earnest Vasseur, Executive Director for the Healthcare Foundation.
The Healthcare Foundation of Northern Lake County supports efforts that improve access to health services for underserved Lake County, IL residents. They are focused on addressing gaps in health services; increasing the capacity of effective organizations and programs; and fostering innovative solutions to persistent healthcare access problems.
