by Miranda Eby | Jul 2, 2024 | President’s Pen
When we started the first Cristo Rey School in Chicago, there was a 24-hour diner I drove past every day, called the Steak n’ Egger. The sign outside said, “We may doze but we never close.” A lot of people think schools take off the summer or at least only carry a skeleton crew to run their brief summer school programs. While that may be true for many traditional schools, it is certainly not so at Cristo Rey St. Martin College Prep. Summer is a bustling and vibrant time for us! Last week is a great example.
Our incoming freshmen were in their third week with us for Corporate Work Study Training and our academic Summer Bridge Program. The two mandatory programs last a combined seven weeks and that’s before we celebrate our first day of class for the coming school year! If you want to be a CRSM 9th grader, you pretty much turn over more than half your summer to us.
Our new students occupied most of the east end of our building while the west end and cafeteria were in use for an all-girls, week-long science camp called iBIO STEMGirls. We have hosted this group for several years. They bring area girls from grades 3 – 8 in for a highly engaging science program. This year’s theme was “Systems Safari” so they spent the week studying various systems of the human body – the central nervous system, digestive system, respiratory system, cardiovascular & circulatory system, etc. The camp is staffed by volunteers- some come of our CWSP Business Partners like Abbott Labs – and others are members of our local community, including CRSM students and alumni. A pleasant surprise was discovering that a CRSM Alumna is now co-director of their organization.
On Monday, we had representatives from the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Foundation on campus interviewing prospective scholars for the inaugural year of their program with us in Lake County. By Friday, we had received notice that 4 CRSM students will join their Class of 2028 cohort. The beginning of a beautiful friendship that will allow more students to receive a CRSM education.
Also on Monday, we hosted an evening townhall discussion for our Illinois State Senator Adriane Johnson. Our campus is quite a showplace and we make every effort to host community events that allow other non-profits to utilize our space for their efforts. Sen. Johnson used the evening to surface issues important to her greater Waukegan and North Chicago constituency.
Wednesday evening was another CRSM-hosted public event sponsored by the Center for Disease Control and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Scientists from the Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry presented findings from a five-year study on Ethylene Oxide (EtO) emissions in our area. CRSM served as an air sample collection site for the study which was prompted by two area companies who were found to be releasing EtO, a known cancer-causing agent, into the local atmosphere. Obviously, there is a lot of fear and concern surrounding this situation. The scientific study concluded that area workers and residents face an increased risk of certain cancers like lymphoma, leukemia, and breast cancer because of emissions from 2019 – 2024 and earlier but further releases of EtO have been reduced to about 1/10th of previous levels.
Waukegan is a heavily polluted community with five separate superfund sites identified by the EPA. Asbestos, PCBs, heavy metals, and ammonia are all present with some leeching into the groundwater and adjacent land. It is beyond. Historically, areas where poorer populations live experience significantly higher pollution levels than areas with populations of higher income. Waukegan is no exception – further proof that the economic playing field is simply not level and that manifests itself in all areas of life.
On the sunnier side of things, the very next day, on Thursday, we had a regularly scheduled meeting with our solar contractors. A safety fence runs along the entire perimeter of our roof as workers construct a solar array there. It will not quite fulfill our entire annual electrical needs but, on exceptionally sunny days, we may be selling energy back to the power company! We estimate that the project will save CRSM about $100,000 every year. We are on schedule to complete construction before our first full-day of classes on August 19.
Then on Friday, 19 CRSM students took their final exam for a Statistics class taught by a professor from Lake Forest College. We hope this is the beginning of an expanded relationship with the college and dual-credit offerings where students earn both high school and college-level credit from the same class.
Friday afternoon saw our parking lot dotted with tents for the weekly Farmers’ Market we started at CRSM with area vendors bringing fresh produce, prepared ethnic foods, honey, cookies, etc. Waukegan is a food desert and we are hopeful the Farmers’ Market will become a seasonal fixture for the benefit of our families and neighbors.
Finally, on Saturday, CRSM’s parking lot was the site of a community carnival to promote gun violence awareness. Free food, ice cream, games, and bounce houses abounded, as well as informational tables from various community organizations including the Lake County State’s Attorney, healthcare providers, and CRSM’s own Admissions/Student Recruiting team. Many alumni and CRSM families attended.
Part of CRSM’s mission is to be a transforming force in our community. We do that by partnering with other non-profits and giving them a platform to serve our residents. We also do it by helping our students become educated, intentional citizens who will be change agents in their community. It’s already happening! We saw it in the several activities taking place just last week. What better way to promote change than by modeling positive, beneficial behaviors like our school’s community involvement efforts?
I truly believe that in the course of just one or two generations, Waukegan and North Chicago will become thriving, healthy, and prosperous communities – not by displacing our current population but by continuing to support their hopes and dreams.
¡Viva Cristo Rey!
by Miranda Eby | Jun 30, 2024 | Campus Ministry, School News
At the beginning of every summer, a group of Cristo Rey St. Martin students accompany members of the Clerics of St. Viator for the Viatorian Youth Congress (VYC) at Casa Iskali in Des Plaines, IL. The VYC is a summer youth retreat for Catholic, Viatorian faith, and leadership formation that high school students attend. The retreat is four days long and is hosted by the Viatorians, one of our endorsing communities.
In years past, the retreats have been led by young adult leaders who were college freshmen. This year, four of the youth leaders of the retreat were CRSM recently graduated seniors Mya Weatherspoon, Isabel Hernandez, Adrian Calderon, and Emmanuel Rivera. It was the first year that applications were opened up to incoming college freshmen. The application process to become a young adult leader is rigorous, as students are required to list a reference for themselves and are then vetted by the Viatorians in charge of the retreat. Brother Peter, who consistently volunteers with our students and assists with CRSM retreats, led the training for these rising college students in preparation for the retreat.
Campus Minister and Theology teacher Iris Sanchez brought six rising CRSM juniors to the congress, where they participated in testimonial workshops, learned about the different elements of ministry, and studied various prayer styles. The students also had the opportunity to meet delegates from another Cristo Rey Network school, Cristo Rey St. Viator College Preparatory High School in Las Vegas, NV.
This retreat is meant to expand our students’ views on their faith and teach them about the Viatorians and what they do for CRSM and the community. It is also meant to help foster leadership skills within the students attending in the hopes that they will become the young adult leaders for future retreats. CRSM hopes that the Viatorian Youth Congress retreat can be beneficial and educational to our students for summers to come, and help deepen their faith.
by Miranda Eby | Jun 30, 2024 | Academic, School News
For the past three summers, Cristo Rey St. Martin has offered a dual-credit statistics course for students to get a head start on earning college credit. Over the years, this has been a popular way for students to earn college and high school math credits, to free up their schedules for senior year.
The course takes place over 3 weeks in the summer, and the 21 students taking the course meet daily for three hours. In the past, Scott Lane from Loyola University Chicago has been the professor of this course. This year, Enrique Trevino who is the Department Chair of Mathematics and Computer Science at Lake Forest College is the instructor.
All accredited colleges and universities accept the credits that students earn from this course, so CRSM students have the ability to opt out of other courses wherever they attend school and apply the ones earned from the statistics course instead.
This course is a great opportunity for CRSM students to experience a college-style class while also earning credit that will be applied towards their future education. The students who participate in this course during the summers are one step closer to getting into and through college, one of the core values in our mission statement.
by Miranda Eby | Jun 30, 2024 | Development, School News
What do solar energy and a trip to the Mexican border have to do with each other? Earlier this year, our students partnered with a non-profit organization in Mexico to assist them in the same project we’re doing for our community on the roof of CRSM. For the past three weeks, the roof of our building has been under construction with solar panel installation. This is part of an initiative within the school to be more environmentally conscious about how we source energy and reduce operating costs.
Recently, a group of our CRSM students, and CRSM President Preston Kendall, took an immersion trip to the Mexico-America border in the Sonoran Desert. On this trip, the students were able to see the very solar panel project that they had helped fund come to fruition. Our student-led organization Oportunidas Para Todos (OPT) did a fundraiser for Casa de la Misericordia, and they were able to install solar panels as well as help them install electric stoves, which is what they need to help them feed the people they have there. Casa de la Misericordia is an NGO that assists asylum seekers, mainly women and children, after they cross the border. For the students on the immersion trip, it was a powerful experience to see the panels they helped to make possible with the support of the CRSM community.
It is exciting to see solar panels installed on our building to produce more green energy, and to witness this sustainable energy assist asylum seekers at Casa de la Misericordia. We hope this solar energy alternative will power our school for years to come, and will help women and children coming across the border get the resources they need.
by Miranda Eby | Jun 30, 2024 | CWSP, School News
For our incoming Freshmen, summer means preparing to enter our Corporate Work Study Program (CWSP) and rigorous academics this upcoming school year. The students spend the first week of their orientation learning about the CWSP, and throughout the training, volunteers come in to assist students in the process. This year one of our business partners, IDEX, sent seven generous volunteers to coach our students on verbal interactions in a corporate setting.
Students and volunteers were split into two rotating groups. The students in group one practiced the fundamentals of public speaking, and the second group worked on creating elevator pitches about themselves to present to the class. For both groups, the volunteers assisted the students in coming up with what to say and how to present themselves and helped them rehearse for the speeches they would give in front of the class. In the public speaking session, pointers included making eye contact, speaking loudly and clearly, and not fidgeting. For the elevator pitches, the students worked on how to articulate their speeches on the spot and how to present themselves.
CRSM genuinely appreciates these seven IDEX volunteers who made the time and effort to work with our students to help prepare them for the professional world of work.
