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.
by Miranda Eby | Jun 4, 2024 | In The News
Cristo Rey St. Martin College Prep is hosting a farmers market every Friday until August 30, 2024! Check out what the Chicago Tribune has to say about it here.
