by Mary Beth Sammons | Feb 27, 2023 | Alumni Spotlight
Meet Ashley Fonseca, CRSM Class of ’22. At Augustana College in Rock Island, IL you will find her preparing for a career as a veterinarian, working out, or she could be found exploring new opportunities in the college’s crochet club and the LatinXUnidos club. She’s also an intern at a nearby animal clinic.
“I owe my confidence and quick adjustment to college to Cristo Rey, which really prepared me,” says Ashley. “I am surprised at my independence, but I was taught to pursue my own path and to overcome disappointments when they come my way. But I do talk to my mom every day.” Her dogs, Sparky and Snoopy are regulars on the FaceTime mom-daughter chats.”
Last year, Ashley was honored with the Spirit of St. Martin de Porres Award, given to the graduate who best exemplifies the CRSM mission academically and as a person for others. She is a College Bound Opportunities Scholar and was a regular volunteer at Feed My Starving Children, the Northern Illinois Food Bank pop-up distributions and Beacon Place and served as a senior class representative.
Recently, Ashley shared her “day in the life of a freshman” experience. Check out her Instagram Takeover on YouTube.
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 | 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 | Jan 31, 2022 | Academic
Despite the challenges of not being able to speak English, moving to a new country and the pandemic, senior Jesus T. is geared up and ready to head to one of a handful of prestigious colleges where he’s already been accepted — including Augustana, Marquette and Lake Forest College.
A College Bound Opportunities scholar, treasurer of the Student Council, member of the National Honor Society, regular food bank volunteer, admin at a charter school as part of the work-study program and a strong force on the soccer team, Jesus has traveled a long way from Jalisco, Atotonilco el Alto Jalisco, Mexico where he grew up.
A strong student in Mexico, Jesus’ parents decided when he was 14 that he would have a brighter future if he moved to Waukegan to live with his cousins and attend CRSM where they were enrolled.
For Jesus, the 2,000-mile trek was both disappointing and a new start. Just weeks after the freshman in high school moved here and applied to CRSM, his aunt told him, that though he showed lots of promise, CRSM did not have any openings in the upcoming sophomore class. His language barrier also was prohibitive. Jesus could read but could not speak English. “I was devastated,” he says. “I had left everything I knew, my family, my friends, my town, my lifestyle, to move to my aunt’s.”
Noemi,” Cuesta, Director of Admissions, says she remembers seeing “so much promise in Jesus.” She encouraged him to stay in Waukegan, attend Waukegan High School, study hard, master his language skills and reapply to CRSM.
“It was a really tough decision, but after analyzing it, I decided the best thing for me to do was to stay in Waukegan and put in a lot of effort in order to accomplish my goals,” he says.
Jesus continued to persist.
At Waukegan High School, he was thrown into a sea of sophomores who had already bonded as friends their freshman year and into the bi-lingual program where students “basically just spoke Spanish.” He pleaded with and convinced his academic counselor to put him in regular English-speaking classes. “I wanted to challenge myself, to go for it.”
Passionate about staying connected to CRSM, he volunteered many of his after-school hours in the CRSM parking lot packing boxes of food into cars during the Northern Illinois Food Bank pop-up distributions.
Armed with top grades after learning to speak English, Jesus was accepted to CRSM the second semester of his sophomore year.
Then COVID-19 hit. The dream of marching into the glitzy bright-colored former K-Mart-turned-high school was dashed and replaced by a virtual ZOOM reality from the kitchen in his aunt’s home. During this time, in addition to schooling, the soccer team and his corporate work-study job, Jesus also worked two part time jobs in landscaping and construction to pay for his room and board and living expenses.
“My father always told me ‘I want you to be someone who can do the desk job, but also comfortable at working in the fields and getting your hands dirty,” says Jesus.
This May Jesus is slated to graduate on the honor roll in AP classes. He’s also waiting to hear from Notre Dame, Northwestern University and the University of Illinois/Urbana-Champaign.
He plans to major in business and someday be in management or helm his own company. He’s keenly aware that perspective is everything. “I’ve learned to never lose my focus on my final goal,” he says. “Life is not easy, but the more times you fail means the more times you are trying really hard to succeed. They’re your dreams, and you have to go for them.”
Jesus says he knows firsthand what it must feel like to be a Forrest Gump kind of guy. But like Forrest, Jesus’ mother and father assured him miracles do happen. “And I learned they do,” he says.
