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.
by admin | Apr 3, 2022 | President’s Pen
This past October, the XQ Institute published an editorial entitled, “5 Ways to Support Student Mental Health” – you can find a copy on their website. Like our Cristo Rey Network of schools, XQ promotes their own educational model that rethinks the high school experience. They differ from Cristo Rey in that they focus on charter and public schools. XQ has 22 schools and school-within-a-school programs around the country, so they certainly have direct experience to back their assertions.
Mental health for students has been a top-of-mind topic this year as schools continue to adapt to the challenges brought by the ongoing pandemic, including much of the fallout from the last two years when students and teachers experienced extended periods of isolation, remote learning, disruption of their structured schedules, as well as the sometimes-overwhelming fear, uncertainty, anxiety, and stress we all have known.
XQ’s five strategies encouraged in their editorial to support student mental health are:
- Learn: Empower Students Through Transformative Learning Experiences
- Listen: Seek and Elevate Student Voice
- Create: Promote Healing Through the Arts
- Invest: Use Covid Funds to Support BIPOC students (Black, Indigenous, Persons of Color)
- Innovate: Adapt COVID Protocols to Support Mental Health
Regardless of the differences in our models and operations, it is amazing how closely their recommended steps resemble several initiatives undertaken at Cristo Rey St. Martin.
LEARN
CRSM worked diligently and creatively to keep students connected and learning throughout this pandemic. In March through May of 2020, CRSM (like much of the rest of the world) went completely virtual. Because our school had begun the practice of issuing every student his or her own Chromebook a few years earlier, we only had to make sure students had Wi-Fi access at home and we were fully operational. Student attendance during that remote time was still better than 90%. Summer school in 2020 was full-time in-person. Because of distancing requirements, the 2020-2021 school year shifted to a hybrid schedule where students could attend classes in-person twice a week. Since the beginning of summer school in 2001, CRSM has been running full-time in person. By maximizing in-person learning experiences, we maintained a strong sense of community and attachment, minimizing many of the pitfalls extended remote experiences produced.
Additionally, our Corporate Work Study Program (CWSP) shifted its focus in early summer – from trying to contract paying jobs to simply ensuring that every student had a job. We prioritized our students’ in-person work experiences over the need for paying jobs. Obviously, that means we currently have many more students working at non-profit organizations than usual, which hurts CRSM financially, but students are interacting and contributing while in-person in professional environments and have been for the entire school year. The only students working remotely this year are being paid by their job partners. What program are you aware of that is a more “transformative learning experience” than the CWSP?
LISTEN
CRSM continues to monitor the social/emotional status of our community, being especially alert to changes in student behavior from prior to COVID until now – counselors reach out to students (electronically, by phone, and now face-to-face); teachers check-in with students at the beginning of their classes; campus ministry offers opportunities for reflection and prayer; teachers and staff visit informally with students during study halls, at lunch, and even afterschool. More teachers and staff are regularly eating lunch together with the students in our cafeteria than even before the pandemic. Our students are also looking out for one another – attuned and empathetic to struggling classmates, at times referring friends to counselors. The antidote for mental and emotional trauma is community and community is CRSM’s strength.
CREATE
Before COVID, CRSM began a fledgling fine arts program and, this school year, shifted it into a higher gear. An Introduction to Fine Arts elective is now offered as well as an Introduction to Music Theory. The Art Club meets during lunch/flex time and afterschool, and the number of participating students expanded dramatically. In the coming weeks CRSM will host both the Cristo Rey Network’s Annual Meeting and the first in-person Founders’ Dinner in three years. In anticipation of these events, our Arts Club transformed the school’s library space this week into a professional art gallery – an incredible display of student talent in the form of sketches, pastels, paintings, computer-generated graphics, photographs, origami sculptures, and poetry.
Arts offer students alternative forms of expression and intermittent escapes from stress and anxiety. Drawing, for example, requires complete focus – keeping stress or worry at bay. Participation in the arts at CRSM is expanding dramatically – literally! Our theater program performed four productions of “Bram Stroker’s Dracula” this weekend, a first for our new stage in the gym. Over 17% of the student body is involved in some way – acting, directing, lighting, sound, scenery, props, ushers, and concessions! Acting can be both an escape and a chance to discover more about oneself by assuming another personality – it can even promote empathy. Being part of the production is being on a team – working together as a cohesive unit to prepare and realize live performances. The Art Show and the play recognize extended efforts that foster community, encourage deeper expression, and improve mental health.
INVEST
CRSM accessed funding through the CARES Act and spent it on improving the building’s HVAC system by installing Ultraviolet air filters. Known to kill other viruses like the flu, we could only postulate they would be effective against COVID. It wasn’t until after our installation was already underway that a UK research team published research confirming Ultraviolet exposure also killed the Coronavirus. The extra funding also allowed CRSM to purchase rapid tests as soon as they became available, permitting daily testing of students and staff before entering our building. These actions helped create an environment supportive to safe in-person gatherings and gathering together allows us to do everything else.
Well before the pandemic, families from low-income communities were forced to endure limited access to quality education and healthcare and fewer options for stable employment. COVID only magnified and expanded these inequities; CRSM’s mission is to reduce and eliminate them. All our resources are devoted to this so, when additional pandemic funds became available, it only made sense to devote them to that same cause.
In the U.S., income functions as a surrogate demographic for race. When XQ suggests a focus on BIPOC students it is akin to CRSM’s mission to reserve our educational opportunity for low-income students.
INNOVATE
Cristo Rey began as an innovative approach to education that harnesses corporate America and private, Catholic education to create a team to plow through an unequal playing field. It continues to do so. We have proven our ability to innovate in the past, but we are more acutely aware than ever that cannot not rest on those laurels. The world is changing – adapting is the only way to survive and flourish. The challenges of this pandemic force us to continue to innovate everywhere and all the time… and we will do it – in community and with deep compassion.
by admin | Aug 30, 2021 | Campus Ministry
At 3:30 p.m. on a recent blistering hot Thursday, a sea of more than 800 cars snaked their way through strategically formed lines on the east side of the CRSM parking lot. For the next two-and-a-half hours, the cars filled with families, waited for President Preston Kendall to welcome and wave them ahead — four, and sometimes eight cars at a time into two holding zones marked by orange cones. There, a pit crew of more than 50 volunteers wearing neon yellow vests, packed their trunks and back seats from pallets piled high with boxes of fresh vegetables, frozen turkey meatballs, milk, numerous food staples, light bulbs and other necessities.
No ID’s, no pre-registration required. Just first-come, first-serve. Any Waukegan-area friends and neighbors who need a little help during one of the most difficult times were welcome.
Since January of 2021, CRSM has partnered with the Northern Illinois Food Bank to help Lake County residents who’ve been especially hard-hit by COVID-19. The pandemic economic shutdown and continuing challenges have made hunger a harsh reality for families who lost jobs, found their hours cut and have to choose between paying rent, utilities, medical bills or putting meals on the table.
During the last eight months, the pop-up parking lot food bank, has served more than 10,000 families. The mobile food distribution will continue monthly through January 2022. About 70 volunteers (mostly students, their family members and some staff and community members) staffed the school year events and about 40 volunteers helped during the summer.
“This is such an important cause, and we’re so excited to see how many people we can help when we work together,” says Jim Dippold, CRSM Director of Campus Ministry. According to estimates from Feeding America, there are 36,400 Lake County residents living with food insecurity. The COVID-19 pandemic shined the light on basic necessities neighbors are struggling to obtain due to the economic impact brought on by the pandemic, adds Dippold.
The partnership between CRSM and the Northern Illinois Food Bank has “international roots,” and ties directly to Mexico, where many of the families living and served by the program hail from. It got its start a year ago when a soccer organization from Mexico, Alianza Contigo, contacted us to partner with them and the NIFB, says Dippold.
“I’ve been awed by the students and their commitment, their efforts, to continue coming out and serving the families in our community – in the frigid January weather, in the rain, in the heat of the summer,” says Dippold. “They always bring amazing energy and grit and represent our school in an incredibly positive way. This kind of work, especially through the hardships and struggles of the pandemic, is what we are about at CRSM.”
The next food distribution will be held on Thursday Sept. 9, 2021. Anyone interested in volunteering should contact Jim Dippold at [email protected]
by admin | Jul 26, 2021 | President’s Pen
In celebration of Cristo Rey’s 25th anniversary, “We Are CR” profiles will feature interviews with some of the many people who helped shape Cristo Rey Jesuit High School since its doors opened in 1996.
Preston Kendall was part of the founding leadership team for Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in 1996. As Executive Vice President, he took on the role of CFO while directing Cristo Rey’s Corporate Work Study Program (CWSP). In 2004 he became the first full-time employee of the Cristo Rey Network. After helping open the first 19 network schools across the U.S., Kendall left the network to be part of the founding team of its 20th school, Christ the King Jesuit College Prep in Chicago. He ran the Corporate Work Study Program for both Christ the King and Cristo Rey Jesuit High School from 2007 to 2011.
Preston is now the President of Cristo Rey St. Martin College Prep in Waukegan, IL, where he has served since 2011.
Why does Cristo Rey matter to you? / What does Cristo Rey mean to you?
Cristo Rey is important because it stands as a community committed to equitable access to a quality education. A bachelor’s degree is still the single most effective way for a young person to find upward economic mobility. Being denied access to a quality education simply because of family finances or a failing local school system is a social justice issue. Cristo Rey calls us to level the educational playing field so that our students can show the world just how talented they really are and make the world a better place.
In your opinion, what is the most important work that Cristo Rey has done?
Cristo Rey’s commitment to academic excellence while providing a unique professional work experience through the Corporate Work Study Program for every student provides a profound package of encounters that supports students on their journey to adulthood and become agents for positive change in their community and the world. They discover more about who they are, what they believe, and how they are living out those beliefs in the actions. Every young person should have that opportunity.
How do you see Cristo Rey in the future?
Cristo Rey is only going to become more prominent. Ripples created by a growing alumni base entering the workforce in positions of authority and influence will continue to spread nationally as they “pay forward” the opportunities they found through Cristo Rey.
What advice to you have for the students of Cristo Rey?
Cristo Rey is a gift. Cristo Rey opens doors but you have to walk through them. It is totally up to you. Not everyone has the same opportunities; make the most of them and find ways to create similar opportunities for others.
What is your best memory of Cristo Rey? / Do you have a message or story to share?
One valuable lesson I learned at Cristo Rey involved a student who struggled at her jobs. She ended up being fired twice and, from my perspective, was not making much progress. Concerned that she really didn’t want to be a Cristo Rey, I thought we should ask her to leave. The CWSP staff came to me and said they really thought she was turning a corner and we should give her another chance. I reluctantly agreed still thinking she would never make it. But she did and finished strong her junior and senior years. The last time I saw her, she had graduated nursing school and was giving me a flu shot at a Cristo Rey health fair. Never underestimate the ability of young people to grow and flourish with the right people and supports around them!
by admin | Jun 30, 2021 | President’s Pen
June at CRSM marks significant endings and beginnings. No sooner did we say goodbye to the class of 2021 at an in-person graduation – the first in our new gym – than we greeted our incoming 9th graders to their first week of training and assessments for the Corporate Work Study Program. In some ways, it felt like we were climbing Mount 2020-2021 all school year, finally summiting it at graduation, only to look out from the great heights we achieved to see Mount 2021-2022 looming even higher before us.
The year ahead is shaping up to be something much more like a pre-COVID experience, at least academically. We are planning to hold all classes in-person starting in August and, as of today, 83% of all returning students have received at least their first vaccine dose. That is a significant number given that only about 59% of people in IL have received at least their first dose. Families are already on notice that we expect 100% of students to be vaccinated by the start of school. That also means that 100% of student-workers going to work will be full-vaccinated.
Unfortunately, even as we plan for a much more normal looking school year, the Corporate Work Study Program (CWSP) is not experiencing the same rapid recovery. Only about 30% of our business partners have signed their job contracts for students to come to work in the coming year. That is the precise number of committed jobs we had at this time last year before vaccines!
So, we are preparing to start the school year with many students out of work. As we develop those plans, we are also hoping they will be an unnecessary contingency – we are hoping that our business partners will have their employees – and our students – returning to work by the end of summer. We are already hearing some of our larger partners discussing timelines and protocols for in-person work that will allow our student workers to re-engage with professionals in their workplaces but, many are not in a position to commit to hard dates. We are praying hard that the majority of our students will have a CWSP experience this fall that, like their academic experience, will look a whole lot more like it is meant to be – an experience of building relationships and contributing in adult business situations while also earning nearly 60% of the cost of their college-prep education.
Students have really missed the work study experience since lock-down and many are yearning to return to being with their coworkers and supervisors. This unique and transformative experience is so elemental to our educational model, we have acutely felt its absence – feeling we were not fully ourselves as a school for the last 15 months. While 25% of students worked remotely during COVID this past year and another 15% worked in-person, the absence of 60% of our jobs took a toll on the school beyond simply having students out-of-work. We have had to adjust our finances to make up for the loss of work study revenue and focus on growing the number of charitable donations. So many people have stepped up, knowing we have been fighting the economic fallout of lockdown with our formidable CWSP arm tied behind our back. Thank God for our donors and friends who recognized our predicament and helped us through.
The important message is that we are not out of the woods yet. The return-to-work is taking longer than we dreamed and will likely continue through the end of this calendar year and beyond. If anything, the biggest lesson of this virus has been that I consistently underestimated the time we would be battling it. When we shut down in March 2019, I sincerely thought it would only be for a few weeks, then as reality started to set in, I thought we would be back in-person for the 2020-2021 school year. It really was not until August of 2020 that I fully realized we could lose another entire school year.
Here we are in August 2021 and we are still slowly, slowly just starting to come back. I am reminded of a prayer from the Jesuit, Teilhard de Chardin:
“Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability—
and that it may take a very long time.
And so, I think it is with you;
your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,
let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances
acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.
Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.”
We can’t force a come-back, we must let things unfold at their own pace. Many people are still grappling with the pandemic, the vaccine, and – let’s face it – the psychological as well as physical toll this has taken on so many. As CRSM enters the 2021-2022 school year, we believe God’s hand is leading us and we seek solace during this time of suspense and incompleteness in the idea that God is laboring with us during these times and that the future holds great goodness and grace for all of us. We just have to be patient and believe.
