All in the Family

All in the Family

by | Apr 27, 2023 | Alumni Spotlight

During her salutatorian speech eight years ago, Anissa Garza shared that graduating from Cristo Rey was a triumph for her whole family. Today, those words have never rung truer for the first-generation student, her two younger brothers, and parents. All their lives, she says, have been shaped and transformed by the support of the CRSM community.

Now 26-years-old, the second-highest ranking graduate of the CRSM Class of ’15 is in her first year of a doctoral program in clinical psychology at the University of Memphis. She’s also a graduate research assistant in the REACH Lab under the mentorship of Dr. Kathryn Howell.

A former Schuler scholar, her LinkedIn is a checklist of many achievements, including graduating from Bates College in Lewiston, MA with a dual degree in psychology and religious studies. She’s  served for the last three years as a research assistant at the National Center for PTSD in Boston, MA. At Bates, Anissa a Bonner Program scholar, volunteered at a program for adults with Alzheimer’s and served as a Program Assistant at the Boys and Girls Club of Southern Maine. She also was the recipient of the Harward Award for Outstanding Community Volunteerism and Student Leadership from Bates’ Harward Center for Community Partnerships.

During the same time, her mom, Elida, “Ellie,” was promoted from food service lead at Waukegan High School to Assistant Food Service Director for the entire Waukegan school district. Her brother, Raul, CRSM Class of ’19 and Promise Scholar, is graduating in May from Marion University in Fond du Lac, WI with a psychology degree. Her youngest brother, Daniel, is about to enter high school. Her father, who struggled with employment when Anissa was in high school, is a foreman at a local landscaping company.

The grit and perseverance she absorbed from her years at CRSM have been her driving force during graduate school.

“I never expected landing a post-baccalaureate research assistant position to be so difficult, but when institutions turned me down, I relied on Mr.O’s (Mike Odiotti, principal) teaching about grit and perseverance. If he hadn’t ingrained that in me, I might have given up. But instead, I just kept churning out applications and reaching out to the network I had built for myself during my undergraduate studies.”

These days, when she’s not taking three classes and working 20 hours as a graduate research assistant, Anissa loves taking her dog, Tala, for walks at the nearby Overton Park in Memphis, TN. During COVID, she also discovered the therapeutic and stress-reducing rewards of refinishing old furniture, stripping it and giving it new life.

“We all had to work really hard to get me here,” says Anissa. She says her graduate research studies were inspired by her own witnessing of young people struggling with mental health issues, a topic that is generally highly stigmatized in the Latino culture.

Championing Public Health: Alum advocates all people receive best medical care possible

Championing Public Health: Alum advocates all people receive best medical care possible

by | Aug 30, 2021 | Alumni Spotlight

Brian De La Cruz, CRSM Class of 2017, and a first-gen college graduate, lives by the words of Principal Dr. Michael Odiotti in his steadfast commitment to building a career in public service and equitable healthcare: “The gritty person has the ability to never give up.”

The past year was one that has brought numerous unforeseen challenges — the 22-year-old was called home to Waukegan to care for his mother, father and older brother who all were hit with serious cases of COVID-19 at the beginning of the pandemic. But, Brian, 22, graduated with a Business and Economics degree from Wheaton College and landed the position of Business Operations Coordinator for the American Medical Association (AMA’s) Education Center. It’s a position he strived hard for during his internship last year for the premier national medical association. The organization supports physicians, residents and medical students at every step of their education and careers.

In his role at the AMA, Brian works on the AMA Ed HubTM to provide high-quality education for physicians and other medical professionals so they can stay current and continuously improve the care they provide.

Brian is passionate about working to advance health equity and end healthcare injustices, to disrupt and dismantle the systems that aren’t working and reimagine and rebuild these systems to ensure justice. He’s already envisioning a 10-year career plan, a plan inspired by growing up in Waukegan.

“I want to elevate the needs of my community and center them in the discussion to improve their health outcomes”says Brian.

He knows firsthand about some of the challenges facing people living in Waukegan and towns where their zip codes thrust them into the crucible of racism and low socioeconomic status and produce harm and inequalities in education and deep-seated barriers to medical care.

This fact hit like a bolt of lightning during the last year when the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic revealed deep-seated inequities in healthcare for the community living in the 60085 zip code and amplified the social and economic factors that contribute to poor health outcomes. It was brutal watching his parents and brother battle the virus and struggle for access to treatment. Waukegan as the sixth hardest hit town in the state for COVID-19 cases.

“I saw firsthand what happens to people with chronic disease and the brokenness of the healthcare system,” he says. “I feel the need to champion the stories behind this unfairness and continue to shine the light on them.” Thankfully, all of his family members have recovered from COVID-19.

Grabbing on to the grit bandwagon

It hasn’t been an easy road for Brian, who is the first member of his family to graduate high school and go to college. He was a “C” student in middle school. That changed when he entered high school and was embraced by a supportive community of caring educators at CRSM who pushed Brian to reach his full potential, he says.

There’s no question, he says, that his perseverance and dedication to long-term goals took root at CRSM where he maintained a 4.0 GPA all four years, was the senior class president, a National Honor Society student and president of the Student Ambassadors. Through the Corporate Work Study department, he worked in the multi-cultural marketing department at Walgreens’ corporate headquarters throughout high school. During the summer before college, he worked as a full-time intern on the development team at College Bound Opportunities, where he was also a scholar his junior and senior year.

Brian feels called to give back and to serve others through ministry and volunteerism. He’s been a youth coordinator at Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe Parish and helped create the youth group at Kingdom Voice Ministry, when the church was just starting in Waukegan.

“Cristo Rey created a path for me to follow and now I want to do that for other young people,” says Brian, who serves on the board of directors for the Wheaton College Alumni Association. “I look back and think about walking into Cristo Rey and how I learned as a freshman in high school to carry on conversations with adults at work. I can’t imagine many freshmen are able to do that. And Dr. O. really inspired me that no matter how difficult things are, to never give up. As a first-generation student, the barriers to overcome were many, but with the support from CRSM and CBO, I knew I could dream big.”


Advice for CRSM students: “Dare to break the systems and barriers that get in the way of your personal journey.”

 

“Challenges Became My Fuel”: An Interview with Brisel Jiménez

“Challenges Became My Fuel”: An Interview with Brisel Jiménez

by | Jun 3, 2019 | Alumni Spotlight

I visited with Brisel (CRSM ’15, UIC ’19) during one of her visits to Cristo Rey St. Martin as a new full-time hire at Advanced Group, a staffing company operating across the US and Europe. She shared her experiences at Cristo Rey, University of Illinois at Chicago, and her work with the Corporate Work Study Program in Chicago and San Francisco. The following conversation has been edited and condensed.

Luckily for me, we met at a business partner appreciation event – I didn’t know about your involvement with Cristo Rey work study. And congrats on your graduation from UIC!

Thanks. Both have been such important experiences for me.

You’re graduating with a major in Economics with minors in Sociology and Entrepreneurship, was HR always a goal for you?

As a student at Cristo Rey, I worked at Advanced Group for 3 years. I never thought of HR as something I could do, but I had mentors at Advanced Group who helped me find that I love anything “HR”. They believed in me. So when I graduated CRSM, I continued working for them. They were extremely flexible with my hours while I worked toward my bachelors which provided me with an income to finish school. By the time I was a senior at UIC, my position at Advanced Group included mentoring twelve Cristo Rey students.

It sounds like your academic and work study experience at Cristo Rey made the transition to college easy.

I did very well at Cristo Rey, but my performance as a freshman at UIC was not what it should have been. I struggled. I felt overwhelmed; I didn’t expect that so much would be thrown at me so quickly. Suddenly I’m in a huge lecture hall with a professor on a microphone. I had doubts about myself. I was in the city, learning to navigate public transportation. It was easy to become overwhelmed. You don’t feel at home at college…and you can start doubting. There were times when I did not feel like I was supposed to go to college.

How did you deal with all of that?

It became clear to me that this was my biggest challenge – that this could hold me back. I recognized that there was something about overcoming this obstacle and getting my college degree that was going to make me – make up my character.

And that became my fuel.

I found the power of asking questions, of advocating for myself. If you don’t, the currents will take you. I know how powerful your thoughts are – thoughts of self-doubt, internal negative comments. It comes from not knowing what is going to happen. And pride holds you back because you think it’s too late to ask questions. But it’s never too late, no matter what stage you’re in. I was surprised at how many people were willing and happy to help. Though sometimes I wonder how I found the courage to finish. And now I’m helping students get through those same feelings.

So where did that courage come from?

[pause] Thinking about it now, it came from several places. My mother is a fearless “go-getter”. She doesn’t have a lot of education, but she learns how to get what she wants and tirelessly works toward it. She has been my inspiration. When I had struggles, the simple words I believe in you were the most powerful. Cristo Rey, including Principal Odiotti’s speeches about grit, and the Work Study Program gave me the benefit of the doubt – which put me in a position to win.

 

As a new graduate what are your thoughts about your future?

I find that I don’t spend too much time thinking about the future. Concentrating on what’s in front of me right now seems to work better for me. I am going to start on my Master’s in Human Resource Management right away so I can help the company with my current projects.