Work study
Cristo Rey students `drafted' to work study program
Briceida Maldonado, a 14-year-old freshman, smiles as she stands when her assignment to American Fidelity is announced during Draft Day 2019. Students from Cristo Rey Oklahoma City Catholic High School learned their work study assignments at the draft lotterythemed event at Oklahoma City University's Meinders School of Business on Aug. 23. [NATE BILLINGS/ THE OKLAHOMAN]
The Oklahoma City Thunder's latest draft picks are ready to get to work.
Not only Darius Bazley, the Thunder's first-round pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, but two high school students from Cristo Rey Oklahoma City Catholic High School.
The Thunder franchise was one of more than 50 businesses and organizations to welcome a team of Cristo Rey students to work in their offices. The Cristo Rey Draft Day on Aug. 23 unveiled where students will work one day a week over the school year.
“What makes us unique is that the kids are working,” Cristo Rey President Chip Carter said. “They're not shadowing. They're not
being mentored. It's a job, and we want them to feel like it's a job where they're contributing. We also want the employers to say, `We're getting real value from this.'”
Cristo Rey pairs students with a variety of corporate partners, from law firms to museums, based on each student' s skills, interests and personality. The money they earn goes straight to the school to cover about 60% of their tuition.
Corporate partners commonly pay $ 30,000 f or a school year of work from a team of four students, Carter said.
The Catholic school is one of 37 Cristo Rey schools across the country. Oklahoma City's school opened in August 2018 to provide college-preparatory education to low-income students.
The work study program is integral to education at Cristo Rey. As Carter would say, it's the school's “secret sauce.”
“I'd never been in a workplace until my very first job out of college. I had worked, but it was pushing lawn mowers and washing dishes,” Carter said. “All of our kids are coming from low-income homes, so we jokingly say if you can afford to come, you can't come. It's only for low-income children. And so, we're exposing them to a workplace that they otherwise would never get to see.”
Cr is to Rey sophomore Jasmine Carolina said she takes more ownership of her education because she works and pays for it herself. Jasmine was drafted to the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation after working in accounting at the construction company C.L. Boyd her freshman year.
“As far as education, you work the hardest because you work the hardest in real life,” Jasmine said. “Why would you work for something that wouldn't be up to the highest point?”
Itzel Valle, a sophomore, said she found herself applying skills she learned in school to the workplace, as well. Valle joined the accounting department at Express Employment Professionals last year and will spend the 2019-20 school year at The Children's Center Rehabilitation Hospital.
“The biggest takeaway for me, I would say, would be ti me management,” Valle said. “There was so many things I had to fit in my schedule, and that's (when) slowly I was like, `Oh, this the adult world. I have to learn how to do this.' It's a necessary skill.”
Students frequently come to Cristo Rey a year and a half to two years behind academically, Carter said. Longer school days and a more lengthy school year bring students up to speed while they balance their work studies.
Cristo Rey Board Chairman Don Greiner welcomed six students to Bridges Health, where he is president of the skilled nursing company. From his position on the board, Greiner knows the school couldn't exist without support from its work study partners.
From the business side, he said he's happy Bridges Health can make a difference in inner-city education and put students on a path toward college.
“The only way that they're going to break the cycle for these families is for corporations to step in and support a team, and you get something for it,” Greiner said. “You don't just have to write a check to a school. We got so much done in our office last year.”