October 2021 President’s Pen

“We had no idea what we were doing!” is what my friend and colleague, Fr. John P. Foley, SJ likes to proclaim when asked about the founding of the Cristo Rey movement. What started as one school in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood has blossomed into thirty-eight schools nationwide. Being part of the founding leadership of that first school, I used to chafe when he would say those words. But now, I respect his honestly and candor. Of course, we didn’t know what we were doing because no one had ever done it before! The notion of a college prep school for low-income families paid for by a unique and innovative work-study program was one thing; bringing that idea to a working reality was quite another.

Believe it or not, being in those uncharted waters liberated us. There was nothing else we could do but be in the moment, listen to people in the community, learn from the students we recruited, and then, literally make our best guess as to how we could support their hopes and dreams. Not knowing was gift. A passage from a prayer by Ken Untener (frequently misattributed to Archbishop Oscar Romero) echoes this sentiment:

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an
opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master
builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.

In those early days of the first Cristo Rey school, as our students started to demonstrate success both in the workplace and in the classroom, John would often marvel, “This thing is bigger than all of us.” That became another common refrain. It was his reminder that the secret to the school’s success was putting students first and taking our egos out of the equation. A successful school can’t be focused on the adults, it must be student-centered – if we continue do that, then we continue to hopefully be doing something God wants. To paraphrase Richard Rohr, OP, “All [we] can do is check [ourselves], again and again: Do [our] actions look like love? If they are truly loving, then they are part of the grand movement of love in the world, which is the movement of God in the world…”

At Cristo Rey St. Martin, we experienced a similar lack of knowing when the COVID pandemic hit. Making the decision to shut down on March 13, 2020, “We had no idea what we were doing!” And that gave us the chance to do something.

The shift to remote learning went relatively smoothly for our students. They already had individual Chromebooks since CRSM went 1:1 with the devices back in 2016. Abruptly becoming physically separated in those first months and migrating to remote learning, it was some relief to have every student on the same type of device. We only needed to focus on making sure everyone had Wi-Fi access, rather than figuring out how we could connect with one another. Campus Ministry started scheduling community food distributions in our parking lot. They became a rallying point for students and staff to come together and respond in a positive, supportive way to our greater community. As the pandemic wore on, we found a way to hold summer school in-person and start the next school year with a hybrid schedule that allowed students to spend part of the week in in-person classes with masks and plenty of distancing. We also discovered that our teachers’ jobs were much more manageable if we scheduled classes in such a way that they were either teaching all students in a particular class period remotely or all in-person, so we modified schedules accordingly. When rapid tests became available, CRSM filed with the state to become a certified CLIA testing site and began weekly testing for students and staff. When vaccines became available, we held clinics for the community and eventually for our faculty, staff, and students. Since the very beginning of the pandemic until today, CRSM has not had a single transmission of the virus traced to our campus. This school year we are 100% in-person. As we end the first quarter, 99% of our students have a 2.0 GPA or higher and 87% have at least a 3.0!

It’s been a murky journey through the pandemic and COVID is not finished with us yet. We never had a clear, grand plan about the best way forward, how could we? It has been a little like St. Paul’s conversion. St. Paul was known as Saul and he persecuted the early Christians relentlessly until one day, in a flash, he was thrown off his horse and struck blind. As he tried to gather himself, a voice said, “Go into the city and you will be told what you must do.” Little did he know he would become one of the most influential figures in Christian thought after Jesus’ death. The lesson we learned at the beginning of the first Cristo Rey school we learned again at CRSM during COVID: Go where your students are, be with them, listen to them and you will figure out a way to support them.

“It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.” We don’t have to have all the answers. In the grandest sense, we can never have all the answers. But that frees us to do something – to take a risk for others and ask ourselves, “Do our actions look like love?”

 

September 2021 President’s Pen

“The value of life does not depend upon the place we occupy. It depends upon the way we occupy that place.” – Saint Therese of Lisieux

Lately, people have been asking what it is like to be back in full-time classes at CRSM. My response is a single word, “Joyful.” It’s true. It is something more profound than happiness and is rooted in something bigger. When you walk down the halls or stop to chat with students in the cafeteria, there is a strong sense that everyone wants to be here and is ecstatic to finally be back together. Our new spaces certainly enhance being back together – the gym, the student union, and La Mesita de Martin coffee shop. At lunch, these places are teaming with students. The foosball and ping pong tables are constantly in use. La Mesita just started selling juice and snacks. (Faculty and staff are eager for the coffee equipment to arrive but even La Mesita can’t escape supply chain issues from the pandemic.) Yesterday, I wandered into the gym. There was a pick-up basketball game in one corner, a circle of students juggling a soccer ball in another, some others practicing volleyball digs and passes, and still others hanging out on the bleachers doing homework or talking with friends. If not for the masks, it was almost an archetypal pre-COVID high school moment – except, of course, CRSM never had a gym or any of these spaces before the pandemic. The fact that these scenes are now unfolding daily at CRSM is truly a gift! For so many years we did without such universal high school locales. Now that we have them, our students certainly aren’t taking them for granted.

The new space is truly a blessing and even more important now because of the deliberately gradual return-to-work timetables many of our business partners in the Corporate Work Study Program are implementing. In the program, four students job-share a full-time position at professional workplaces so, typically, 25% of our student body is out working every day. With some CWSP jobs still working remotely and others delaying their re-openings, we currently have thirty more students in the building each day than planned. Even with the new build-out, our 400-student campus was designed with the idea there would only be 300 students here on any given day. But, we are accustomed to making the best with what we have and we have so much more space than ever before! Since it is not yet consecrated, our chapel is temporarily serving as the students’ office for remote work. Having them here with us for their workday rather than staying home is a vast improvement because here they have reliable Wi-Fi, can eat lunch with their peers, and can access our own work-study staffers for any questions or issues that may arise when their supervisors are not available.

The classrooms are full, we are back to having lunches prepared on-site instead of bringing in pre-packaged fare. Faculty have returned to making “learning walks” with our Principal and Assistant Principal – visiting one another’s classes and sharing observations. There’s a welcome return to increased informal communication with one another in the hallways; it all seems so much more efficient… and fun. We may not see each other’s full facial expressions but at least we can look one another in the eye and see eyes smiling back. It feels like progress, like we are getting back into our proper orbit.

To give you an idea just how important it is to be back together, consider our September progress report. Each year at mid-month, we track the number of failures for all classes. We have four hundred students and each student takes seven classes. In 2019, before the pandemic hit, we had 90 failures out of a possible 2,800. In 2020, at the height of quarantine, we experienced 196 failures. This year, back to full-time school, we have 57 failures – fewer than before COVID! This speaks volumes about how much our students and teachers missed one another – everyone is working hard and the results show it. Old lyrics say, “You don’t know what you’ve got until you lose it.” I would add, “When you find it again, you value it more than ever.”

Which brings me back to the quote from Therese of Lisieux, The Little Flower. The only value a place possesses comes from what transpires between and among the people who occupy it. Cristo Rey St. Martin isn’t a building, it’s a community. What makes CRSM so special and effective is our culture. We respect and care for one another and that is expressed most fully when we are physically together. In 1 John, it is written, “No one has ever seen God. But if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is made complete in us.” The key word is “us.” You cannot love alone; it’s a team sport. Love reaches its fullest expression in us… and “us” begins by being together. Thank you for all you do for CRSM!

 

July President’s Pen: An Interview with Preston Kendall

July President’s Pen: An Interview with Preston Kendall

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!

June President’s Pen: Marking significant endings and beginnings

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.