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A new beginning
Detroit Cristo Rey opens doors to work-study school
by Joe Kohn of The Michigan Catholic
Published August 22, 2008
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Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic
Freshman Diego Cruz straightens his tie in the busy hallway of Detroit Cristo Rey High School. |
Detroit They show up bright and early at 7:30 a.m. each morning, raring to get the day's work under way.
Hair is neatly done.
Shoes are polished.
Neck ties are straightened.
But as much as it sounds to be the case, these men and women are not the corporate leaders heading up southeastern Michigan businesses not yet, anyway. For now, they're ninth-graders. Specifically, they're the first class of students at Detroit Cristo Rey High School in southeast Detroit.
Early this month, students at the new Detroit Catholic high school started attending classes to prepare them for a year of the school's work-study program. They will go to school four days per week and show up to work at a local business one day per week to gain valuable experience and help foot the tuition bill.
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Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic
Woodrisk Willis, (left) dean of students at Detroit Cristo Rey, listens to a question from freshman Jason Gerard. |
"When I found out we work and it helps pay our tuition, I was like 'That's so cool,'" says 14-year-old Pauline Hryzodub, sitting in a desk at Detroit Cristo Rey, a building that formerly housed Holy Redeemer High School. "And then I get to learn how to be in a work environment and I won't be so nervous when I get out of college and stuff." Detroit Cristo Rey, sponsored by the IHM Sisters and Basilian Fathers, is part of a network of 20 college-preparatory high schools across the country that apply the same work-study model. The schools are exclusive to low-income families. This year, Detroit Cristo Rey is starting up with a freshman class. Each of the next three school years, they'll add a higher grade, hopefully ending up with a student body of about 500.
As the school year begins, the students will be introduced to a local company employers spanning from automotive parts suppliers to hospitals to community nonprofits where they will be given a clerical-type job. Four students share one position at a company; every fourth week, a student will work two days and attend classes for three days. Since the first Cristo Rey school was founded in 1996 by Jesuits in Chicago, the work-study model has been undeniably effective. In cities that generally have depressing drop-out rates, Cristo Rey schools across the country send 95 percent of graduates on to college.
'The reason we're here'
Earl Robinson, Ph.D., the jovial president of Detroit Cristo Rey who formerly served as provost of Marygrove College and president of Lees-McRae College in Banner Elk, N.C., stands in the gym still painted with the Holy Redeemer logo. Before him is a bleacher full of students.
In early August, early in the day, most kids their age are still in bed.
"Who am I?" asks Robinson.
"Doc!" the students reply in unison.
"Who are you?" he asks.
"We are future college graduates!" the students return.
"And who are we?" asks Robinson.
"We are Detroit Cristo Rey!" comes the energetic response.
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Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic
Detroit Cristo Rey student Ajia Peterson gets a boost from her classmates during a team building exercise at St. Paul of the Cross Passionist Retreat Center in Detroit. The students had to help lift each other into a tall wooden box without touching its sides. |
It's a routine the students go through each morning. Fittingly, this first of traditions centers on what the school is all about. The sense of identity and the team concept, says principal Susan Rowe, are bedrocks of a Cristo Rey education that the students need to grasp early on.
"The big challenge is to try to get the kids to begin building their confidence, and knowing that going to work is part of school, and that we're all together on this we're not just individuals," Rowe says. "It's that confidence that they're special, and that this school is unique, and that it's up to them."
And it's not just the students who are part of something bigger than themselves. Cristo Rey educators are blessed with ample advice and open phone lines to other Cristo Rey principals, presidents and teachers around the country. In Detroit, the Cristo Rey concept took about three years to unfold, beginning with a two-year feasibility study. And each step of the way from fundraising to garnering corporate partners to shaping a curriculum those involved have been directed and encouraged by leaders at other Cristo Rey schools.
Rowe says finally having students show up to the Detroit school brought a new sense of reality and excitement to those involved with Detroit Cristo Rey.
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Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic
Detroit Cristo Rey freshman Chris Cleary, 14, puts trust in his new classmates, falling backward off a five-foot-tall platform, into their waiting arms. The exercise took place at St. Paul of the Cross Passionist Retreat Center on Detroit's west side. |
"When I saw the kids getting out of their cars on Aug. 4, standing out there dressed and ready go to, it just made my heart leap," Rowe says. "I know we're doing the right thing, and they're making our school come alive. They're the reason we're here."
Going to work
Just past mid-August, Cristo Rey students already have been through rigorous team-building exercises and received training for the workplace.
"We want them to have confidence that they can do the job well," says Mike Khoury, director of administration and co-director of Detroit Cristo Rey's work-study program. "We also want them to be prepared to behave in a corporate environment, and by behave I mean to be able to introduce themselves, ask questions, follow directions and stay on task to get things done."
For example, they learn the value of a firm handshake, looking people in the eye, speaking clearly, and even what to do with napkins at a company luncheon.
"When you go to the bathroom, you put your napkin on the backside of your chair, on the top, and you fold it," says Fernando Solis, 14, recalling the lesson he'd had the first week of August. "When you're done (with the meal), you fold it again and put it on your plate."
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Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic
Detroit Cristo Rey students use hand gestures while singing the closing hymn at a Mass Aug. 7 at St. Paul of the Cross Passionist Retreat Center. |
The students have already had a lot on their plates. On Aug. 7, they spent a day at St. Paul of the Cross Passionist Retreat Center on the city's west side, where they attended Mass and went through a series of physically challenging exercises to build camaraderie.
"All the teachers know what they're doing, and they have a great way of getting everyone to know each other," says Klinsen Tinaj, 15, who last year graduated from Holy Redeemer Grade School. "We just started off, and we're already forming bonds with each other, and they're teaching us a lot."
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Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic
Raven Woodland, a freshman at Detroit Cristo Rey High School, pays attention to a teacher while sitting in the bleachers of the school's gymnasium. The newly opened school is for low-income families and uses a work-study teaching method. |
Raven Woodland, who last year graduated eighth grade from Spain Elementary in Detroit, said she was a bit nervous when she first showed up at the school. But a few days later, she was helping lead a team of her classmates through an exercise at the retreat center.
"At first, I didn't think I was going to make any friends," Raven says. "But as the days passed, it started kicking in."
More to do
Even as the school year starts up, and even as school spirit starts to build, more work remains to be done in the start-up plan.
Finding the necessary donations also is an ongoing concern.
How they pay
70 percent of Cristo Rey tuition is covered by the work-study program
15 percent of tuition is covered by development funds, corporate donations, grants, etc.
15 percent is a tuition bill of about $2,200, which sometimes can be paid with scholarships. |
The school's enrollment, for example, is still a number in flux. While the school started out with about 70 students, more have been enrolling after the initial training course began. The goal is to have about 120 students. As of early this week, Detroit Cristo Rey had nearly 100 students enrolled, with more showing interest those who came late will have an opportunity to attend workplace training as school starts.
When a Cristo Rey school is fully functional, the majority of its funds 70 percent come from the students' "salary" from corporate partners; another 15 percent comes from donations and grants; and the remaining 15 percent is covered by a tuition bill of about $2,200.
Work-study model
Classes: Students attend classes four days per week. On every fourth week, they attend classes three days.
Work: The weekdays that the students are not in school, they are employed by a local company, in partnership with the school, doing an entry-level job.
Tuition: The part-time job pays for 70 percent of the student's tuition.
Encouragement: The job also acclimates students to professional workplaces and encourages them to go on to college and pursue careers.
Results: Even in urban areas such as Detroit, where on-time graduation rates languish below 50 percent, Cristo Rey school students graduate about 95 percent of the time. |
But until the school is fully functional, a heftier portion of its funding must come from donors.
While the school met its fundraising goals last fiscal year, a new fiscal year starting in July brought a new fundraising target of $600,000 ("We'll always take more," Robinson quips). Overall, Robinson reports that the financial situation is "going well but it could always serve to be better." Given that Detroit Cristo Rey can't appeal to its alumni, he says the school's hoping to meet with more corporations and people who would invest in the school.
"We would welcome the opportunity to be introduced to individuals who have the resources to give the school substantial financial support," he says. "Now that we're up in operation, the needs are greater."
From finding funds to implementing the curriculum to setting the school's tone spiritually, educators at Detroit Cristo Rey are on new turf, for the most part.
And from getting settled in at both a school and a workplace, to picking team colors and mascots, plenty of challenges lie ahead for students as well.
But, as the students will tell you, they are Cristo Rey. And the challenges? They appear to be looking forward to them.
"With public schools, they give you what they can," says Hryzodub. "But a college prepatory is really going to push you to be like a college student. I want that. I want that challenge.
I really can't wait to be challenged to do my best and try my hardest. Because I know I can but I've never had that person there to tell me, 'You have to.'"
To learn more about Detroit Cristo Rey High School, the Cristo Rey network, or to become a donor, visit www.detroitcristorey.org, info@detroitcristorey.org, or call (313) 843-2747. The school accepts online donations on its Web site, and donations in the form of stocks.
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