Students Earn While They Learn at DePaul Cristo Rey

By Robin Gee

Cincinnati has many Catholic high schools. Yet, the newest among them is unique in several ways. Located on Central Parkway, DePaul Cristo Rey started in our area in 2011 and is a part of a network of Cristo Rey schools across the country whose students are at or near the poverty line. It’s exclusively a college prep school with a rigorous curriculum. The rate of students who go on to college is 100%. 

About 300 students attend the school from ninth to 12^th grade. Students in all grades also work. The school’s Corporate Work Study Program connects students with area employers, and their pay helps to offset the cost of tuition. At DePaul Cristo Rey, parents pay between $400 and $500 per year for tuition on average. Funds from the work study program and donations cover the rest.

The first of these schools started in Chicago in the Pilsen neighborhood, and was established by Jesuits in the late 1990s. The model combines strong academics with work experience and is designed to help students who want to go to college but who simply cannot afford it — and cannot afford a high level private school that would help prepare them. A significant number of those students would be the first in their families to attend college. The nationwide network is about to open its 40^th school. 

The Cincinnati high school pulls from all over the city and the surrounding area from Northern Kentucky to Mason, said Margee Garbsch, director of Communications and Marketing. The school’s work study program helps to offset some of the costs but donations from the community play a vital role, she said. 

“It goes back to this community of embrace. We have a campus, for which we did a major renovation…We ran a capital campaign and went over our goal in 18 months raising more than $21 million and building a beautiful campus to house our amazing students with the generosity of this community. And we just believe that in a very short amount of time we are making an impact in Greater Cincinnati with the corporate work study program.”

The Corporate Work Study Program

“We actually have a pretty thorough process for admissions,” said Shermirah Smith, vice president in charge of the Corporate Work Study Program. “We have an admissions team of three. Parents contact the school and would work with one of the admissions coordinators, who would give them an application and go through the process of collecting any test results that are out there from state testing. They’ll walk them through the process of applying for financial aid and things like that.”

Students then take the same high school placement test that is administered by other Catholic high schools in the area, she explained. 

“And then admissions staff gets together with all of the departments in the school to review the student’s file to make sure that they’re a good fit for the program, because it is very unique. You have a college prep curriculum, you have a corporate work study program, and very high expectations that our students will attend college. So there’s a very rigorous process to be admitted. But once that committee decides that a student would be a good fit, there may or may not be an interview and then the student receives an acceptance letter,” she said.

Once the student is admitted, they will be matched with a partner employer and will work one or two days a week. They earn some money for tuition and they gain experience and learn new skills, but the benefits for the student goes way beyond that, said Smith. 

“They can start as freshmen, building up their resumes. We have 85 partners across the city and in Northern Kentucky…They usually start off with very entry level work responsibilities, typical for an office job — scan, copy, file, answer the telephone, greet people, and they work their way through those processes. We’re partnering with GE Aerospace this year so [the students] are doing some pretty remarkable work with them. We have students in most of the major hospitals in Cincinnati, so they are in Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Good Sam, Christ Hospital…Some of them are working as sterile techs, sterilizing surgery equipment. So the jobs really range from front office all the way to hands-on real life job experience.”

Smith continued, “Some of the students can graduate high school with a lot better resume than some adults. They can say ‘as a freshman I worked at KMK Law, or as sophomore I worked at Children’s Hospital or I worked at Ameritas as a junior.’ We’re exposing them to different career options. We’re building up their resume, and really giving them a leg up on other people who are coming out of college with very little experience.”

She listed some of the local businesses who have become partners in the program: Western Southern, US Bank, GE Aerospace, Children’s Hospital, Good Samaritan Hospital, Christ Hospital, Bartlett Wealth Management. 

The work study corporate partners

Ryan Dunlap is chief financial officer at Triversity Construction, a full-service construction company in Walnut Hills. They provide construction management services with a focus on commercial projects. His company hosted one student worker last year, and this year they have two. 

The company got involved because Siobhan Taylor, president and CEO of DePaul Cristo Rey, had reached out to Triversity, Dunlap said. He had worked with her students at another company and was familiar with the program. 

“I’m a big proponent of what they promote and so I was very eager to join…As soon as I realized there was a good fit, I jumped on that opportunity,” he said.

He said his company put together a plan provide the students a variety of work areas and experiences.

“The primary responsibilities are generally in what we call our corporate functions — our risk and compliance, our accounting group and IT, as well as our administrative functions. What we’ve done is actually create a rotation for them to get a little bit of exposure to different aspects of our business…We let each department manager know you’ll have this student for this time period. Here’s their skill sets and the type of work that generally fits their interests…and then [the managers] design the work that needs to be done. So, in accounting, the students were very instrumental in processing our accounts payable invoices. In the IT area they help on what I’d call our help desk whenever people are having computer issues. Then, in risk and compliance, it’s certificate tracking to ensure that all of our projects are remaining in compliance and, if they’re not, following up with our team to make sure that we get the appropriate certificates.”

The company is slowly developing their program with Cristo Rey, he said. 

“My concern is making sure that we have a good experience for the students as well as for our employees. So we’re growing into a full program, but the first year was awesome. It was so great that we actually hired the student. When he graduated in May, we hired him for the summer, until he went to college at NKU. And then, when he was on break from college, he came and worked for us… We’ve been enjoying working with him, and he’s enjoyed us, and it’s been a great relationship,” he said.

The program works to help students learn about different areas and meet people working in those areas. 

“You are exposing them to different fields of study, too. Until you actually have an opportunity to practice a specific discipline, it’s just all theory. Our first student Mike, when he came to us, he didn’t really know what he’d want to do in college. But, after his experience with us, he declared for accounting with an emphasis on IT. It helped him get more clear on his skills sets and what he finds interesting, giving him a flavor for it in the real world,” Dunlap said.

Cristo Rey provides the transportation to and from works, as well as supplies the students with lunch to bring. This resulted in no issues with the students getting to work on time and being ready for work each day, he said. Students start at the school each day and are dropped off at the work sites. They are picked up to return to the school at the end of the day.

A full program, Dunlap said, would be four students. Ideally, with four students, they would rotate one student per day and on the fifth day rotate one of them back to cover the extra day each week. In that way, the company gets full coverage for the week while each student works only one or two days. 

As Smith pointed out, this means students at Cristo Rey must meet the same academic requirements as those in other schools but must do that in four, rather than five school days. 

Supporting students and helping to train the future

Dunlap said the DePaul Cristo Rey program has been great for his company in many ways. 

“One, it’s a been a tremendous asset for us in that having our employees be able to mentor or manage these students has been a very positive thing for us. It helps [employees] learn that skill, and know how to interact with the upcoming generation, as we move forward in our businesses. And, two, [the students] are actually doing actual work,” he said.

“You’re supporting an amazing organization and amazing students. There’s certainly an investment there, but you’re getting productive employees that are reliable, are eager to learn and are very dependable, as long as you have the right support systems in place to make sure they know what they’re doing and the expectations are clear. A third thing would be you’re developing a clear talent pipeline. For example, with Mike, we intend to keep in contact with him, and when he graduates, we want to hire him. We’ve already told him that …I think it’s another mechanism to build your talent pipeline for the future.”

For the students

Smith said that one added benefit of the program is the confidence it builds.

“They usually come in as freshmen very excited, but also a little nervous about the opportunity… full of excitement and wonder and nerves, but as they go through the program, by the sophomore and junior year, you really start to see them evolve. Everything about them, their confidence level skyrockets. The way they view themselves as young professionals, it changes the students’ model of what they want to major in college or what they want to do. We’ve had students inspired to completely change their major, “ she said.

Yet, even if they don’t go into the field that they worked in, the experiences open them up to opportunities.

“The networking experience is what drives our students. They absolutely love their supervisors and mentors at these workplaces. We have our supervisors from these partners show up to graduation, to sporting events. The relationship with the mentors they develop is really what drives the students. They may be doing the most mundane work but love their job because they love the people they work with. Our students are really excited about those opportunities.

DePaul Cristo Rey is located at 3440 Central Parkway. For more on the school, go to depaulcristorey.org. To learn more about partnering your business with the school’s Corporate Work Study Program, click on the link on the homepage for details. 

Pictured downtown are (left to right): DPCR juniors Urias, Koudiedja, Julie and Daniel.