Cristo Rey St. Martin College Prep in Waukegan has one entrance requirement — that students come from a low-income family — and a primary goal — getting students accepted to a four-year college or university.
School President Preston Kendall said that for the past six years, all graduating seniors have been accepted to a four-year school. There is also a requirement while attending the school — working one day a week at a job through the school-arranged work-study program. Some of the money earned covers tuition.
“This way, they have skin in the game,” Kendall said in August, as the school celebrated the start of its 20th year. “Their money goes toward funding the school, and we fundraise to get the rest.”
For Kedar Cortes of Waukegan, who will attend Stanford University in the fall to study quantitative finance, he hopes his job at AbbVie through the work-study program will lead to a full-time career with the North Chicago-based organization.
Cortes said he will be learning how to use quantitative analysis to develop models to create profitability. At AbbVie, he worked on business technology solutions in the information technology department.
“I loved it there,” he said. “I analyzed a lot of data. They gave me some basic work to do, and when they saw what I could do, I was working on the same things as everybody else.”
Cortes was one of 101 students expected to cross the stage at Cristo Rey’s 20th graduation Saturday at the school in Waukegan, as all but one — who will be joining the U.S. Air Force — go to college and hopefully fulfill the American dream.
Kendall said more than 86% of the teens who applied to go to Cristo Rey were accepted. The average family has an annual income of around $45,000. The overall family income level must be 200% or less than the United States poverty level.
Though Kendall said many students enter the school 1½ years behind grade level academically, by the time they finish a summer bridge program, they are where they need to be to succeed. Most are the first generation of their family to go to college.
Graduating seniors Cortes, Edeline Wence, Yeili Castrejon and Cristian Martinez have different career ideas and what the American dream means to them, but they have a variety of things in common.
All four are the children of immigrants, the first generation of their family to go to college — all at elite schools — they all understand hard work, both from their job through the work-study program, and all four are summa cum laude graduates.
Castrejon of Gurnee is heading to Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, to study political science and eventually go to law school. She said she wants to practice immigration law. She and her three siblings have been raised by a single mother.
“I should be able to help her have some of the things she has always wanted,” Castrejon said. “I’m very grateful for what I was able to learn here.”
Wence of Waukegan also plans to practice law, but before that, she intends to study international relations with a minor in literature at American University in Washington, D.C. When she finishes law school, she wants to be a criminal defense lawyer. She said Cristo Rey has helped her define her values.
“The American dream is evolving,” Wence said. “You should always seek to see the good in people, and to serve others.”
Martinez, a North Chicago resident, said he plans to study aerospace and aeronautical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. His career goal is specific — working for NASA in its Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. He credits his parents for his drive.
“My parents always pushed me to keep trying,” Martinez said. “They pushed me to apply to top schools. If you don’t try, it’s a deny.”
When Kendall arrived at Cristo Rey for the 2011-2012 school year, he said only 25% of the graduating class went to college. He set the goal of 100% acceptance, and has achieved that for the past six years. He credits the academic success to Principal Michael Odiotti.
“He takes care of everything (academically), so I can take care of everything else like the work-study program and fundraising,” Kendall said. “We want everyone to see what’s possible.”
