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“I am not sure if I should be saying this” is how one of our senior student representatives began a comment of hers at our fall board meeting as she addressed our governance board members. We have a practice where the governance board invites members of the community to our board meetings to share their experiences and perspectives. At this board meeting, we invited a student to address the group. You can bet that, as President, after I heard her start her comment in this way, I sat up a little closer to the table to await what the student said next. She hesitated to share her comment with the group because she admitted that when she participated in Cristo Rey Jesuit’s Corporate Work Study Program (CWSP) as a freshman, she didn’t like going to her job. In fact, she mentioned she “dreaded” going to work as a freshman. She had a difficult time connecting the skills and experience she was gaining to the bigger vision she had for her life. Consequently, the student didn’t find the work experience meaningful and even began to dislike it after a while.
Thankfully, the student continued on to explain that her experience has evolved over the four years she has participated in the CWSP and that her senior year was the best year yet. She always wanted to experience the healthcare field, and she spoke about the opportunity Cristo Rey’s work study program offered her over the summer and in her senior year as a Certified Nursing Assistant. She said her experience as a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) confirmed that she wanted to go to college to study nursing following her graduation from Cristo Rey Jesuit. The meaning and connection that this student finally found in her Cristo Rey work assignment as a CNA represents our Corporate Work Study Program at its best. We are determined to help all of our students find this same connection and meaning with their career interests in their time at Cristo Rey Jesuit.
As part of our recently adopted strategic plan, we are focusing on career development opportunities, rather than just job experience. Recently, we hosted our first ever career day at Cristo Rey Jesuit. We surveyed students to ensure we had speakers who represented the students' career interests. Then, we invited representatives from companies and organizations who participate in our CWSP to address students' questions on their career experiences. The student body was grouped by industry interest area and heard from twenty different career representatives from law, health sciences, banking, human services, public safety/corrections, and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). These career exploration opportunities allow students to reflect and discuss their aspirations. Then, CWSP can allow them to experience the profession first-hand to truly understand the day to day industry experience.
Cristo Rey Jesuit’s Corporate Work Study Program has long been a powerful tool for student learning and growth. In fact, sometimes the learning experiences outside of the classroom can be just as impactful as what happens in the classroom. In this season of Thanksgiving, we are grateful to all of our Corporate Work Study Partners, and especially the representatives who took time to help our students reflect on their career ambitions. It is this reflection combined with the work experiences that our CWSP partners provide that ultimately creates more meaningful jobs, more engaged students, and more satisfied work study partners...and work that is a lot less "dreadful"!
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