Raya Young - Cristo Rey San Jose
As the new academic quarter begins at Santa Clara, I begin my thirteenth week at Cristo Rey as an intern for the Work Study program. This week was spring break for the Cristo Rey students, but by no means does that warrant a break for us. The Work Study team has come in every day of the week, prepared for a full day of planning, coordinating, and preparing as usual. At this point in the year, there are a mere seven students who have yet to be placed into a company for work. This is a huge accomplishment, in my opinion, considering the tremendous time and effort that went into placing over 200 students into jobs.
It hasn’t been easy, that’s for sure, but the Work Study team has put in an incredible amount of work to ensure that these kids receive jobs. Our next task is to focus on next year’s incoming freshmen. We’ve conducted interviews, held an extensive admissions screening exam, and given tours and information sessions to a myriad of hopeful 8th graders.
Next year, Cristo Rey’s student body will increase even more as a whole new class of freshmen arrive. For the Work Study program, this means that there is a lot of work ahead of us. There will be a new freshmen class for which we have the responsibility of finding jobs. For our program coordinators, this means going on numerous site visits (visiting companies where our students work and conversing with the students’ supervisors). I was fortunate enough to attend one of these site visits, witnessing one of our students in action.
On these site visits, a big component is gauging the company’s feelings toward our work study program and finding out if the company is willing to renew their contract for another year. If a company does not wish to renew, that means there is more work ahead of us, since we’ll have to find new companies for our new students. It will turn out to be a lot of hard work but it will be absolutely worth it to see an entire new class of excited, eager young freshmen, ready to work.