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Leavey School of Business Santa Clara University

Community Fellows Blog Posts

Patrick McQueen: Looking to the Future

Patrick talks about his highlights working at Cristo Rey.

This quarter at Cristo Rey, I have continued to work in the counseling office where I finalize summer placements for students who were accepted into a number of different programs across the country.  Most notably, we were able to complete the fundraising process for the Wishbone program. Wishbone is a platform where students are able to complete an online workshop that matches them up with three programs, where they then apply, contribute $99 out of pocket, and are put up on the Wishbone website where their programs are fully funded.  This quarter, a major part of my work was drafting grant requests and invitations to the Cristo Rey Enrichment Fund, that was able to contribute over $7000 to the Wishbone program. This year, we were able to send 14 students to fully funded programs throughout the Bay Areaー a huge leap from last year’s two students that participated in the Wishbone program.  Furthermore, one highlight of this process was the ability to meet with two high-level Wishbone representatives who we worked with along the way. At this meeting, we gained a great deal of insight about the program and their plans for future expansion. We were also able to give them feedback on the structure of the program from our point of view along with suggestions on how to improve for next year.  Overall, it was fantastic to be able to work with such dedicated people and to see the entire process successfully unfold, thus allowing 14 students to enjoy an entirely new and enriching summer experience.

Aside from the students who participated in Wishbone, there were a significant number of other students who were accepted to other summer enrichment programs across the country.  Among many, one of the top programs students were accepted to was the Georgetown summer program, where Cristo Rey will be sending 4 students this upcoming summer. For both me and Mr. Hicks, my supervisor, sending four students to a program at Georgetown is a major highlight for the year, and excites us both about how these students will now be able to describe their experiences when the time comes to apply to colleges the following year.  Lastly, one of my highlights from my year at Cristo Rey was the opportunity to sit down and meet with the school chancellor, Father Pabst, who gave me a great deal of advice on my life after college. He described his early years after graduation and we discussed what he thought my next few years would be like in the Bay Area. Furthermore, he was able to connect me with a good friend of his at a company I had interest in working for, and was able to set up a meeting for us.  In this way I am very thankful for being able to meet Father Pabst and am excited to see where this connection may take me. Overall, he was very helpful and good to get to know, which I believe speaks to the mission and goals of Cristo Rey as a whole.

 

NPI, NPI Fellows