How a small OKC Catholic high school gives students space to dream big

Law offices, energy companies, the Oklahoma City Zoo and the offices of criminal justice partners are not the places you typically expect to find high school students outside of the classroom.

But beginning in their freshman year, students of Cristo Rey OKC Catholic High School are introduced to a work-study program that begins molding their view of the business world and shaping their plans for the future. As an added bonus, students build a network of professional contacts for after high school.

Current and former Cristo Rey students said they see the program impacting their lives in a variety of ways.

Cristo Rey currently serves 240 students in ninth through 12th grades, and all of them participate in the work-study program, said Kurt Primuth, corporate work study director.

The work-study program provides a major part of the school's funding.

"Without the work-study program, this place, we'd have to shut the doors, so that's how important it is for the kids to be a part of this," Primuth said. "The four years that they're here at school, they have the ability to see many different things."

In their time in the program, students may work with as many as four companies, or with some, a corporate partner and student may agree to continue building upon an already established relationship. Students who return to the same partner for multiple years often are given expanded roles and more responsibilities and are sometimes invited to take part in major projects.

"Some people don't graduate college with four years of software development experience, let alone high school," said senior Jacob Woolbright, who has spent all four years placed with the same company. "It's amazing, and nobody expects it."

Students work five days a month, with each grade assigned to work a specific day of the week — Monday through Thursday — and rotating teams working one Friday a month. The school covers the costs of transportation, lunch, insurance and other necessary expenses, so students just have to show up ready to work, one of the things Primuth says he looks for when he's interviewing possible incoming freshmen.

"They're really setting themselves up for down the line," Primuth said. "This is the first time they get to see the corporate world and be a part of it, and as they progress in that, they really get to be a part of the team."

Students develop expertise while demonstrating skills they already have

For the students at Cristo Rey, their time with the school's corporate partners blends chances to learn numerous skills that employers look for in future permanent hires.

Sophomore Isabella Grisales, who goes by Bella, is working in IT at the Oklahoma City Zoo this year after doing clerical work in the insurance industry, for Kemper Health, her freshman year. She has been able to be involved in projects and tasks that improved her digital and technical skills, including professional writing and replacing equipment.

"It's small things, but effective," Bella said. "I've learned honestly quite a lot, more than I thought I would learn from the zoo."

While Bella has really seen an impact to her hard skills, the skills students develop also include soft skills, like the overall improvements to her ability to communicate that junior Keionna Tubbs has learned while working at ReMerge, a nonprofit that serves justice-involved mothers and pregnant women in Oklahoma County.

"I feel like I have an advantage already. It's setting me up to go very far in life," Keionna said.

Students coming from Cristo Rey also have valuable skills the companies they're placed with can use.

"They do a lot of computer programming, online stuff, translation," Primuth said. "We're about 96% Hispanic, so the translation part is pretty big for a lot of these companies."

Program opens doors for education and employment opportunities

Because students get to experience a variety of industries, they try new things and learn what appeals to them and their innate abilities and passions.

"I definitely know now that I prefer a more free job and not an office job," Bella said. "I know what I want now and what works better with how I am."

Keionna, who missed out on a work-study placement freshman year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, worked for American Fidelity doing data entry her sophomore year.

"Being in those different environments, I think it helped me determine what I want to do because I like working in nonprofits more than I do working on the computer," Keionna said.

Keionna hopes to get placed with ReMerge again for her senior year, to further explore the world of nonprofits and work with those who are involved in the justice system.

"I'd like to choose a career path where I'm able to help people, and I'm thinking about going into law school to be a social justice lawyer," Keionna said.

Jonathan Ramos, a 2022 graduate of Cristo Rey, thought life would lead him down a road toward IT and computer programming. He said he saw it as a profitable career that could sustain himself. However, the work-study program quickly helped him see he wasn't suited for "working in that environment."

After a junior year placement in an architecture firm, another field he was able to firmly cross off his list, Ramos was placed at Hall Estill law firm his senior year, and he found a field that suited his passions. Ramos said he credits the work-study program with helping him save money on tuition by helping him find what he wanted to do before he began his college career.

"I just found that a lot more interesting and a lot more doable for me as a job, and something I could actually be passionate about," Ramos said. "It's better to find out sooner rather than later."

Now a freshman at the University of Oklahoma, he plans to finish his undergraduate studies, attend law school and ultimately hopes to become a constitutional lawyer and move on to politics.

Students are surpassing expectations and setting new standards for the future

Some Cristo Rey students shine during their placements and find their passion, while some, like senior Diamond Vazquez, completely break and reshape the mold.

Diamond was placed with the Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office during her junior year. Officials there were so impressed by the job she'd done that they hired her outside the work-study program.

"They even provided me transportation to get over there since I don't have my license," Diamond said. "I was so happy to work with them."

Diamond's excitement about simple things from her time at the sheriff's office, like producing training guides for incoming work-study participants and the confidence the staff has in her, is contagious.

"Helping them out so that they're ready, so when I leave someone can take my place," Diamond said. "It makes me feel great because they're even telling me now that I could come back right after I graduate. But they also really want me to go to college first."

Diamond said her expectations of the sheriff's office and law enforcement were reshaped, as well. She said before working with them, she saw police as the people who "write tickets" and are often portrayed as "bad guys." Working with them, watching them give car seats to people in need and help so many in other ways, she developed an entirely different view of their place in the community and the impact they have.

"It really changed how I thought the police actually were," Diamond said. "They're trying to keep you safe."

Students are setting themselves apart as innovators and future leaders

Others, take a bit of time to find where they're meant to be, but once they do, they make great strides, like senior Arianna Luevano. Arianna has had four placements at different companies within varied industries.

From reception, marketing and payroll within a construction company, to remote data entry for the Chickasaw Nation during COVID-19, and clerical work for the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission, Arianna said all of those skills built upon one another.

However, when she reached her senior-year placement with Devon Energy, it sparked a deeper interest in a field she already was drawn to.

"I really like business aspects of companies I've worked for, as well as the engineering aspects," Arianna said. "Engineering has always been a top study for me, but now I'm looking more into it just because of my placement this year."

Arianna has flourished in her role at Devon, being tasked with completing a project the company is working to have her present before full-time employees.

And some students, like Jacob Woolbright, fall in with a company from the beginning and never look back. Jacob has been placed with Chesapeake Energy all four years at Cristo Rey.

From that placement has grown a symbiotic partnership, sparked by a desire to advance. Jacob's interest began with a fascination with woodworking. When he realized that wasn't a hobby he could afford, he turned to computers. Software development really only required a one-time investment in a computer to open unlimited doors, he said.

His freshman year at Chesapeake, he used skills from that hobby to improve efficiency for the company, and the company took notice.

"They had me doing PDF documents. I was combining them in a certain order and submitting them," Jacob said. "I ended up writing software to automate that process, so what was supposed to take six or seven employees months ended up taking me a week or two."

Jacob said the company moved him to the software development side of things shortly after that project, and he's worked there since. He hopes to go to college for software development and make that his future path with a specific emphasis on machine learning.

Jacob said one of the biggest things he has learned is to advocate for himself and ask for what he wants. He and the others agree on a fairly unified message to underclassmen at the school — take advantage of the program and let it work its magic.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Cristo Rey Catholic High School work-study puts students a step ahead