Cristo Rey Jesuit 2021-2022 Impact Report

Dear Friends of Cristo Rey,

As a proud Jesuit institution, each year, we aim to graduate Men and Women for Others. This legacy spans decades, as Jesuit schools around the world embrace the “Graduate at Graduation” characteristics that every student should embody in pursuit of this holistic development. Our Director of School Mission, Maria Luevano-Salazar ’01 shares more on the opposite page.

During the 2021-2022 school year, this common goal was uniquely pursued at Cristo Rey. While most Jesuit institutions pursue five “Grad at Grad” characteristics, we also add “Work Experienced” to the criteria. Everything we do at Cristo Rey encourages students to live these values, and to embrace a life lived for and with others. This report highlights initiatives led by our students, faculty, staff, and alumni.

Being fully back in person after the pandemic hiatus was the ultimate highlight of the 2021-2022 school year, and I was reminded daily of the joy of being together in the same building once again. Our community has never been stronger—we started the year above our budgeted goal for CWSP partnerships, welcomed back important Cristo Rey traditions such as the Our Lady of Guadalupe Mass and ¡VIVA! gala, and ended with higher than average student GPAs and our largest graduating class.

Thank you for your role in our school’s mission. It’s been a long road to build back our community after the pandemic, and your support allowed us to pursue the greater good and prepare the next generation of People for Others.

Gratefully,

President, Cristo Rey Jesuit High School

Dear Friends of Cristo Rey,

At Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, we aim to provide our students with an exemplary college preparatory education. We use our unique Corporate Work Study Program to both partially fund our operating costs and to provide our students with practical skills. While making sure our graduates are intellectually competent and have relevant work experience is important, our goal is actually much bigger; we strive to shape Men and Women for Others. To accomplish that overarching goal, we need to offer a complete Jesuit educational experience and ensure our students graduate as religious and loving individuals who are open to personal growth and committed to social justice. Everyone at the school is keenly focused on instilling these critical values in our students so they can make a difference once they leave our doors. It’s a big task and the Board is highly confident the leadership, faculty, and staff of our school are up to the challenge.

So, how are we doing? After a couple of years of navigating through the pandemic, last year was time to build back community. We are proud to state that the entire student body was in person for the entire year, a rare set of circumstances in education. We were able to graduate 131 seniors, the largest class in the history of our school. And, once again, every senior was accepted by a college and had the opportunity to continue their education. That will have a positive and lasting impact on the lives of our graduates, forever. Most importantly, these young people are ready to be Men and Women for Others. Thank you for your continued interest in and support of Cristo Rey!

Dominick Zarcone Chair, Cristo Rey Jesuit High School Board of Directors

Antonio Ortiz

Men and Women for Others

The impact of Cristo Rey Jesuit High School as told through our Jesuit values: Director of School Mission and Cristo Rey Jesuit alumna Maria Luevano-Salazar ‘01 explains Cristo Rey Jesuit High School’s Graduate at Graduation characteristics.

The Graduate at Graduation or “Grad at Grad” is a unique concept that was created by school leaders from the Society of Jesus in 1980 to represent the five key characteristics of a graduate at graduation from a Jesuit high school. All Jesuit high schools instill these characteristics throughout a student’s education as pillars of a Jesuit institution. Cristo Rey Jesuit High School follows this tradition and encourages our students to prepare for their lives as Men and Women for Others by embodying these characteristics. In addition, we have added a sixth characteristic to reflect the integral role of the Corporate Work Study Program as part of our model. The sixth characteristic is Work Experienced, emphasizing the unique opportunity that students have to gain work experience throughout their four years at Cristo Rey.

At the end of each school year, faculty and staff nominate students in each grade level who best exemplify the Grad at Grad characteristics. The winners are recognized and celebrated during the graduation ceremony. For a pair of seniors who best demonstrate all six Grad at Grads, Cristo Rey proudly awards the Man and Woman for Others awards. We encourage our students to live these characteristics during their time at Cristo Rey Jesuit and beyond, in their lives as proud alumni.

In the pages that follow, each Grad at Grad is highlighted alongside some memorable school accomplishments from 2021-2022.

A brief quote from the Cristo Rey Jesuit Grad at Grad statements gives context into how each characteristic is incorporated into our mission.

OUR VISION

The reason for the school’s existence is to advance the human and intellectual capacities, as well as the religious and cultural heritage, of the immigrant families it serves. Through its Corporate Work Study Program, faith-based college preparatory education, and Spanish heritage language curriculum, the goal is to prepare students to succeed in college and to assume leadership roles in the civic, religious, business, and cultural life of our city and nation. As committed alumni of a Jesuit high school, graduates become Men and Women for Others who are open to growth, religious, committed to justice, loving, intellectually competent, and work experienced

Class of 2022 Persons for Others

Isbeth Bustos and Alberto Ignot

To and Through College

By Reina Garcia '07, Director of College Counseling

Under Reina’s leadership, college access, enrollment, and persistence has improved significantly. Alumni college graduation rates now exceed the national completion rate for the highest income quartile in America (62%). The Class of 2016 boasts 63% college completion, with 55% earning a bachelor’s degree within six years.

consider many factors including selectivity, affordability, graduation rates, and location.

Open to Growth

92%

college enrollment for the Class of 2021

“The graduate of Cristo Rey Jesuit High School is confident, inquisitive, reflective, motivated, and flexible. He or she views learning as a lifelong pursuit, inside and outside the classroom….Ultimately, the Cristo Rey graduate learns to seek out new challenges and opportunities to enrich his or her experience or perspective be it religiously, socially, culturally, emotionally, or intellectually.” 131 students in the Class of 2022, our largest graduating class

Cristo Rey Jesuit High School’s approach to college counseling embraces the open to growth Grad and Grad characteristic through active engagement with students and families. Starting freshman year, students participate in quarterly seminars in hopes of empowering them with the knowledge needed to access and persist through four-year colleges that match their achievements, needs, and ambitions. Families are seen as allies in this work and invited to learn alongside their children through workshops and one on one meetings. Our goal is to help students and families build confidence and understand that their background is a strength.

The College Counseling Department pushes seniors to seek new opportunities and to be open to stepping out of their comfort zone. As a department, we use enrollment, persistence and completion data to inform college list development and selection. Senior college list expectations

We support and encourage students in choosing a post-secondary institution that provides them with the best opportunity to graduate with a bachelor’s degree within six years. Because of our multitiered support and high expectations, the class of 2021 exceeded expectations and 88% of students enrolled in a four-year institution immediately after graduating from Cristo Rey.

We believe all alumni should be Men and Women for Others and assume leadership roles in the civic, religious, business, and cultural life of our city and nation after high school graduation. To this end, we provide support to students to help them develop a post-graduation plan that best allows them to share their talents and interests while pursuing competitive job placement.

The Manager of Alumni Support engages with our young alumni to help them develop this plan. We are proud of our most recent college completion data for the class of 2016: 55% of them have earned a bachelor’s degree, while 8% of them have earned an associate degree. We hope that by encouraging our alumni to remain open to growth, they will continue pushing past college graduation barriers to become leaders of our school and communities.

Religious

“The Cristo Rey graduate has a sincere and deep sense of God’s presence and love in his or her life….The graduate of Cristo Rey appreciates the rich religious gifts of his or her family, community and culture and is also eager to build on those in an ever deepening and personal way.”

Murals at Cristo Rey Jesuit

The Cristo Rey community returned to campus in August 2021 after nearly 17 months apart due to the pandemic. The physical building got some practical updates, including a new HVAC system, a remodeled lobby, the transformation of the former media center into the Purcell Innovation Center, and refreshed paint and carpeting. Perhaps the most exciting update was the addition of four murals around campus. Pilsen is a neighborhood known for its vibrant and culturally relevant street art, and Cristo Rey wanted to bring that energy into the building. Students worked with locally-based, nationally-renowned artists to develop artwork that reflected their experiences.

Our Lady of Guadalupe Celebration

Each December 12th, the entire Cristo Rey community, plus hundreds of parents, alumni, donors, and neighbors, come together to honor La Virgen de Guadalupe and celebrate the students’ Mexican heritage and culture. This event is one of the most anticipated days of the year, and honors La Virgen de Guadalupe’s appearance to indigenous Mexican peasant Juan Diego in Tepayac. The mass is preceded with dances by the Ballet Folklorico group, music by the Latin Ensemble and freshmen pan flute group, an acknowledgement of the Indigenous cultures of Mexico, and a student-led dramatic reenactment of Mary’s appearance. At the conclusion, the Club de Padres provides traditional breakfast for all attendees and more music and dancing continues the celebration.

Committed to Justice

“As a leader and role model, the Cristo Rey graduate speaks out, and when necessary he or she takes action….The graduate is ready to lead, especially by example. The graduate understands that some of life’s most worthwhile endeavors are neither easy nor comfortable. The graduate of Cristo Rey also believes that justice is necessary for equality, respect, and love.”

Magaly H. is a senior and the 2022 winner of the “Committed to Justice” award. She completed her service hours at Pilsen Solidarity Network and reflected on her award saying, “Seeing families get big smiles after receiving what they need is so inspiring to continue doing service work. I’m grateful that Cristo Rey gives us this opportunity of learning and giving and being men and women for others.”

Kevin E. is a sophomore and spends a few hours each week assisting the clergy and staff at St. Paul’s parish in Pilsen, where his family are parishioners. Kevin says that, “doing service for my school and serving my community helps me connect with the people around me and learning to be a better person in the future and being a role model for younger generations.”

100% Vaccination

With the pandemic still prevalent in Chicago and the communities where our students live, Cristo Rey prioritized mask wearing and vaccinations ahead of the 2021- 2022 school year. Through family education, onsite vaccine clinics, and support from local hospitals, Cristo Rey boasted 100% community vaccination on the first day of school; the only Catholic school in Chicago and one of few Cristo Rey Network schools to require and achieve full vaccination.

Cristo Rey also partnered with local clinics to provide regular testing for students, faculty and staff. As a result, community spread remained low throughout the year, even through the winter omicron spike. This allowed students and their families to stay healthy with no interruptions to their schooling.

97% of students identify as Catholic

8,185 total student service hours

Celebrating Cristo Rey Jesuit

The ¡VIVA! gala returned in-person in May 2022 to an enthusiastic, sold-out reception of donors, alumni, CWSP partners, friends, faculty, and staff. With over 330 in attendance, we raised nearly $600,000 towards our Annual Fund. Each year, ¡VIVA! earnings help fill the gap in Cristo Rey’s funding model and supports nearly every aspect of school operations.

For many alumni in attendance, being at ¡VIVA! was a full-circle moment. Over 10% of attendees were alumni who came to the event as representatives of their employers, religious clergy, Board of Directors members, volunteers, and school employees.

An addition to the celebration this year was a special performance by the Ballet Folklorico student dance group. The group opened the event and provided attendees with a spirited taste of student programming and the heritage that means so much to our students. After a decade-long hiatus, four dedicated faculty members (including two alumni who

participated with they were students) came together with a dozen students to learn traditional Mexican and Latin American dances. The group practiced twice weekly leading up to a debut performance at the Our Lady of Guadalupe Mass and Celebration in December. They performed alongside student musicians and actors to pay homage to La Virgen de Guadalupe, one of the most spiritual and festive days in the Mexican tradition.

Loving

“Working the ¡VIVA! gala was a full circle moment; I could finally be a part of something that positively impacts an organization that has done so much for me. I was genuinely humbled when Cristo Rey reached out to me about the opportunity, and I am forever thankful for it. Cristo Rey forever changed my life, and I am so proud to be an alum of a school that creates scholars, leaders, and, most importantly, men and women for others.”

- Martin Arredondo ‘12, Owner, Dazzle Events

“The graduate of Cristo Rey has a healthy love of self, rooted in deep self-respect and confidence in his or her own gifts and talents. The graduate is aware that a full life involves loving other human beings as much as oneself, and he or she values the uniqueness of each relationship. The graduate sees his or her own way of loving as a response to God’s gifts and heeds the call to demonstrate that love through service and dedication to others. The graduate is generous with his or her time and talents, and strives to share his or her gifts with others.”

Intellectually Competent

“The Cristo Rey graduate has…a mastery of thinking, reasoning and cognitive skills and habits. The graduate constantly thinks across disciplines and cultures, always maintaining a deep respect for wisdom and truth…The Cristo Rey graduate is expected to assume enthusiastically his or her role as a lifelong learner who savors the rich opportunities that the world provides…”

Student Success & Retention

In 2019, Cristo Rey embarked on the most recent strategic plan, “El Futuro,” with a focus on three pillars for school growth. Within the academic pillar, Cristo Rey envisioned elevating academics and increasing student retention. Over the past five years, Cristo Rey’s four-year student retention rate has averaged 70%. This means that the typical incoming freshman class of 180 graduates four years later with 125 students, a loss of student potential and of valuable resources used to invest in students. The goal for school year 2023-2024 is to maintain an 85% four-year student retention rate and maintain a class size of 145. With that goal in mind, academic leaders focused on reducing the course failure rate to 1% from the starting average of 5% and increasing average GPAs for all great levels to a “college ready” benchmark of 3.0.

To succeed, Cristo Rey embarked on the following project components:

• Summer Bridge: The Class of 2025 participated in a three-week Summer Bridge program which included academic courses, Executive Functioning programming, and social-emotional evaluation.

• Expanded Student Success Team: The Student Success Team was charged with coordinating the entire academic success and retention programming.

• Response to Intervention (RTI): RTI is a data-forward, structured, multi-tiered approach to help identify and support

struggling students. It focuses on providing high-quality instruction and interventions at three tiers.

• Executive Functioning Programming: The holistic Executive Functioning course integrates executive functioning skill-building and social-emotional wellness.

• Faculty Professional Development: Cristo Rey expanded faculty PD from a half day per month to a full day per month, allowing for more teacher education and department collaboration.

The timing of these initiatives was accelerated due to the pandemic’s effects on student academic and social-emotional wellness, but the early results make it clear that this type of whole-person education and support is necessary for all students going forward. After just the first semester of the project, the current freshmen GPA rose to 3.12, over the college-ready threshold, and course failure rate was 2.8%. There is no doubt that the pandemic has impacted our students in many ways, and Cristo Rey takes the responsibility of educating, caring for, and preparing our students for college and beyond very seriously, and will continue to be agile and holistic in these efforts.

Funding from the Crowell & Moring Foundation, Helen Brach Foundation, and the Cristo Rey Network supported this project.

Work Experienced

“Through the Cristo Rey Corporate Work Study Program, the Cristo Rey graduate has learned to be a dependable, responsible worker of integrity with high ethical standards…Work offers the opportunity to discover and demonstrate personal talent both as stewards and as leaders…the Cristo Rey graduate recognizes the dignity of work, its integral connection to justice, and the choices he or she has to create a better society.”

Remote Work

Of the more than 300 students deployed to jobs at 110 companies and non-profits, 16% worked remotely full-time. Cristo Rey’s new home for the CWSP, the Purcell Innovation Center (PIC), opened in Fall 2021 to accommodate remote workers and students in training.

Giselle worked remotely from the PIC for CWSP partner National Equity Fund.

The Corporate Work Study Program (CWSP) continues to grow after the pandemic caused major disruptions to job partnerships and operations. The value of the CWSP is apparent—both for students as they prepare for their careers, and for partners as they recruit for the next generation of the workforce.

In 2021-2022, CWSP job partnerships increased from a pandemic dip, and 75% of upperclassmen were deployed to jobs. The remaining students, including all freshmen, took professional development courses, including Microsoft Excel certification.

“I work for the Accounting & Finance team with the National Equity Fund. In my role, I am responsible for reviewing monthly legal revenues, temporary investments, and Bank Reconciliation signatures. For the past several weeks I have been working on project to help the company review their fee revenue. I have helped create over 200 template documents for 2022 to prepare the team for an entire year’s worth of information to be updated every quarter. Since my company completes the fee revenue process every quarter, my work helps makes the whole process run smoother and faster saving my team time effort. Working for the National Equity Fund and having big projects has taught me how to maintain focus and persistence, which I apply not only at at work but also at school.”

Financial Statement 2021-2022

In spite of the challenging operating environment, the school’s financial position has continued to fare well, largely through the generous support of our Corporate Work Study partners, many other generous supporters of the Cristo Rey mission, and grants received through government programs.

In my business our purpose is to help make our clients’ ambitions a reality. At Cristo Rey, I also have the opportunity to see the Cristo Rey team, and generous supporters, similarly focused: making our students’ dreams a reality. The impact that a faith-based, college preparatory, education has on our students is life altering, both for the students and their families. We’ve recently celebrated our 27th anniversary as a school and are starting to see greater engagement from our talented alumni; and it brings great joy to see how successful they’ve become. Know that your support goes a long way in continuing this mission, and in continuing to make the dreams of so many a reality.

— P AUL CAREY, CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER, CIBC BANK USA FINANCE CHAIR, CRISTO REY BOARD OF DIRECTORS

In 2021-2022, Cristo Rey:

• maintained the same requested family contribution to tuition ($2,950) as we have for the past 10+ years.

• awarded $200,000 more in financial aid to students in Fiscal Year 2022, up 30% from Fiscal Year 2021.

• increased funding to alumni in college with $28,000 in College Retention funding, up from $9,000 last year.

• invested 20% more in faculty and staff professional development.

• deployed 200+ new personal computing devices to students, faculty, and staff to upgrade existing technology.

• created a new arm of the Corporate Work Study Program to develop student training initiatives and integrate work skills into classrooms.

FISCAL YEAR 2022 SUMMARY

CWSP $3,257,151 Advancement 4,622,480

Tuition & fees 580,933 Endowment 613,550 Other Income* 2,371,206

TOTAL REVENUE $11,445,320

Salaries & benefits $5,907,571

Operating expenses 1,958,558 Communications 88,237 Transportation 235,088 Technology 290,118 Facilities 666,833 Fundraising 80,854

TOTAL EXPENSE $9,227,259

CAPTIAL EXPENDITURE $479,401

* Paycheck Protection Program Loan Forgiveness & Employee Retention Tax Credit. These Covid-relief programs are one-time income items contributing to the budget surplus and will not inform future budgets.

DONATE. ADVOCATE. VOLUNTEER.

To make a donation, visit our website www.cristorey.net, mail a check, or call us at (773) 890-6800. To include us in your estate, investment, and retirement planning or to make a tribute gift, contact Morgan Collier, Executive Vice President, at mcollier@cristorey.net or (773) 890-6818.

To become a Corporate Work Study partner, contact Maureen McInerney at mmcinerney@cristorey.net or (773) 890-6820.

Cristo Rey Jesuit High School is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.

Our Mission

Cristo Rey Jesuit High School provides a Catholic, college preparatory education and professional work experience to students from Spanish speaking families with limited financial means.

Nuestra Misión

Cristo Rey Jesuit High School ofrece una educación católica, preparatoria para la universidad y experiencia laboral profesional a estudiantes de familias de habla hispana con medios financieros limitados.

1852 West 22nd Place, Chicago, IL 60608

www.cristorey.net