Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School & Corporate Work Study Program
Don Bosco Cristo Rey’s Corporate Work Study Program provides our high schoolers with real-world job experience – preparing them for future careers - while simultaneously earning a portion of their tuition. This once in a lifetime experience empowers and enables college-bound under-resourced students to succeed in the professional workspace. It is an integral part of their educational experience at DBCR and what makes DBCR so unique.
We recognize that the COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed the way businesses work and some of our job partners aren’t open, have had to furlough or let go of their own staff, and many are financially struggling themselves. It’s been impressive to see that during these tough times our corporate partners are still finding ways they can help –we have partners sponsoring job teams even if students can’t physically go to the office this year, we have some students on site – following safety measures – and gaining that first-hand knowledge, we have partners make donations to the school when they can’t sponsor their full job team, and we have job teams creatively mentoring students virtually.
The skills that the students are learning in their job teams are life-changing. Let me give you an example of a student who I was talking to this week....
"A senior, who had the opportunity to work in Information Technology during his freshman year, has expressed an interest in pursuing a career in computer science as a result. His job team is unable to be in person this year due to the pandemic. Instead, he has been enrolled in a 10-week program with Accenture learning about the consulting world and being mentored in career-building skills. This has given him even more excitement in pursuing a career in computer science and he’s applied to colleges with that in mind."
This is just one example of the many stories of how our work study partners are still supporting our students during this challenging time. They are shaping our students’ goals and are actively helping them achieve their dreams.
