On June 5, after an exceptional year in our history, the Class of 2021 finally celebrated graduation! At two smaller, socially-distanced ceremonies, faculty and staff welcomed graduates to campus to walk across the stage and collect their diploma – a well-earned and powerful symbol of their hard work and dedication over the last four years.

The Class of 2021 submitted more than 1,400 college applications and received more than 1,000 acceptances to 137 different post-secondary institutions, including: one to Amherst College, two to Boston College, one QuestBridge full scholarship to Bowdoin College, 64 to Dominican University, three to Fordham, four to Georgetown, one to Johns Hopkins, 40 to Loyola University Chicago, two to Macalester College, 28 to Marquette University, two to Middlebury, three to Northwestern, three to Notre Dame, two to Occidental College, 67 to University of Illinois at Chicago, 28 to University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign, seven to University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, four to University of Wisconsin-Madison, and one to Villanova... just to name a few. 

These graduates have already received $11,726,000 in financial awards covering 79% of tuition and fees they plan to attend next school year - 86% four-year institutions - with an average out-of-pocket expense of just $1,927.

Amid uncertain times, one thing is for certain: these hard-working young Men and Women for Others are ready to set the world on fire! 

The 2020-2021 school year, while challenging, provided the Corporate Work Study Program (CWSP) the opportunity to apply new strategies to train and equip students with skills for the jobs of tomorrow. Along with sister Cristo Rey schools, the CWSP joined a nationwide initiative to teach students the fundamentals of Microsoft Excel and to earn the official Microsoft Office Specialist certification.

In this course, students learned foundational skills and practices for effective data management in Excel. Since Excel is used extensively in the business sector, this knowledge will help set these students up for success in their college and career undertakings and future CWSP placements. Over the course of the year, students went from learning basic navigation to applying advanced functions, formulas, charts, and graphs to manage and analyze data efficiently and effectively.

After much preparation, students took the official Microsoft Excel Certification exam in the spring, and we are happy to announce that 200 students are now certified Microsoft Office Specials for Excel! That’s over 75% of all students who participated in the class and over a third of the entire school! We want to congratulate all students who participated, especially those who were certified. The entire Cristo Rey community is so proud of their accomplishments and hard work throughout the year.