By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium
Cristo Rey Jesuit Seattle High School celebrated its second annual Draft Day last week at Benaroya Hall, where students were matched with corporate work-study partners in a high-energy ceremony modeled after professional sports drafts. The event marked the beginning of an academic year that includes not only college-preparatory coursework but also real-world job experience in some of Seattle’s leading institutions.
Through Cristo Rey’s Corporate Work Study Program, every student works five days a month in a professional setting. These placements help offset tuition while providing hands-on experience in fields such as healthcare, law, education, technology, the arts, and finance.
“Draft Day is the most exciting day of the year for our community,” said Paul Hogan, president of Cristo Rey Jesuit. “Our students are not only beginning their academic year, but also stepping into professional roles where they’ll learn, grow, and see a clear pathway to and through college and lives of purpose and leadership in our region.”
The event drew a full house of families, business leaders, educators, and local officials, all gathered to celebrate the power of opportunity and mentorship. Cristo Rey students were “drafted” one by one by company representatives who will supervise and mentor them over the coming year.
Cristo Rey Jesuit Seattle High School, located in South Seattle’s Rainier Beach neighborhood and operating in the former St. Paul Catholic School building near Kubota Garden, opened in August 2024 with a mission to serve low-income students across South King County. It welcomed its first class of ninth-grade students last year and plans to expand by one grade each year until reaching full enrollment.
“I think our young people are of course, the most important part of what it means to be human and to be passing on the traditions and cultures and the way that we can survive as an economy and as a democracy,” Hogan said. “We know that high-quality education is the only proven pathway out of poverty, and we couple that with faith development, but also with this incredible corporate professional work experience so that when our students go to college—almost all of them are first-gen college-going—they know how to navigate majority-white spaces or corporate spaces.”
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell opened the ceremony with remarks praising Cristo Rey’s unique educational model and its growing role in Seattle’s future workforce development.
This year’s Draft Day featured dozens of Cristo Rey’s corporate partners, including Alaska Airlines, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, University of Washington, Seattle University, PACCAR, Premera, Costco, Providence Health Care, the Woodland Park Zoo, and the Seattle Art Museum. Each company provides mentorship and paid work experience that supports the school’s tuition model while helping students explore potential career paths.
“I think just that we’re getting the word out about these wonderful students and they’re having this incredible opportunity to learn and to be a part of a corporate work environment while also being a member of a Jesuit Catholic high school,” said Vivian Shannon, executive director of the Fulcrum Foundation. “They’re getting development all the way around—academically, work-related, and spiritually. For corporate partners, having these young people in their midst is a gift. It encourages them to reflect on their own impact. These are future leaders of our communities, and now these companies get to help shape them. That’s what I’m most excited about.”
Among those supporting the program was Jeff Frank, an attorney with Buchalter Law Firm, which is participating in Cristo Rey’s work-study initiative for the first time.
“We have an office here in Seattle and we are thrilled to be involved with the Cristo Rey students,” Frank said. “We think it’s a great benefit to the community. It’s a great benefit to the students, who will be working five days a week at our law firm. And it’s great for our employees to collaborate with students who are going to be successful in the future.”
“Because of this program we have confidence—we’ve seen it happen in our other offices—where students have gone through the program and have come back to become lawyers. So, we’re very excited to participate. We think it’s going to be a wonderful thing for everybody. The ultimate win-win,” added Frank.
Students are placed in roles that challenge and stretch them. Alongside gaining technical skills, they develop the confidence and communication abilities needed to thrive in professional settings.
“They know how to advocate for themselves,” Hogan said. “They’ve got tons of confidence, and they also have social capital because they have these supervisors whom you’ll meet today, who fall in love with them, want a remaining relationship with them, give them mentorship.”
“I was going to use a line today. I think I’m going to take it out, but Archimedes said, ‘Give me a solid fulcrum and a lever long enough, and I can move the world,’” Hogan continued.
Bringing energy and polish to the event was longtime Seattle sports broadcaster Jen Mueller, who emceed the ceremony. Her dynamic presentation style transformed the event into a true draft day experience, complete with cheers, music, and heartfelt reactions as students learned where they would spend their work-study hours this year.
The celebration was also deeply emotional for many families in attendance. Leonard Howze, whose daughter Leni Camille Howze was one of the students honored, spoke about how transformative the opportunity is for students and their families.
“It’s important because it lifts a level of confidence in kids to be able to see where they can go and the type of buildings and rooms they can walk into and the level of individuals that they’re qualified to be around and tables that they’re able to sit at because a lot of our kids don’t have that confidence being pushed in them,” Howze said. “Having something like this where our kids [are] getting a corporate job, a kid’s able to get up every morning with a plan and a goal—not just running a rabbit wheel—it’s empowering because it shows the kid that you are going to be somebody. You already are somebody, but there’s people around them now that’s giving that much more push.”
