“Cristo Rey New York” embroidered onto a bronze plate was the first thing I noticed when I walked up the stone steps leading to the oak double doors of my new high school. Like many schools in the city, Cristo Rey did not resemble a traditional high school building but rather an apartment complex. Nonetheless, Cristo Rey was unlike any other high school in the city. Cristo Rey is a college preparatory Catholic high school founded around a Corporate Work Study Program. Students, such as a myself, spent once a week interning at multinational corporations gaining an immense deal of poise and work experience at a very young age. With 98% of Cristo Rey’s student body being Black and Latino, they serve as a crucial pipeline of diversity for many of Cristo Rey’s participating Corporations.
At the age of just 14, I began my first job working as an intern for Sidley Austin, a law firm, in Times Square. I remember being extremely shy and mentally-shaking on my first day at Sidley because I have never had a job before, especially at such a prestige law firm. Fully…show more content… Growing up, I was always walking distance from school so there was no need for me to take public transportation. But once high school started, it became my only option. Memorizing which trains I had to take and whether I was going uptown or downtown was very confusing my first few weeks. But once I was able to get the hang of it, I began to feel like a true New Yorker. From never taking public transportation to the MTA becoming a daily requirement, one learns a lot about their environment. After years of taking the MTA, I have learned the best times to catch a train, dealing with MTA delays, the best routes, and finding the best seat on a train cart for a particular stop. Nonetheless, the MTA has shed a light on social classes simply based on the time of day and train stops.
