Inaugural senior class at Oakland's Cristo Rey De La Salle HS all accepted to 4-year colleges

OAKLAND -- An East Bay high school's graduating class is celebrating quite an achievement: its entire senior class has been accepted to a four-year college.

Cristo Rey De La Salle High School in Oakland's Fruitvale District is where a new model of work and study education proved successful.

The hard work from the students of the class of 2022 has paid off; 50 graduating seniors and 100% college acceptance rate for the school's inaugural class. The school opened its doors in 2018. 

The students at Cristo Rey take part in a school curriculum combining classes with on-the-job professional work experience. The students are employed one day a week at a company to help pay for their tuition.

"My first year,  I worked at Chevron orp in the real estate department and my second year here I worked in [Alameda County DA] victim and family justice center," said Jocelinne Arechida, a graduate now headed to Cal Poly.

"Most of us all a first generation so you wouldn't expect a whole senior class to go to college," added Arechida.

"We serve mostly first-generartion students from disadvantaged backgrounds and they work hard," said the school's college counselor Denise Villalpando.
"Coming here and seeing that exposure to the companies in industries and experience of corporate work-study and responsibility and hard work and striving for greatness ultimately is what led me hear as well as the community and helping represent my community here in Oakland," said Enrique Torres, bound for San Jose State University.

The inaugural graduating class of 2022 has left its mark and is setting the example for other students at the school to follow.

" We did not doubt them. It was just a matter of helping them step-by-step through the process," said college counselor Jessica Mederos 

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