It's funny you ask that, 'cause I tell everybody about it.

What grade your kid in?

Okay, they need to go to Holy Family, 'cause Holy Family takes care of the kids.

They've got a great program.

They actually not only, like I said, the religion, the education part, and the work study.

Those three together do the whole environment for the kid.

There's not just one component.

All of it's needed together.

[Michael] Funding for this program comes from Michael and Karen Luce, as well as Hoar Construction, with additional support from the American Advertising Federation of Roanoke.

They're not the rich and famous.

Their profit comes not from the thing they sell, but the good they do.

Our nation has more than 1.5 million nonprofits that employ one out of 10 Americans, providing services that otherwise go unfulfilled, keeping our community connected when all else fails.

But nonprofits often lack the tools to properly promote themselves, to inspire more donors and volunteers and clients to their cause.

That's where I come in.

I've been at the nonprofit world for nearly 20 years.

I connect nonprofits with marketing professionals, who donate their time and expertise so that at the end of the day, these life-giving organizations can do more, do better, by creating more, that's right, buzz.

(upbeat music) -P1, V1.

-P1, V1, all over T1 is equal to P2, V2.

[Michael] All high schools teach algebra and English, but how about information technology at a major construction company, or human resources at Blue Cross Blue Shield?

How about classes devoted to faith and the role spirituality plays in your life?

Are there any images that stand out for me about how God has been working in my life?

[Michael] I'll admit to some skepticism when I was invited to tour Holy Family Cristo Rey, a Catholic school serving low income families in Birmingham, but as I spent time with its students, teachers, and staff producing this episode of "BUZZ", well, I have a confession, Holy Family has made a convert out of me.

(gentle music) Holy Family was founded in the 1930s as a church, a parish, and a hospital in the Ensley neighborhood, Birmingham.

In the '40s, they started a school.

They've served countless families, from Ensley, Fairfield, in Birmingham.

2007, the high school was having some difficulties financially, and they heard about the Cristo Rey model.

[Michael] Spanish for Christ the King, Cristo Rey was founded in 1996 in Chicago by Father John Foley, who was trying to figure out how to maintain an academically excellent Catholic school in a predominantly low income community.

His solution was an innovative corporate work study program where students would work for area businesses one day a week, and in exchange, the businesses would provide the school with funding to help offset tuition costs.

[Bo] And the Cristo Rey model was born.

-Wow.

-And that was in 1995, and here we are in 2025 with 41 schools around the nation.

So the school is, first and foremost, Catholic, right?

So we're driven by Catholic social teachings.

It is a college prep school, so, serving families who are under-resourced and children who are largely underestimated.

And we give them four years of corporate work experience with our partners.

So, very complex, very unique model for Schools of Choice in America.

My name is Keiara Turner, and I serve as the Director of Strategic Communications for the Housing Authority of Birmingham District, and I'm a proud alumni of the Holy Family Cristo Rey class of 2011.

So I graduated Holy Family Cristo Rey in 2017.

From there, I attended Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tennessee, where I received my bachelor of science degree in child development and family relations.

I am Rachel Smith.

I'm the Director of Recruitment and Community Engagement, and I'm an alum of the school.

I graduated in 2011.

Holy Family Cristo Rey means family to me.

Understanding corporate as young as 14, and then being able to go into corporate, even in college, and understand the nuances that happen and be able to network that early on in life.

So now I'm actually Employee and Partnership Manager for The Birmingham Promise, and so Holy Family has contributed greatly to my success.

Very grateful for the faculty, the staff, my classmates, and even my coworkers.

They really have poured into me.

I graduated from here, I went off to UAB to get my bachelor's in psychology, and then I went off and got my master's.

Worked for a long time.

But what led me back here is that I know what the school can do for kids.

I'm one of those kids.

And I wanted to be able to provide that same opportunity to other kids.

My name is Berkan Ciger, and for the first five years, I was a member of the history department here, teaching faculty, and for the last two years, I've been director of the corporate work study program.

Through the work study program, one of the really great benefits is that through their time here, they get to figure out what they want to do.

It's incredibly difficult to know what you wanna do when you're in high school, and all you've done, which in my experience was be a bag boy at, you know, Publix, or, you know, frying chicken at Guthrie's, and then figure out, okay, what am I gonna do with the rest of my life?

For us high schoolers or people, we go through different phases of life of what we wanna do, and it switches like every other month, every other week.

The great thing about corporate work study is you get that experience already before you leave high school.

We're in the legal space at a couple different law firms like Cory Watson, Burr Forman, Maynard Nexsen.

We're in the construction space as well, done construction, work construction, property management with Arlington Properties.

Couple different healthcare partners with Children's Hospital, Viva Health, so some insurance organizations, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cahaba Pain and Spine.

She's worked at Ed Farm, and that's what really sparked her desire to be in IT.

The following year, she got an opportunity to work at Blue Cross Blue Shield in the IT department, and that really... She decided that this is what she wanted to do for her career.

I am Alana Files, and I graduated from Holy Family in 2023.

So, I am a student at Harvard University, I'm a sophomore, and I'm studying theater dance and media music, and mind, brain, and behavior.

The second job, and my last job that I had, was working at Hibbett Corporate.

And there, I was able to work in a corporate office, see what it was like, was able to learn how to express myself in big meetings and with important people like Nike executives.

And so just learning how that environment worked was really special.

Well, she actually works at UAB right now through corporate work study, and she's grown.

The people there, the staff she works for, they're great.

She wants to be a mortician.

That's what she says.

And her supervisor actually arranged for her to go with the mortician, took her to the mortician, where they...

The morgue, I'll say it like that.

I really love the fact that our students have adults outside of the school setting that care about them, that are invested in them, that want to help them develop and grow.

But really, what's extremely beneficial to the students is that they have an opportunity to build their professional network.

Hello, my name is Gabriel Charles.

I'm a sophomore at Holy Family Cristo Rey, and I work at Hoar Construction.

My name is Paul Walker.

I'm the Vice President of the technology division here for Hoar Construction.

I've always wanted to work with computers and wanted to help my computer skills get better and help people out when they have computer issues.

That's why I chose to work at Hoar.

[Paul] Holy Family goes way back from when I started in kindergarten, believe it or not.

So, kindergarten all the way up to the eighth grade.

Being there in Ensley really taught me some real principles of what it means to be a person, a man, and have the respect, but also to give me the right discipline to apply myself as it relates to work, the work ethic.

I've learned good active listening, helping, learning from my coworkers and supervisors.

I provide good communication skills.

And I think just as the culture of our company and thus who we are from our leadership down, that's what it means to not be about yourself, but to get out of yourself and find ways to give back, to build the community up around you.

Here from school, and it's like, people my age, I get to, you know, talk how I want to with my friends, you have to be professional and have good manners and be a learner, I guess, yeah.

Gabe's a fantastic student.

He's very inquisitive, so he'll sometimes come into the office and say, "Well, what is that?"

Or, "What does that do?"

And so we're always constantly trying to find ways to push him to ask more questions like that, because we all know that's how you learn, right?

I just think it's a really great opportunity for kids that go to work study.

It really helps you be more mature and grow up and really learn what you wanna do in the future, 'cause most kids really don't know what they wanna do.

I always wanted to help people.

That's why I worked at Children's Hospital, nourishing the patients.

But at first, I wanted to be a registered nurse, but I've done some shadowing and registered nursing at Children's Hospital, and that wasn't really my thing, but I always knew I wanted to take care of people.

And then they moved all over to- -Southern.

-Southern Researchers.

She didn't care for it, 'cause she's like, "I'm not dissecting any animals, Daddy."

And so I'm like, "Well, just try it."

"It's not for me."

I said, "Yes, ma'am."

(laughs) And she actually, she was so, so happy that she's got some experiences such as holding a heart, and she was just so amazed that day when she came home.

I said, "Weren't you afraid?"

She said, "No."

And she's kinda a little timid, but this is what she wants to do, so I really am happy that she has decided what she want rather than me telling her what I want her to be.

Because it doesn't matter what I want, it's what she wants.

So next year, I'm going to Alabama State to pursue a career in social work, and potentially get my master's in social work.

And so we are in our first year of college with her.

She attends Liberty University, online, of course, because she's still working at Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Her intern here at high school turned into a job.

It's just been amazing with the connections that she has had here at Holy Family Cristo Rey.

[Michael] In April, Holy Family Cristo Rey hosted its major fundraising gala, Rey of Hope.

Considering how much the school invests in its corporate work study, I created a video about the program to share with gala attendees.

Actually works at UAB right now, through corporate work study, and she's grown.

The people there, the staff she works for, they're great.

The nature of going to Alabama State to pursue a career in social work.

Still working at Blue Cross Blue Shield, Her intern here at high school turned into a job.

So, it's just been amazing.

[Michael] But while the corporate work study certainly defines the Holy Family experience outside of school walls, inside, something more is happening.

So I also created this video to share.

(gentle music) My name is Catie Yu Tiamco.

I teach religion to ninth and 10th grade students.

The population I'm teaching here is a lot of students from many different religious backgrounds.

Some of our students are Catholic and are regularly attending church.

Some of our students are regularly attending other denominations, churches.

Some of our students don't attend church at all and have not really been raised in any faith.

So, when I teach, I am trying to reach many different groups of students, which has been wonderful, and also challenging.

Has really pushed me to be creative in how I present the information and how I engage with the students to make sure that all of these different groups of kids have a way in.

That's the other thing that I liked about this school, is that they are Catholic, so we have mass.

Despite the fact that, you know, I'm not Catholic, but I appreciate that we're able to, like, build our relationships with God.

If I could only teach my students one thing...

It's hard to narrow it down to one thing.

Maybe a group of related ideas, that they are valuable, that they are loved, that they are in this world with a purpose to love others in a way that only they can, and that they are part of a really beautiful story that will end with all of these things that confuse us somehow making sense.

And we get little glimpses of that beautiful resolution to this story in the world we live in if we can recognize it.

That's what I would like my students to leave with, a feeling of purpose, a feeling of, or an ability to find the transcendent, beautiful moments in our everyday life.

And I'd like to give them opportunities to reflect on how they fit into this world.

A lot of our students have more demands placed on them than are really fair for their age, and I think a lot of them are wondering, "What's the point?"

Her mother passed when she was five.

She's actually my son's daughter.

My son and I have joint custody of her.

Students at this school in particular, we work with a lot of students from immigrant populations, people who have family members in other countries.

So, my parents came here from Mexico.

We moved to Alabama because lots of our family members were here, and we found this to be a good place.

People who have to take on leadership roles in their families at a very young age, people who are really working as providers for their families while they're in high school, trying to invest in their own future.

Really following the wrong crowd, to be honest.

Not doing the things that I really wanted to do as far as progressing.

And then there's also just the struggles that all families face, broken families, deaths in the family.

So I was often separated from my biological parents, and then by the age of 13, I was an orphan due to my mother passing away in a car accident when I was nine years old, and then my dad passed away from cancer when I was 13.

[Catie] Being human is really hard, and when you have the privilege of working with high school students, you really see people dealing with things that they, you know, in a perfect world, they would not have to be dealing with at such a young age.

So, I had to move to Birmingham with some family that I didn't even know, like, until like months prior to the whole thing.

I try to be a safe place for them.

I try to create an environment in my classroom where they feel safe physically, emotionally, mentally, and that's, you know, it's a challenge, but it's also the greatest privilege of teaching here, and teaching anywhere.

So really, through prayer and relying on God through these situations, I found that I was able to do a lot of things, like, you know, being the SGA President.

I see the story of Catholic education, especially in America, as reaching out to marginalized communities, communities who were new to this country, who were not accepted, communities who wanted a school that would respect their beliefs and values and that would help them pass that on to their children, challenging them, providing them with academic excellence and rigor, but also embracing them as a whole person.

I think that it is just everything that Catholic education should be.

I had lost hope, kinda, at the end of eighth grade, and since I came here, I've been getting that uplifting energy here.

My prayers have been answered in many ways, and so I just feel like, you know, building my relationship with him and, you know, showing him that appreciation for the things he's done for me is, basically, the least I can do, honestly.

'Cause he's brought me through a lot, and he continues to uplift me and guide me in my journey to, you know, getting scholarships to go to college and stuff.

And basically answering all the prayers that I've been.

I feel like Holy Family really values their students a lot.

They really wanna help them go forward in life and aim for the best, to actually be that difference in the world that they need.

(gentle music continues) [Michael] Faced with a deteriorating facility, in 2019, Holy Family took over the former Center Street Middle School in the Birmingham community of Titusville.

Holy Family Academy traditionally served families in Ensley and Fairfield as a Cristo Rey school, because the model involves transporting students to work and moving around the city of Birmingham.

We've added students from more and more neighborhoods and more and more communities around the city.

Currently, we serve families from 32 zip codes- -Wow.

-And four counties around the Birmingham metro area.

-Okay.

-So, two of the greatest assets we have are this building, right here in Titusville, and our buses.

Our buses enable us to overcome any challenges that families may have with transportation.

So we can't come door to door.

-Right.

-But we can certainly get -really close to your house.

-Yeah.

And cut that trip significantly for parents, which is important.

Because of the population that we serve, we have community eligibility through our childhood nutrition program, which means we feed every student, year round, breakfast and lunch, every single day.

So, we are taking care of as many needs as we can, and we wanna work closely with families to make sure that we overcome any other challenges that they might face.

It'll hold 300 kids.

As I mentioned, our current enrollment is a little low, and I think that's because people don't know that we're here.

-Right.

-They don't know what an -amazing place this is.

-Yes, that's our job.

Which is why we're here, right?

Which is why we're doing this.

[Michael] But the students that Holy Family serves aren't just confronting physical needs, but spiritual ones as well.

Twice a month, all students participate in small groups.

gathering in groups of eight or so students with two adults at the school, faculty and staff alike, to talk about faith and anything else weighing on their minds and hearts.

It gives them a safe space.

to be vulnerable, to share with one another, to support each other.

The other obvious thing it does is it gives kids an additional trusted adult in the building, which makes them feel safe, gives them a stronger sense of belonging.

My name's Wade White.

I teach AP calculus, AP pre-calculus.

I've been teaching here at Holy Family Cristo Ray for 13 years.

My name is Kelly Weekley.

I have taught at Holy Family Cristo Rey for 16 years, and I teach Spanish 1 and 2.

Some of the things that they do, I don't know if I could do.

But these kids are resilient.

They want to learn.

They are very, very capable of learning in spite of the circumstances that they live in.

One of the things I love most about our school is the corporate work study program, the academics, the religious education, it all kind of teaches to the whole child.

And so we're not concerned just about their academic success, we're not concerned just about what they're gonna do in their jobs in the future, but we kind of all, it all works together to help that child, each individual child, reach their potential and be successful.

I had a kid ask for a book.

This was in the middle of the semester.

And he wanted another book.

And I went, "Well, why do you want a book?"

"Well, I got put out, I don't know where I'm gonna live, but I don't wanna miss my homework."

Who does that?

Sometimes we ask them to pray before class.

In their prayer, you can hear some of the struggles that they're going through.

And when you hear that, and you see them still wanting to succeed, that is special.

That is very, very special to me.

[Michael] A Catholic order known as the Passionists founded Holy Family in the 1930s to minister to the largely African American community of Ensley.

Though the school has since moved, Passionist priests continue to provide spiritual support for the school community today.

Part of our spirituality as Passionists is that we take a vow to promote the passion of Jesus Christ.

So, the same struggles that I think people encountered in Ensley 80 some odd years ago are some of the same struggles that these students are encountering now.

And so I think it's part of, I think what we're sharing with them is not only about the Catholic faith, but also the spirituality of the passion of Jesus, and how Jesus is with them in their difficulties and in their crosses that they carry.

And also, the part of the human experience, of, you know, how do I go about wrestling with who I am or who I am called to be?

You know, I think those are essentials of not only of education, but of the human formation of the heart.

And I think, you know, allowing for students in this young age to begin to know how to grapple with those hard questions, I think that that's an element of Catholic education that can allow them to become the best human beings that they can, because they had that experience of wrestling with tough questions in their own life, and I think that's essential just to be human.

(gentle music) [Michael] Businesses that participate in Holy Family's corporate work study program contribute $8,000 per student.

Combined with charitable contributions and Alabama's School Choice program that makes refundable income tax credits available to low income K through 12 students, Holy Family comes close to being tuition-free for most families.

I'm Luis Salazar, and I graduated from Holy Family Cristo Rey as the valedictorian for class of 2024.

Yeah, definitely, it was tuition assistance, like, that the corporate work study actually paid part of the tuition, it was actually very, very important to us, yeah.

That, like, the corporate type of lifestyle, like, I would talk with them, really nice people.

I was like, yes, this is like, it was like, it really did help me, like, see, like, a preview.

Like, at Robins & Morton, at first, I was in, like, the current accounting department, and I was like, "I really like this vibe and I really wanna be here."

And that's part of the reason why I'm a business major now.

The fall of 2024, I started Rush University with a full scholarship.

I'm the first person in my family to go to university.

[Michael] How proud is Mom of you?

(Luis speaking in foreign language) (Mom speaking in foreign language) She's very proud of me, so, yeah.

[Michael] You can give her a hug if you want.

Oh.

(both chuckling) [Michael] Nice.

Good.

Had a lot of those.

[Michael] What's that?

I've had a lot of those hugs.

Yeah.

If you want, you know, a path in construction, there are options for you.

There's options if you wanna take the path to aviation.

But if you want to go to college and if you want to get a professional job, Holy Family Cristo Rey is the place for your child to attend.

All right, hi, my name is Charity Robertson, and I'm the Alumni Success Coordinator here at Holy Family Cristo Rey.

They get the college prep academics and they get the corporate work experience that allows them to enter into and persist through college.

Today we are going to be touring Jacksonville State University, my alma mater, and I'm so excited.

Honestly, it's not that hard to get into college.

A lot of people do it.

The difficult part is persisting through, right?

Is staying in and actually graduating.

This is something that we do often with the kids.

We've been to New Orleans, we've been to Memphis, we've been just about everywhere.

Mobile was last week.

We're just so excited today.

Go Gamecocks.

And our students are wholly prepared on the academic side, and because of the work study program, they now have a vision for what a college education can actually do for them.

They know why it's important 'cause they get to see it for four years.

"If I want a job like this, if I wanna work in an office like this, it's gonna happen only after I get my college degree."

(gentle music continues)