In August, Webcor welcomed 10 CristoRey high school students to several of our Bay Area job sites and corporateoffices as our 2023-24 interns—over twice the amount brought on every yearsince the launch of our partnership with Cristo Rey’s work-study program in2018.  

As freshmen, Cristo Rey students aregiven the opportunity to intern at participating Bay Area companies. Throughout the school year, students work one consistent day per week (e.g. everyThursday) and one Friday per month, totaling five days monthly. They submit a timecard on the days they work and apply the funds earned toward their high school tuition and fees.

“Mentoring a Cristo Rey student is an extremely rewarding opportunity to expose them to real-world work experiences and help them develop career-related skills,” says Project Manager, ProjectControls Candace Kong Kee, who’s spearheaded Webcor’s partnership with Cristo Rey since former Chief Legal Officer Hank Brasch, who launched the partnership in 2018, left the company in 2021.

‍

After five years of partnering solelywith Cristo Rey De La Salle East Bay High School in Oakland, Webcor’s expanded our partnership with Cristo Rey’s network to San Francisco (four students) andSan Jose (one student) while maintaining strong ties to the Oakland campus(five students). Interns were assigned to their department/project based on their strengths, skills, and career interests. Participating teams includeClaims, IT, Accounting, Project Controls, Project Support, and various active projects.

“It’s a fantastic workforce development program that supports promising adolescents who genuinely appreciate these work-study opportunities and typically come from disadvantaged populations,” Candace says. “They don’ttake the opportunity to gain experience from a large Bay Area company like Webcor for granted.”

Now that Webcor’s Cristo Rey partnershiphas reached San Francisco and the South Bay, Candace hopes Southern California is next—particularly Los Angeles, where Cristo Rey is preparing to launch a newelective called “Project Lead the Way” with the goal of creating a local pipeline of future engineers.

“Cristo Rey intends to recruit students from surrounding middle schools with this exciting new elective, which will focus on all types of engineering—aerospace, biomedical, civil, etc.,”Candace says. “Webcor’s involvement could provide an opportunity to shape the curriculum content and drive more students toward the construction management route.”

Although the elective is still being fleshed out, the idea is that participating Cristo Rey students willessentially complete first-year engineering courses that they’d otherwise haveto take as college freshmen.

“It’s a great opportunity for Webcor to feed its own workforce, especially in a city like LA where we’re working on building more local relationships so we can win more projects and get our name out there,” Candace emphasizes. 

Looking ahead to the 2024-25 school year, she says, Webcor anticipates hiring 3-5 more Cristo Rey interns at upcoming Webcor projects. The projects currently employing Cristo Rey interns are expected to continue funding those partnerships into the2024-25 school year, culminating in a potential record high of 13-15 Cristo Rey students interning with Webcor next year. 

“The bulk of the effort goes into determining which Webcor projects and departments can takeon a Cristo Rey intern while still being accessible to students,” Candace says.“Cristo Rey leaders greatly value our partnership and are passionate aboutworking with us to understand our needs and ensuring they align with the students’ interests and skills.”