ATLANTA (August 30, 2017) – Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP (SGR) is pleased to announce its partnership with Cristo Rey Atlanta Jesuit High School’s Corporate Work Study Program (CWSP) for the 2017-2018 school year. This is the third year SGR has served as a Job Partner with the four-year-old program which helps students envision a future that includes a college degree and a successful professional career and equips them with the knowledge and skills needed to realize that vision.
Through the innovative CWSP, students work five full days a month at top local businesses, called Job Partners, in a job share with three other students. Students are assigned to their job sites by the CWSP staff at the start of each school year, with consideration to students’ particular interests and skills, and the requirements of the Job Partner. At SGR the students have exposure to attorneys and also the administrative side of a law firm including marketing, recruiting, accounting, information technology, records, and the library.
The earnings from the job share pay for a large percentage of each student’s tuition costs, providing access to a rigorous college preparatory education that otherwise would be too expensive. Cristo Rey students also gain valuable real-world job skills, contacts, and experience through this program, and go on to college in record numbers, in large part because of their early exposure to the working world.
Cristo Rey Atlanta welcomed its first freshman class in August 2014, and those students will also become the first graduating class in May 2018. The four-year high school now educates 535 students in a new location in downtown Atlanta after a $21 million makeover of the 50-year-old, donated building.
About Cristo Rey Atlanta Jesuit High School
Cristo Rey Atlanta Jesuit High School is a Catholic learning community that educates young people of limited economic means, of any faith or creed, to become men and women for and with others. Through a rigorous college preparatory curriculum, integrated with a relevant work study experience, students graduate prepared for college and life. Cristo Rey Atlanta is located at 222 Piedmont Avenue NE, Atlanta, Georgia 30308, and is part of the Cristo Rey Network®. Visit www.cristoreyatlanta.org for more information.
About the Cristo Rey Network®
The Cristo Rey Network is the only network of high schools in the country that integrate four years of rigorous college preparatory academics with four years of professional work experience. Comprised of 32 Catholic, college preparatory schools that serve 10,933 students across 21 states and DC and collectively claim 11,508 graduates, the Cristo Rey Network delivers a powerful and innovative approach to inner-city education that strengthens the competence, confidence, and aspiration of students from economically-disadvantaged families and empowers them to transform their lives. From freshman year, Cristo Rey schools establish a culture of high-expectations by blending rigorous academic preparation, significant professional work experience through the Corporate Work Study Program, Catholic educational values, and support for students to and through college. Learn more at www.cristoreynetwork.org.
About Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP
SGR is a full service, international law firm that advises regional, national and global businesses on a wide range of legal matters. The firm’s more than 200 attorneys provide legal counsel in more than 45 specialized practice areas, including corporate transactions, litigation, intellectual property, aviation, banking, real estate, construction and employment law. Founded in 1893, SGR has offices in Atlanta, Austin, Jacksonville, London, Munich, New York, Southampton, and Washington, D.C.