How Cristo Rey Boston and Edward M. Kennedy Shape Student Career Paths

In Boston, every student after 8th grade is deciding whether they want to head to college or keep working when they’re older. Will they go to Harvard? Will they go to Suffolk? When choosing a good college, you must think about the kind of high school you would like to go to. Boston is a city that allows teens to go to many private and/or public high schools designed for their future and passion. In this article, I will be mentioning what two career schools have in common, along with their positives and negatives. 

Edward M. Kennedy (EMK) high school is a school that is filled with rich history as one of Boston’s original pilot schools, according to Kennedy Academy. This school has a wide variety of partnerships like Mass General Brigham Hospital. While I do not attend EMK, I would say this school is worth visiting. It gives students in the medical field a chance to have their voices heard and their future be bright. Allowing students to build their careers through high school is important because it gives them exposure to a wide variety of things they truly want to learn about. It is said that “At the Edward M. Kennedy Academy for Health Careers (EMK), students don’t just learn about healthcare—they experience it.”  It gives students a strong sense if they truly want to study something like healthcare in the near future. In addition to regular classes, EMK brings out real hands-on learning abilities for students starting as early as 9th grade. EMK allows students to work in internships, job shadowing, and workforce partners. Additionally, the graduation rate for this school is 95.2%.

Looking further into Cristo Rey Boston high school (CRBHS), a reason why I think it is worth visiting is because it is a school that gives opportunities to children to be college ready, even if they don’t really want to go. CRB offers a number of honors and AP Classes like a regular public school. Though in my personal experience at this high school, it isn’t the same as regular public school because it is a Catholic school. Even though it is a Catholic school, it is very inclusive and doesn’t push religion onto students as hard as other religious schools. We still get treated the same as public school students, just with more concentration on spirituality and connecting with the Catholic faith. We also go to mass, wear uniforms, and attend services for Catholic holidays such as Ash Wednesday. Although Cristo Rey and EMK go hand in hand with college readiness and a workforce within high school, there are a lot of disadvantages and non-similiarities to both schools. EMK offers a wide variety of opportunities to those wanting to work in healthcare, meanwhile Cristo Rey is a school that offers certain AP Classes for those who want to work in other fields like business, psychology, and more. Although it is a Catholic school, we still get treated the same as public school students, just with more concentration on spirituality and connecting with the Catholic faith. We also go to mass, wear uniforms, and attend services for Catholic holidays such as Ash Wednesday. 

 In my experience at CRB, there have been a lot of positives and negatives ever since my freshman year. The positives in CRB is that you get real world job experience one day out of the week, and if you can’t find one after a month, they help you find a place almost immediately. The selection of jobs helps you build your resume no matter the experience. The downside of the school is that you don’t get a wide selection of AP classes. Not having a good selection in AP classes affects me as a student because we are forced to take certain classes rather than being able to decide whether or not we really want to take the class. 

CRB is different from public school because public schools (like EMK) focus on classes and graduating rather than religion and the way they dress. EMK and CRB are both good schools that offer bright futures for students in high school and allow kids to grow and become successful.