ATLANTA — Local companies are partnering with an entire student body of an Atlanta high school to open them up to a world of possibilities throughout the school year.
The companies are not only inviting in students at Cristo Rey Atlanta Jesuit High School, but they’re also investing in their future by covering a portion of the cost of their college prep education.
It’s providing students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds a firsthand look at possibilities in careers they may have never thought possible.
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One day a week, junior Yeydy Dominguez goes to the Bank of America Plaza in downtown Atlanta to work at Prime Revenue.
That’s after working at Haverty’s and the Latin American Association as a freshman and sophomore.
“I’ve learned how to time management (for) myself and I’ve learned how to be organized and keep up with conversations and just be more confident in myself,” Dominguez said.
She now wants to become a business entrepreneur, like Prime Revenue’s CEO PJ Bain.
“When we started out, we were a small startup just trying to figure out how to have an impact,” Bain said.
Two decades later, Prime Revenue is impacting the world’s financial supply chain across 90 countries, and the future of its team of corporate work-study students like Dominguez.
“If you don’t see those things, you don’t have something to aspire to. You don’t know that that’s a path that’s available to you,” Bain said.work-study
Prime Revenue has sponsored a team of four students for a decade.
This is the first year that manager Tonja Rhodes has directed a team.
“Actually, she’s making me look really good. I’m not going to lie!” Rhodes said.
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Rhodes credits the students with being mature, quick studies, and through the year enjoys witnessing the largest lesson they learn - that they belong.
“To be put in a box is very common and to know that you don’t have to stay in that box makes all the difference,” Rhodes said.
Bain said the investment in sponsoring a Cristo Rey team benefits the student, the company, and the community.
“You are watching them change the course of their lives more than two degrees. They’re taking advantage of those opportunities,” Bain said.
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