BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Holy Family Cristo Rey and Samford University are a lot alike in their mission and the quality of student they develop. “We believe Samford to be a university that stresses academic excellence in an environment that is completely undergirded by a Christian world view. I believe Holy Family Cristo Rey does the same thing,” said Randy Pittman, Vice President of University Advancement for Samford. Pittman says it has added in the success of jointly raising money to underwrite students from Holy Family Cristo Rey to work at Samford part-time as part of the Corporate Work Study Program.
Last week, an anonymous donor endowed the Holy Family Cristo Rey internship fund to the amount of $500,000. The interest alone from this gift will allow five students from the school to be interns at Samford University. Representatives from both schools gathered at Samford last Wednesday to acknowledge the gift. Samford President Andrew Westmoreland said, “This is one of the best partnerships we have had at Samford. We are so grateful for this association with the schools.” Father Alex Steinmiller, the President of Holy Family Cristo Rey, added the generosity of the people at Samford and the donors is “truly of the Holy Spirit.”
The partnership between the schools is even more unique because of the giving out of personal paychecks by Samford employees to this fund at their choosing. PJ Hughes, Director of Continuing Pharmacy Education at Samford says “dozens of people who give out of their deductions and payroll every month makes this an organic campus wide effort. “ Many are staff members who work with the Holy Family Cristo Rey students in their internships.
Another fund that is not fully endowed yet will enable a graduate of Holy Family Cristo Rey to attend Samford University on a full scholarship. The university is already seeing benefits in the partnership with three graduates of Holy Family Cristo Rey currently enrolled for the spring semester. They are sophomore Hope Allen and freshman Elijah Brown and Raven Hill who just enrolled Monday. The current interns are Jasmine Pegues working in pharmacy, Christina Hill in education, Taylor Crawford in the arts, Adiyah Crenshaw in the library, Simuka Leonard in world languages and cultures and Taylor Adams in the business school.
To learn more about Holy Family Cristo Rey, please visit www.hfcristorey.org.
