Your support of the Midwest Jesuits makes a difference every day. Here’s proof.
By Kristine Mackey
Augustin Khey has put in the effort to be where is today—a student at Stanford University—but his life journey has been full of monumental challenges and heartbreak. Now a proud Karenni-American teenager, he couldn’t have done what he’s done without his own inner strength and the support of so many donors to both the Midwest Jesuits’ Greatest Need Fund and Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Milwaukee.
Augustin’s story began in his native country of Myanmar, but soon he found himself living in a refugee camp just over the border in the Mae Hong Son Province of Thailand. He remained there for 12 years. When he finally made it to the United States, he enrolled at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Milwaukee. He’d just spent the majority of his life in a refugee camp, and now he was 8,000 miles from home.
“A chapter in my life came to a close and a new chapter began,” Augustin says, but then even more challenges arose, including “a harsh new world full of different cultures, racism, stereotypes and prejudices, and it was hard.”
Due to circumstances beyond anyone’s control, what was supposed to have been a normal American high school experience was anything but when the pandemic forced Augustin and his classmates into isolation and remote learning. On top of it all, his mother contracted cancer.
“But I persevered,” he says.
He not only persevered, he thrived, eventually being named valedictorian of Cristo Rey Jesuit High School’s Class of 2022. For his efforts, Stanford University, where he is now studying computer science, awarded him a four-year, full-ride scholarship.
In his Cristo Rey valedictory address, Augustin thanked the Corporate Work Study Partners, all the benefactors and scholarship supporters, his teachers and counselors, and most importantly, his parents.
While Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Milwaukee raises its own funds for operations, the Midwest Jesuits Greatest Need Fund contributes seed money to groundbreaking schools, sends Jesuits around the world to kindle the fire and teach, and continues to support people like Augustin in many other ways. Augustin is the real-life product of the tremendous generosity of faith-filled Jesuit supporters.
Augustin Khey has put in the effort to be where is today—a student at Stanford University—but his life journey has been full
of monumental challenges and heartbreak. Now a proud Karenni-American teenager, he couldn’t have done what he’s done without his own inner strength and the support of so many donors to both the Midwest Jesuits’ Greatest Need Fund and Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Milwaukee.
Augustin’s story began in his native country of Myanmar, but soon he found himself living in a refugee camp just over the border in the Mae Hong Son Province of Thailand. He remained there for 12 years. When he finally made it to the United States, he enrolled at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Milwaukee. He’d just spent the majority of his life in a refugee camp, and now he was 8,000 miles from home.
“A chapter in my life came to a close and a new chapter began,” Augustin says, but then even more challenges arose, including “a harsh new world full of different cultures, racism, stereotypes and prejudices, and it was hard.”
Due to circumstances beyond anyone’s control, what was supposed to have been a normal American high school experience was anything but when the pandemic forced Augustin and his classmates into isolation and remote learning. On top of it all, his mother contracted cancer.
“But I persevered,” he says.
He not only persevered, he thrived, eventually being named valedictorian of Cristo Rey Jesuit High School’s Class of 2022. For his efforts, Stanford University, where he is now studying computer science, awarded him a four-year, full-ride scholarship.
In his Cristo Rey valedictory address, Augustin thanked the Corporate Work Study Partners, all the benefactors and scholarship supporters, his teachers and counselors, and most importantly, his parents.
While Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Milwaukee raises its own funds for operations, the Midwest Jesuits Greatest Need Fund contributes seed money to groundbreaking schools, sends Jesuits around the world to kindle the fire and teach, and continues to support people like Augustin in many other ways. Augustin is the real-life product of the tremendous generosity of faith-filled Jesuit supporters.
