Coming Home with a Purpose

Grad at Grad” is a unique term developed by Jesuit Fathers Dick McCurdy and Mario Prietto at St. Ignatius College Preparatory school in San Francisco in the 1980s. Alongside faculty there, they hammered out the five key characteristics of a student at graduation from a Jesuit school. Adopted by Jesuit schools across the world, the entire Jesuit school experience is tailored to help students aspire toward these characteristics. They are: open to growth, loving, committed to doing justice, intellectually competent and religious.

Nowhere will you find a group of young men that embody these characteristics more than the young alums, now giving back to their alma mater, Chicago Jesuit Academy (CJA), an elementary and middle school on the west side of Chicago. CJA alums in college and high school have long worked in the various CJA summer programs. But more recently, many older alums work there as full-time professionals during the school year. Their work is the ultimate example of paying it forward, and they embody the “Grad at Grad” concept.

Prince Brunt is a ray of sunshine. He lost his beloved mother as a young boy, and is currently mentoring his younger siblings, who are also in their 20s. But Prince still has so much to give. As an instructional aide at CJA, he is known to be the listener, the one you’d go to if you had a problem.

Jae Rule is a relationship builder. Working in CJA’s development office, he is responsible for telling the story of CJA to potential donors in a variety of ways.

He’s the perfect person for the job, as his deep love for the school and his heartfelt gratitude shows on every inch of his six-foot-five-inch frame. Coming back to work there “completes the circle,” he says. “I am confident this is the work I was meant to do.”

Alzario Palmer is a dedicated CJA instructional aide known for his indefatigable resolve and a thirst to do good in the world. A graduate of Loyola Academy and a young man with an entrepreneurial spirit, his warmth permeates the space he inhabits. Students flock to him. In his free time, Alzario works at a shoe store and does all he can to help his mother and brother. “I have a no one-left-behind mentality, and I try to reach out to anyone teetering on the outside,” he says. How lucky the young souls who look up to him are.

These three young men work alongside other alums, including Jerrod “Jay” Castleberry, a member of the first CJA graduating class. Now a banker, Jay serves on CJA’s board of directors. If the formula for these Jesuit schools (sometimes dubbed the Nativity Model) weren’t enough of a notable educational model, add to it the integration of alums like these. Unstoppable!

In the fall of 2022, CJA opened a girls elementary school on the campus alongside the boys school. To learn more about the school, visit www.cjacademy.org.