Marquette and Cristo Rey Jesuit: Building belonging, college readiness and a pipeline of future leaders

Casey Lopez smiles as she remembers what it was like to be on Marquette's campus for the first time - carefully waiting at crosswalks while other students walked boldly into the street, a sense of nervous excitement as she imagined life there someday.

Back then, Lopez was a shy, 14-year-old Cristo Rey Jesuit High School Milwaukee student who'd been placed in Marquette's College of Education through Cristo Rey's corporate work-study program. College seemed intimidating to the first-generation student who hoped to become a pediatrician.

But as Lopez spent more time at the university, forming close relationships with education faculty who encouraged her, something shifted. Marquette began to feel less like a distant aspiration and more like a place she belonged - and the College of Education became her "home away from home."

In 2021, Lopez enrolled at Marquette as a biology major. But she continued to work with her advisers and, after taking an introductory education course that she loved, Lopez thought, "I can really see myself being a teacher."

"Those people and those experiences gave me confidence knowing this is what I want to do," she says. "Without them, I wouldn't be where I am."

Now a senior in elementary education at Marquette, Lopez is doing more than learning how to teach. She's helping to shape a unique education program her journey inspired. As a mentor in the university's new partnership with Cristo Rey Jesuit introducing local high schoolers to college life and the teaching profession, she welcomes students onto the campus that changed her own sense of what's possible, giving those teens the same chance to see themselves - and their futures - at Marquette.

College exposure and exploration

Lopez's experience is at the heart of Marquette's Cristo Rey Education Career Trail program. Launched in 2025 and led by Dr. Terry Burant, clinical associate professor and director of teacher education, the initiative brings students to the university for mentorship and real-world learning. The focus is less on recruitment or outcomes - "We're not trying to convince people to become teachers," Burant says - and more on exposure and exploration. It's about college familiarity and career pathways, but crucially, it's also about personal relationships, guidance and growth.

For the College of Education, which becomes the School of Education next academic year, the program is an investment in potential teachers whose backgrounds reflect the communities they may one day serve - a local effort to expand opportunity for traditionally underserved students that aligns with broader attempts to address teacher shortages.

Marquette's relationship with Cristo Rey Jesuit goes back to 2012, when the College of Education sponsored the prospective high school's feasibility study. The school's president and Marquette alumnus Andrew Stith says this partnership strengthens the bond between the "deeply intertwined" Jesuit institutions, exemplifying their shared history and values.

The program helps students "believe in their future," says Stith, Comm '01. "College is not an abstract idea anymore - it's a tangible reality."

With 85 percent of Cristo Rey Milwaukee's alumni staying in or returning to the city after college, "This initiative has the potential to build a teacher pipeline that our city desperately needs," Stith says. "This is our mission lived out in the community."

Career discernment in education

When Burant and her colleague Dr. Gabriel Velez, associate professor of educational policy and leadership, designed the partnership, their main objectives were to give students a better understanding of teaching and to enable education-related career discernment.

Velez says the program emphasizes practical, relational and place-based learning through structured campus visits and hands-on activities. Students explore curriculum planning, lesson design and classroom dynamics, thinking about educational pedagogy and how instructional environments shape development.

"It's about connecting with students and exposing them to ideas while building these relationships that support their sense of belonging," Velez says. An added benefit for a field with historical barriers to minority participation, he notes, is "the opportunity to address teacher shortages and provide diverse role models."

As Burant says, "It matters that kids see people like them leading in the classroom."

While Lopez hopes Cristo Rey students see themselves in her, she can't help but see herself in them: "You're quiet, you're shy, but you're also full of thoughts." When Lopez spots curious high schoolers reluctant to raise their hands, she tells them, "Hey, if you have a question, I'm happy to answer it."

"Those people and experiences gave me confidence knowing this is what I want to do," she says. "Without them, I wouldn't be where I am."

It's that lived experience and relatability Lopez brings to the partnership with Cristo Rey Jesuit. "I know their fears," Lopez says. "But I also know how much it changes when someone tells you, 'You belong here.'"

And that, Burant says, is ultimately the program's most meaningful measure of impact. "There are so many ways for students to feel like they belong that aren't in the brochures," she says. "Conversations, connections, little moments - those are often what make the biggest difference. "Honestly, success would look like more Casey's."

Last fall, Cristo Rey juniors practiced decorating classrooms in the Hartman Literacy and Learning Center, and Lopez recalled her excitement doing the same activity years earlier - though now better "understanding its purpose." She explains, "From the educator perspective, everything has meaning. How can I set up my classroom to create a positive learning environment?"

As she prepares to graduate, Lopez thinks a lot about the kind of teacher she plans to be. "Education is more than just teaching lessons," she says. "It's creating an environment where students feel seen, heard, welcomed and comfortable."