Marker Trax and Koin recently struck a new partnership with Las Vegas-based Cristo Rey St. Viator College Preparatory High School to provide professional experience to students.
The companies are sponsoring four students from the high school, funding their wages while they work with Make-A-Wish Nevada. The students will participate in the five-day per week program, with a rotating schedule on Fridays, gaining workplace experience while supporting Make-a-Wish’s programs.
“We felt that it kind of made more sense to have a young person working in an a more established corporate environment,” said Marker Trax and Koin President Charlie Skinner. “Make-a-Wish is an amazing nonprofit, and we’re honored to be able to participate in this.”
Cristo Rey St. Viator College Preparatory High School was built in North Las Vegas in 2019 and is part of a network of Catholic high schools that started in Chicago in 1996.
“There was a church there that had a school, and they were running out of funding,” said Jason DiOrio, the school’s director of partnerships. “They came up with the corporate work-study piece where they worked with some businesses in the community to hire the students, and that in turn supplements the cost for their education.”
Most of the school’s students come from underprivileged families, many of them from single-parent families. They undergo a vetting process to become part of the program.
“We don’t just take students and drop them in wherever and hope for the best,” DiOrio said. “Ones that are interested in nonprofits, we place at the nonprofits.”
The students, notably at Make-a-Wish last year, developed programs that the organization’s marketing teams used.
“They are not just up at the front desk, but they help out on projects, they help out on building out the events for the Make- a-Wish program,” DiOrio explained. “They even go off site and attend functions with them as well to really just get exposure of what they do. We have a lot of students that are very interested in the non-profit space.
“They bring a different view and perspective, because of their age and their thought process,” DiOrio added. “I think it’s rewarding for both sides of it, for our partner and for our students.”
Skinner said he was made aware of the work-study program by Lisa Parkland, the president of the school, and his neighbor. Once he learned about the program, it was “a no brainer” to support it.
“If you’ve never been to the school, it’s pretty incredible what these kids are accomplishing,” Skinner said. “A lot of them come from at-risk families and lower socio-economic neighborhoods in the valley, and to see how some of these kids have thrived is really heartwarming. We’re very proud and excited to be able to contribute and be a part of the program.”
Skinner said Marker Trax and Koin, by supporting Cristo Rey students and Make-a-Wish, have doubled the effect of their support. The students get invaluable work experience and Make-a-Wish gets the help it needs to assist children with critical illnesses.
“I came out of there with a real feeling of we need to do more as an organization,” Skinner said. “The program at Crystal Rey really shows the success that it’s having on our young people in this community.
“The other thing is the faculty over there. You can tell they’re just totally bought in. I came back and I was very bullish to our executive team, like ‘we need to get involved in this.’ I think it’s a really meaningful project that we want to support.”
