Investing in Oakland Youth: Our Four Years Inside the Cristo Rey Corporate Work Study Program

Four years ago, Royal Ambulance joined the Corporate Work Study Program at Cristo Rey De La Salle East Bay High School in Oakland. The program places high school students at partner companies one day a week, and the wages they earn go directly toward their private school tuition. It also has a provision from the U.S. Department of Labor that allows students as young as fourteen to work in professional office settings.

Which is how a freshman ended up in our billing department.

Isabella, Izzy, came to Royal Ambulance the year she started high school. She is the first student we have ever received from Cristo Rey De La Salle. She worked in Revenue Cycle under Vairaty Barron, our Revenue Cycle Office Manager, learning front-end documentation processes and the discipline of protecting patient health information. One day a week, every week of the school year, for four years.

This spring, she graduated. She is going to Rhode Island to study biology on a pre-med track.

She spent four years working in a healthcare company. That is not a coincidence.

Cristo Rey De La Salle sits in Oakland's Fruitvale neighborhood, serving students of limited economic means, most of whom would be the first in their families to attend college. Steve Grau, Royal Ambulance's founder and CEO, has always treated community outreach as central to the company's identity. When he heard about the program, Royal signed on.

"We really didn't know what to expect at first," says Vairaty. "We just wanted to give them the tools to understand why protecting patient information matters. And they caught on right away."

What surprised her wasn't capability. It was curiosity. The students didn't just want to complete tasks. They wanted to understand why the tasks existed, what happened downstream if the work wasn't done right. That curiosity changed the billing department in ways Vairaty didn't predict.

"It's been really cool to see my team step up to the plate," she says. "I can see the leadership in everyone here now."

At the end of every shift, she kept her office door open for the last five to ten minutes. Students would stop in and talk about their day, their goals, where they wanted to go.

"That's how I get to really know who they are," she says. "And that makes me really happy."

This year, Royal Ambulance attended Izzy's college reveal, the ceremony Cristo Rey De La Salle holds for its graduating seniors. When Vairaty spoke about her, she said, "Isabella is my first student with this program, and watching her grow these last four years has been so incredible. I'm so proud of her, and I just know you're going to do amazing things."

We are going to miss her. We watched her come in as a freshman and leave as someone heading to Rhode Island to one day become a doctor.

The hardest part of a partnership like this is saying goodbye to the students who grew up here. The best part is knowing you were one of the places they needed along the way.

The program works. Isabella is the proof!

To learn more about becoming a Corporate Work Study partner, visit cristoreydelasalle.org