Get to know Hugo Chavez, Director of St. Francis de Sales work study program.

We caught up with Hugo Chavez, Director of St. Francis de Sales work study program at St. Francis de Sales earlier this month!

What is your current role at St. Francis de Sales?

Officially, I am the Director of the Southeast Side Experience Incubator, the St. Francis de Sales work study program.  I am consulting on and working to implement all the operational steps of our work study program. 

What did you do before you took this role? Where else did you work? 

I have had varied experiences throughout my work life.  For my education I earned a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Bradley University and then a Masters in Business Administration (Marketing) from DePaul University and in between I passed the Illinois Certified Public Accountant exam.

My work experiences are quite varied.  Out of college I started working for a small start up company followed by 12 years at McDonald’s Corp plus a couple of other larger companies. I also worked at three different start up companies.  I am quite proud of my work as the Director of the Corporate Work Study Program at two different Cristo Rey Schools in Illinois where I learned a lot about working with high school students and building relationships with dozens of the organizations that employ students. My responsibilities included all the operations of the program including transportation, student training, automation of systems, coaching/mentoring students and finding new job partners.

I was involved with SFDS through the Big Shoulders Fund in 2018 and have kept in touch with St. Francis de Sales and the team since then. I am very excited to be working with Roni and her team on this exciting endeavor!

Why is it important for SFDS to add work study to the curriculum?

One benefit of work study programs is that companies pay for the students who work for them and that contributes significantly toward the cost of tuition. Lowering tuition for students is a benefit to students and families,  but even more important is that students work for companies and learn career skills, critical thinking and social skills by interacting with their adult peers. Work study programs also integrate well with academics at many levels.

Work study programs are also a great opportunity for students to learn about the varied careers that exist in the world and to work in various areas of a company. This gives students the opportunity to learn about areas like legal, marketing, sales and human resources. It gives students a leg up when they have seen where they could go. It helps as they pick colleges and majors and as they enter the workforce! 

How does SFDS differ from other schools where you have worked? 

There are many similarities between the schools where I previously worked and SFDS. All are Catholic college prep schools. Each has relatively lower enrollments under 400 students who come from hard working families and are driven from within to succeed.  But every school has its own unique culture and that is what I look forward to learning about at SFDS.

I also want to become familiar with the Southeast Side of Chicago and the families of the students who live here. The business community is unique here and building relationships in those companies/organizations is important also. 

What was your first ever job? 

As a kid I used to do yard work like cutting lawns, raking leaves and shoveling driveways in my neighborhood. In high school I worked at a nearby Dominick’s grocery store first as a grocery bagger and then as a stock clerk.

What skills do you think work study provides students?

The top two skills are interpersonal communications and confidence.  I know confidence is not a specific skill but when you work with adults you learn how to communicate at a higher level and work in a professional manner.  Students also develop professional relationships with people who want to see you succeed. The end result is each SFDS graduate will stand out from their peers at other schools because of the skills, time and effort they have expended at work. In a word, SFDS graduates will be much more polished than their peers as they go off to college.

Why would businesses want to have students take jobs? 

Every business struggles with a few things. First, there is never enough time in the day to complete all the work they need to get done. SFDS students can integrate into work teams and perform work that allows employees of the company to focus on more strategic work.

Secondly, for many years all companies struggle to attract and retain younger workers. This has only increased since COVID started in early 2020. So companies benefit from having SFDS students working. Companies also build relationships with multiple students at a young age which is good in the long term for all businesses. 

What do you like to do in your free time? Tell us a bit about yourself! 

I play a lot of tennis throughout the year.  Not sure how good I am but I always improve and it's a fun way to meet friends and get a pretty good workout.

Also,  with my son I am involved with Boy Scouts.  I have served as the Scoutmaster for our troop for the past 3 years.  Last August a group of 12 of us spent two weeks hiking in the mountains in New Mexico. We had to pack up all of our food and gear every morning and then hike to a new destination. It was quite an experience that involved some pretty hard climbs/descents but also was a lot of fun for the whole group.     

What do you like about SFDS? 

SFDS has a smaller enrollment than the schools I previously worked at and I see that as an advantage. I have found that I enjoy working in smaller organizations because they are more nimble and you can really get to know people.   

One example is having the opportunity to possibly provide more specialized training to student workers for jobs such as digital marketing or for very specific work projects.  Having a smaller enrollment makes it easier to meet the needs of companies that want to hire student teams and also meeting students where they are at in terms of their skill sets.

Also, I recently met Roni and we talked for two hours and it seemed like 20 minutes. I really liked hearing about the progress SFDS has made since my initial (short) involvement through the Big Shoulders Fund in 2018 plus hearing Roni’s vision for the future is inspiring.  

I am most  proud of helping my previous schools to really move to higher levels of success and I see that happening now at SFDS.  Working with talented and fun people at SFDS, and of course the students, is what I look forward to the most.

What is the next step for bringing work study to SFDS? 

We are finalizing the organization of the 501C-3 entity that will house work study. The entity will be called the Southeast Side Experience Incubator. Once that is formed, we will work to make sure all the legal paperwork is signed and the current jobs partners are committed. Most exciting is to make sure the work study curriculum for training is in place. It is a busy but exciting time. I hope we can provide updates every month for the community!