Those wielding shovels at the Sept. 30 groundbreaking for the new Athletics Center at Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School in Takoma Park, Maryland, included school and Catholic Church officials, representatives of the architectural and construction firms for the project, supporters of the school, and two student athletes there who described how the new center will be a game changer, in more ways than one.
“This new gym is such an exciting milestone for our school community,” said Valeria Martinez, a member of the class of 2028 at Don Bosco Cristo Rey who participated in the groundbreaking. She said the new center, which is scheduled to be completed by September 2027, “is not just a new building, but it’s a space that will give students better opportunities to play, compete, and come together as a community.”
Martinez, who is a setter on the Wolfpack volleyball team, noted that the rafters in their current gym are very low. “During volleyball practices, balls are constantly hitting the beams and getting stuck on the rafters. If you look up in the gym, you will still be able to see some of our volleyballs stuck up there,” she said, adding, “but it was still a great privilege to have a space where I can do a sport I love.”
The new Athletics Center is supported by the school’s “Building the Future: Arts, Athletics and Beyond” capital campaign that will also support a future arts center, and provide ongoing support for scholarships, faculty development and innovative programs there. The Athletics Center will feature a modern gymnasium, weight room, locker rooms and a school gathering space. The architectural firm of Grimm + Parker has designed the new center, which is being built by Coakley & Williams Construction.
“This gym represents progress, opportunity and a bright future for our school,” Martinez said.
That point was echoed at the groundbreaking ceremony by Joshua Diaz, a member of the class of 2027 at Don Bosco Cristo Rey who is the captain of the basketball team and plays center for the Wolfpack. He noted the frustration of practicing at a gym that isn’t large enough to host home basketball games.
“I’m really excited about our new gym and all the opportunities it will bring. Having a new space to work out, improve ourselves and push our limits is something that we’re all looking forward to,” Diaz said. He added, “The new gym will also allow all of us to gather together for honor roll assembly and formal gatherings, so we can all meet as one.”
Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School is a college preparatory, coed school serving students from low-income families in the Washington, D.C., area that is sponsored by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington and the Salesians of Don Bosco. Since the school opened in 2007, 100 percent of its graduates have been accepted at four-year colleges, with many of them becoming the first members of their families to go to college.
The school, which is one of 40 Cristo Rey schools across the country, features an innovative Corporate Work Study Program, where students gain experience working at leading Washington-area businesses, organizations and institutions and help pay for part of their education costs. The 417 Don Bosco Cristo Rey students each work one day a week at one of 182 placements, including in law, finance, banking, healthcare, hospitality, construction management, real estate, education, and government offices.
With the future site of the Athletic Center and large earth moving equipment providing a backdrop, Steve Blommer and Mary Denney, co-chairs of the capital campaign, welcomed the guests to the groundbreaking.
“This space is what our students have been asking for… Today we break ground on their dream,” Blommer said.
Mark K. Shriver – who became the first lay president at Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School in 2021 – said, “We’ll be in a new facility, but we’ll (still) be young, scrappy and hungry.”
As he thanked all those supporting and developing the project, Shriver praised the accomplishments of the school’s students and faculty. Then addressing Washington Cardinal Robert W. McElroy – who was there to join the groundbreaking and offer a prayer of blessing at the site – Shriver said, “They (our students and teachers) are just crushing it, your eminence!”
Cardinal McElroy thanked Shriver, saying he “is a force of nature, as we all know, with the face of Christ guiding him.”
Washington’s archbishop said he saw three miracles coming to fruition there. The first miracle, he said, is the Cristo Rey model, which he called an “ingenious” concept of garnering community support to help students who are in need and highly motivated strive for excellence academically while they are gaining work experience.
The second miracle, the cardinal said, is the new gym itself, which reflects the Catholic concept of forming and developing the whole person and growing in God’s grace – body, mind and spirit. “You will seek heaven in a very real way here,” he said.
Cardinal McElroy said the third miracle at Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School is the students themselves, whom he met when he celebrated a Mass for the graduating seniors. “They are a remarkable group of young men and women,” he said, adding that they are talented, energetic, confident and believe in themselves.
“They’re looking to go into the world and do what all of us here are placed on this earth by God to do, to ennoble the world in which we live by what they do,” he said.
Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School “is a wonderful treasure here in the archdiocese,” the cardinal said.
Cardinal McElroy then prayed that the school’s students, as they learn there and compete in sports at the new gym, will have “hearts molded in care for one another,” shaped by the heart of Christ.
Local leaders attending the gathering included Maryland Congressman Steny Hoyer and State Senator Craig Zucker who represents District 14 in Montgomery County, who said the students there “are a shining example of what is possible.”
Changing lives of students and families
In interviews after the ceremony, students Joshua Diaz and Valeria Martinez spoke about their experiences there.
Diaz, whose current work study placement is at Eagle Bank, said students learn “how to be professional” and gain exposure to networking. Martinez, who worked at Georgetown University through the work study program, added, “This gives us an opening to how the real world is.”
The new gym, Diaz said, will be one of the best things to happen for current and future students there, and will reflect the four pillars of their Salesian education – faith, family, future and fun.
“Seeing this new gym being built, (it) gives us a better opportunity to grow as a team, as players and as students at Don Bosco Cristo Rey,” Martinez said.
In other interviews after the groundbreaking, supporters of the school praised its college preparatory academics and its Corporate Work Study Program.
“It’s changing the trajectory of not just a child’s life, but the whole family,” said Mary Denney, the capital campaign co-chair.
Rich Dumais – the former longtime chair for the school’s board who has been a project manager for the new Athletic Center – said the Don Bosco Cristo Rey students are “excelling and going on to great colleges.”
The education and work study experiences there, he said, are “life changing” for the students.
He also noted the growth in the school’s Advanced Placement classes. Don Bosco Cristo Rey’s 13 AP courses include biology, business with personal finance, calculus, English language and composition, English literature, Spanish language and culture, statistics, U.S. government and politics, and U.S. history. For the 2025-26 school year, 137 students there have taken AP exams.
Breaking ground on initiatives
A dinner following the groundbreaking celebrated not only the building of the future Athletic Center, but also the academic and work study programs built there and new initiatives underway. The dinner was held in the current gym, where volleyballs could be seen stuck in the rafters.
In an interview before offering a prayer at the dinner, Salesian Father Lou Molinelli, the school’s director of mission, said the new Athletic Center “will be an essential part of the educational life of the students.”
Speaking of how Don Bosco Cristo Rey reflects the vision of the school’s patron saint, St. John Bosco, in giving opportunities to students in need, he said, “For the students to have a place like this, to give them hope for the future… there’s nothing better.”
In remarks at the dinner, Kevin Sullivan, the director of the school’s new Niehaus Family Center for Work-Study & Career Partnerships, noted that Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School has also “broken ground on three more transformational initiatives.”
The first, he said, is the school’s three-year Advancing Excellence Grant, which is being used to launch two new career pathways in AI-driven business and in engineering.
Sullivan said the second initiative is the launching of the school’s new Sargent Shriver Center for Faith in Action, inspired by the life and legacy of Mark Shriver’s father, Sargent Shriver, the founding director of the Peace Corps and the architect of War on Poverty programs including Head Start, VISTA and Upward Bound. That center, he said, will “deepen our students’ commitment to service and how their faith can be an asset in their own lives, their families, their work, and in their civic duty to others.”
The third initiative, the Niehaus Family Center for Work-Study and Career Partnerships, is launching an Alumni Mentors Program that pairs graduates with professionals in a range of industries.
At the dinner, Donohoe Hospitality Services – one of the school’s largest work-study partners that employs 18 students at 11 different locations – received Don Bosco Cristo Rey’s Work Study Partner of the Year Award.
In an interview, Lorenzo Macias, the senior director of human resources at Donohoe Hospitality Services who accepted the award on behalf of that firm, praised the school’s students who work there. “They come in prepared. They’re ready every single day,” he said, adding that they all have a great attitude and great energy and are eager to learn.
“I wish I had it (this program) when I was in high school,” he said.
Also at the dinner, the Georgetown Law Early Outreach Initiative received the Partner of the Year Award from the high school’s Corporate Work Study Program.
As the dinner concluded, Mark Shriver led a discussion with a panel of two current Don Bosco Cristo Rey students and two graduates.
Jason Portillo, a member of the class of 2027, said he hopes to study cancer biology and wants to work as a lab researcher, which was inspired by his work study placement as a sophomore, working at the MacroGenics biopharmaceutical lab in Rockville, Maryland. This year, his work study placement is at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, and he is taking four AP classes. He also helps lead the school’s music group, playing guitar and bass.
In an interview, he said, “Now that I’m here, I’m taking every opportunity I can.”
Also on the panel, Katelyn Pryor, another Don Bosco Cristo Rey senior, spoke about the experience she’s gained through her work study placement at the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office.
“It puts me a step above my peers,” said Pryor, who hopes to go to law school and practice criminal law or family law.
Panelist Daniel Martinez Rios, a 2024 Don Bosco Cristo Rey graduate, is a current student at Georgetown University, majoring in public policy and minoring in education and global development studies. He served as a legislative intern on Capitol Hill this past summer. His work study placements during his years at the high school included MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville.
The fourth panelist, Jasmine Guevara, is a 2023 graduate of Don Bosco Cristo Rey who served in student government there and received the school’s Don Bosco Award. Her work study placements included working at Georgetown University and Catholic Charities. Now she is a senior at The Catholic University of America, majoring in media and communications and minoring in digital arts.
“I’m so grateful for Don Bosco Cristo Rey… We really push each other to thrive, and to greatness,” Guevera said.
Then addressing the guests at the dinner, she said, “Thank you for investing in my education and my future and everyone else’s future here.”
