Barber Dreams to College Bound: Cristo Rey Grad Shines

Given how much things have changed, I was curious to see how students supported themselves 100 years ago or more.

One caught my eye.

Red Morton was, by all accounts, a notable pitcher on TCU’s baseball team. Red actually had two nicknames, it appears. The baseball fans called him “Punt” because of his “meager” 135 pounds. However, he went three seasons without losing a game in the years leading up to 1911, according to newspaper accounts.

But between all that and school, he cut hair to meet his living and college expenses. In fact, according to one newspaper scribbler, Red was a barber of exceptional ability who “has shingled and shaved his way through two college terms.”

Said one student and customer: “I had rather have Red working on my hair than any regular barber I ever saw. He just can’t be beaten at that tonsorial thing.”

We don’t use those kinds of words anymore — tonsorial. In other words, barbering.

Milton Daniel, by the way, was moving furniture and doing odd jobs around campus.

This all caught my attention because of what newly minted Cristo Rey graduate Gael Rodriguez is doing.

When Rodriguez began his junior year of high school, he planned to make a career as a barber. He had an aunt in cosmetology. And he always loved visiting the barbershop and the creativity of the craft.

“I’ve liked it ever since I was little. I always liked getting haircuts,” Rodriguez says. “I like the transformation. You go into the barbershop, you don’t know what to expect, and then once you’re done, you’re a completely different person.”

As a junior, however, Rodriguez began looking at options to broaden his horizons. Just about all of his classmates at Cristo Rey were talking about going to college as their next steps in development.

“Everyone told me to at least try it out,” Rodriguez says. “’You’ll probably like it.’ So, I was like, ‘Why not? I’ll give it a try.’”

Rodriguez’s try at college has been fruitful so far.

He will be attending Texas Tech University as one of 12 Fidelity Scholars in Cristo Rey’s Class of 2025. He received a scholarship to Texas Tech, and whatever the Tech scholarship doesn’t cover, the Fidelity Scholarship will. The other recipients, according to the school, are Mykah Thomas (Baylor), Sarah Man (Baylor), Gareth Luna (Texas Tech), Andres Quirino (Texas Tech), Magaly Villa (Texas Tech), Jacqueline Moreno (Texas State), Roberto Molina (Texas Tech), Frederick Tchatat (Abilene Christian), Alexia Aguilar (UT Arlington), Jocelyn Garcia (TWU), and Ximena Garcia (Texas Tech).

Rodriguez is going to school with plans to study agricultural business. He also has an interest in petroleum engineering. He has time to decide.

“I was surprised,” he says about receiving the scholarship, namely because he was in a rush to meet the deadline for submitting an application. He turned it in in the nick of time and learned of his good fortune while in Lubbock visiting the university.

Cristo Rey’s class of 39 seniors received $28 million in scholarships, grants, and financial aid. Eighty-seven percent of the class are first-generation college students, including Rodriguez.

Jonathan Camacho earned distinction as the class valedictorian. Angela Lopez-Castillo and Dariana Vasquez were salutatorians.

Cristo Rey came to Fort Worth at the invitation of Bishop Michael Olson of the Diocese of Fort Worth.

Cristo Rey’s work-study model involves local business and corporate partners, which cover about 50% of the tuition to the school through a sponsorship of students they select to come work for them one day a week throughout the school year. The students work at the companies that earn their tuition while gaining real-life experience. Those jobs sometimes extend into the summer.

The balance of tuition is paid through the school’s development efforts and the students’ families. Parents are required to pay something, though it’s based on a sliding scale. Families with higher incomes pay more than those with lower incomes.

“I wasn’t planning on coming here,” Rodriguez says. “I wanted to go to a different school, but my parents told me that this school was a better option, and so I went with it, and, thankfully, I’m here right now.”

During his four years at Cristo Rey, Rodriguez worked for the Fort Worth Botanic Garden, Meador Auto, and Weaver. He will be heading off to West Texas in a couple of weeks to begin his college journey.

Like Red Morton at TCU all those years ago, Rodriguez, too, might be cutting hair to earn some money because he, in fact, completed the yearlong barber school while in high school.

“That’s what I’m planning to do,” he says. He first has to pass the state’s certification tests, which he was planning to take this summer.

So, barbering — check that, tonsorialing (yes, I know it’s not a word) — might still be in his future. But he’ll be all the more prepared for running that business with a college degree if he goes that route.