When senior Anna Molina walks into the new STEAM Center at Cristo Rey Fort Worth College Prep, she can hardly believe it’s her school. Sunlight floods through the classrooms, bouncing off lab tables where students will now conduct hands-on experiments in fully equipped science labs.
“Before this, I’d only seen labs like this on TV,” Anna said, carefully setting up her lab experiment to test the rate of osmosis – her group’s latest AP biology experiment. “Now I get to learn things that could actually help people. It makes me feel like I can do anything.”
For Anna, whose parents chose Cristo Rey to seek a better future for their children, the new STEAM Center is more than a building. It’s a doorway to confidence, to curiosity, and to a future she can now see for herself.
A Promise Fulfilled
Cristo Rey Fort Worth’s newly opened $5.1 million STEAM Center represents a bold step forward in the school’s mission to empower students like Anna—young people with talent, drive, and dreams that deserve a chance to grow.
Located in southwest Fort Worth at 2633 Altamesa Blvd., the new facility expands the campus, adding 12 classrooms, featuring fully equipped science labs and a black box theater designed to inspire creativity and innovation. Designed by Javier Lucio of RPGA Design Group, the center gives Cristo Rey students access to the kinds of hands-on learning environments that fuel success in college and beyond.
“This isn’t just a building, it’s a promise to our students,” said Cristo Rey Fort Worth President Dani Ray Barton. “Every new lab and creative space brings our students closer to achieving their dreams through education and practical experience.”
Building Futures from the Inside Out
Nearly one in five children in Tarrant County lives in poverty. Cristo Rey Fort Worth provides a bridge to possibilities many families never imagined. Many students will be the first in their families to graduate from college. Cristo Rey’s model, combining a rigorous college preparatory curriculum with real-world corporate work experience, gives students the tools to reimagine what’s possible.
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“The STEAM Center is a symbol of what’s possible when faith, determination, and opportunity come together,” said Christina Jimenez, Cristo Rey’s Director of College Initiatives. “Our students are dreaming bigger, working harder, and achieving more than ever before.”
For Anna, that combination of academics and work experience has already shaped her aspirations. Through Cristo Rey’s Corporate Work Study Program, she spends one day each week at Cook Children’s Hospital, shadowing human resources and occupational health professionals who are now mentoring her on college pathways.
“Every week, I see how what we’re learning connects to real jobs,” she said. “Now I know I want to be in the medical field, and maybe one day come back and work in a hospital like Cook Children’s.”
A Model That’s Thriving
Since opening in 2018, Cristo Rey Fort Worth has seen enrollment rise by 15% annually, reaching 300 students this year. With the STEAM Center, the school expects to serve more than 400 within three years, ensuring that every student has room—and resources—to thrive. Alumni are now attending universities across the country, majoring in everything from biology and architecture to business and computer science.
“The skills they’re learning here; critical thinking, creativity, and resilience, are exactly what they’ll need to lead in the future,” Barton said. “And this STEAM Center gives them the foundation to build those skills.”
Where Dreams Take Shape
At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, community leaders, partners, and families gathered to celebrate not just the completion of a building, but the growth of a movement. Cristo Rey Fort Worth’s approach is working—and thriving—transforming the lives of students who might otherwise be overlooked.
For students like Anna, the impact is deeply personal. “When I walk in here,” she said, “I don’t just see a classroom. I see my future.”
For Cristo Rey Fort Worth, that’s exactly the point. The new STEAM Center adds to the resources and experiences deserving students need to fulfill their potential—one student, one dream, and one bright future at a time.
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