When Gissell Vera was in eighth grade, the Rev. Bill Johnson officiated a Mass at her middle school.

While there, Johnson — now vice president of Cristo Rey Jesuit High School — told students about the local Catholic school, which emphasizes college readiness and offers a robust work-study program.

Vera was sold.

"I was like, 'That's where I want to go,'" she said.

Four years later, Vera graduated Friday as valedictorian of Cristo Rey's class of 2019.

While her story is remarkable, so are the collective results of the entire first graduating class at Cristo Rey.

All 85 members of the class earned at least two acceptances to four-year colleges.

All 85 represent the first generation in their families to pursue higher education.

The graduating seniors collectively won more than $3.5 million in scholarships and grants to put toward their college education.

"This is a historic day and a momentous milestone for our graduates and the Milwaukee community," Cristo Rey President Andrew Stith told the crowd at the ceremony. "I can vividly remember our first new family orientation four years ago. I shared with this first class that as our trailblazers they would experience moments of great joy, as well as seemingly insurmountable challenges in high school. ...Class of 2019, I'm so proud to see you in your caps and gowns today."

Established in 2015, the school is part of a nationwide network of 35 Cristo Rey Jesuit schools that predominantly reach students from low-income families. Students spend four days a week at the school, then one day a week at businesses across greater Milwaukee as part of the work-study program. The students are not paid; instead, their "pay" goes to the school to pay down the cost of tuition.

Almost all the students are Hispanic, and almost all attend the school on taxpayer-funded vouchers through the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program. The school continues to grow. Now at 1215 S. 45th St., it soon will double its space as it moves into a vacated Pick 'n Save store at 1818 W. National Ave.

A few hundred parents, family members and friends gathered in Marquette University's Church of the Gesu for Friday's ceremony.

After speeches from salutatorian Wendy Gutierrez-Perez, who will attend College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, and from commencement speaker the Rev. John P. Foley, chairman emeritus of Cristo Rey's board, Vera took to the podium to give her valedictorian address.

"We are not meant to be hidden," Vera said in her address. " We are meant to be in the heart of this country, and our stories are meant to be told."

In the fall, the two-time student council president will continue her education at Marquette University. The school selected Vera as a four-year, full-tuition Burke Scholar for demonstrating a commitment to social justice. It also named her a Les Aspin Scholar, with a semester-long internship in Washington, D.C., her junior year.

She also received full-ride offers from Georgetown University and College of the Holy Cross.

Vera came to the United States from Mexico in eighth grade. She left behind her parents and grandparents, living with an aunt and aunt's daughter in Milwaukee. She could neither read nor write English and remembers enduring that first academic year at Prince of Peace School in "survival mode" as she adjusted to a new country.

"I wanted to do more than just become a housewife and marry a fisherman," she said in an interview. "I felt like there were so many things that I still didn't know about the world and so many things that I wanted to do." She knew that "if I stayed there in that environment," her dreams would remain just that.

She enrolled at Cristo Rey in 2015, a time when, Vera remembers, she was shy and reluctant to step outside her comfort zone. Cristo Rey offered her transformative experiences.

Through the work-study program, Vera spent her junior and senior years working with the law firm Godfrey & Kahn. Attorneys at the firm, she said, boosted her self-confidence as she began to navigate a corporate environment.

"They wanted me to be there, and they wanted me to continue to build up and one day become an attorney and accomplish the most I could," Vera said. "I'm very thankful to them for my time there and everything they taught me."

She combined that with more than 200 hours of service with immigrant rights organization Voces de la Frontera, which helps with legal services, among other things.

Vera plans to pursue law and business after college.

"When I would go down to Voces and sit down with people," she said, "through my minimal grasp of immigration and immigration policy, I could explain something to them or help them find some type of legal pathway for whatever problem they were having. It would be like this is why I wanted to do law."

The aunt who took Vera in joined her at Friday's ceremony. Also in attendance were Vera's grandparents and 13-year-old sister Yartiza. The trio traveled from Mexico to attend.

To other Cristo Rey students, graduation felt surreal.

For one of those students, Rocky Lopez, who will attend Cardinal Stritch University, seeing his peers in their caps and gowns brought feelings of excitement and disbelief.

He called his time at Cristo Rey "amazing" and said the school helped him put his dreams in action.

"I don't feel like this is actually happening," Lopez said as the class gathered before the ceremony began. "I feel like I'm going to wake up from a dream."