Jump to content

Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas

Edit links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 76.184.71.5 (talk) at 03:25, 4 August 2008 (→Academics). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

32°55′05″N 96°49′07″W / 32.91806°N 96.81861°W / 32.91806; -96.81861

Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas
Jesuit School Seal
Location
Map
Dallas
,
Texas

USA
Information
TypePrivate Jesuit all-male college preparatory
MottoesMen for Others
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam
Established1942
PresidentRev. Philip S. Postell, S.J.
PrincipalMr. Michael A. Earsing
Faculty105 full-time
Grades9-12
Number of students1,026 students
Color(s)Blue and Gold
Athletics19 sports
MascotRanger
Campus27 acres
Websitewww.jesuitcp.org

Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas is a private, college-preparatory school for young men under the direction of the Society of Jesus and home to the Jesuit Dallas Museum in Dallas, Texas. It operates independently of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Dallas.

History

Timeline

  • 1942: Jesuit High School opened on September 14, 1942. Located on the former grounds of Holy Trinity College on 3812 Oak Lawn Avenue in Dallas, Texas, the school had 150 students. For US$100 a year, students could receive a Catholic high school education from 12 Jesuit priests.
  • 1955: Jesuit High School was the first school in Dallas to integrate, when sophomore Charles Edmond and freshman Arthur Allen, both African-Americans, enrolled in the fall of 1955.
  • 1961: In the fall of 1961, Jesuit High School mandated school blazers, causing uproar among the students. The blazer, however, set Jesuit High School apart from other schools in Dallas.
  • 1963: In the autumn of 1963, Jesuit High School opened its current campus at 12345 Inwood Road. After spending three years at the Oak Lawn campus, the transition was described as difficult by many of the seniors who had an attachment to the old building. But the new school's drastically improved facilities, including closed circuit television, pristine laboratories, and a new gymnasium, helped to ease that transition.
  • 1969: Jesuit High School became Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas in 1969 by order of school president Rev. Paul Schott, S.J.. The new name was meant to describe more accurately the school's character and curriculum.
  • 1970: In 1970, the seniors went on the first Community Weekend, now known as Community Days. The idea came from the seniors themselves. Ever since that first year, the events of each Community Days are purported to have been kept secret.
  • 1983: The Jesuit Dallas Museum was established in 1983, and Jesuit Dallas became one of a few secondary schools in the country to house an art museum. The museum featured works from such artists as Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, Braque, and Moore.
  • 1986: The "Leaders for Dallas" wing of the school opened in 1986 and added 25% more square footage to the school. It included a lecture hall, computer labs, and departmental offices.
  • 1987: The "Profile of the Graduate at Graduation," establishing a framework of goals and qualities that should characterize a Jesuit Dallas graduate, was finalized in 1987. These qualities included being open to growth, intellectually competent, physically fit, loving, religious, and committed to working for social justice.
  • 1992: 1992 marked the 50th anniversary of Jesuit Dallas. The golden anniversary was celebrated with masses and dedications at the Inwood campus and at the site of the former Oak Lawn Avenue campus.
  • 2000: The Science and Counseling Wing was opened in 2000 and featured separate grade level common areas in addition to new science laboratories.
  • 2001: The Arts, Assembly, and Athletic Building (AAA) was dedicated in 2001, offering a gathering place for the school community, band and choral halls, and art studios. Also the first year of crew.

Student body

As of the 2006-2007 school year, Jesuit maintains 1026 students in grades 9-12. While Jesuit is a Catholic institution, 20% of the student body is non-Catholic and come from a variety of religious traditions. 24% of students receive need-based financial assistance from the school amounting to US$ 1,104,170. Jesuit also maintains a diverse student body with 24% minority enrollment.

Jesuit students have done substantially well on the PSAT/NMSQT. From 2002-2006 Jesuit has had:

  • Forty-seven National Merit Scholarship Finalists
  • Forty-seven Semi-finalists
  • One thousand One Hundred Twenty-two Letters of Commendation

The class of 2006 had a mean SAT score of 1428 (before the writing section had been added). The class of 2007 had a mean SAT score of 2010.

The class of 2006 attended 85 schools; 52% attended private colleges/universities; 46% attended public colleges/universities; 4 students received appointments to attend Military Academies; 152 members of the class received scholarship recognition and as of May 27, 2006, the scholarships amounted to $11.9 million.

371 total scholarships were awarded:

  • 362 Academic
  • 7 Athletic
  • 2 ROTC

Geographic distribution attendance:

  • 98 In-state
  • 33 South
  • 115 Southwest
  • 10 West
  • 45 Midwest
  • 25 Northeast
  • 1 Spain

Recent graduates of The Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas have enrolled in four-year colleges and universities including:

Campus

The school has a 27 acre (11 ha, 109,000 m²) campus located on Inwood Road in north Dallas, Texas, adjacent to St. Rita Catholic Community, south-west of the intersection of the Dallas North Tollway and Interstate 635 (LBJ Freeway).

Academics

Jesuit provides a college preparatory environment. The school is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the Texas Catholic Conference Education Department, and recognized by the Texas Education Agency. The school is also affiliated with the National Catholic Educational Association and the Jesuit Secondary Education Association. Jesuit is a U.S. Department of Education Recognized School of Excellence.

The faculty totals 205 professionals consisting of Jesuit priests and scholastics as well as lay men and women. Currently, seventy-five percent of the staff has earned master’s degrees or higher.

Jesuit provides a college counseling department to its students that is known and respected nationwide, as well as a nationally, well known and respected college counseling faculty. This world renowned college counseling department is one of the reasons that ever since Jesuit was founded in 1942 Jesuit has had a 100% graduation rate as well as a 100% college attendance rate, with 90% of the graduates attending the college of their choice.

Spiritual life

Retreats

Students experience a minimum of 4 retreats, one during each year. These retreats are "intended to build community within a class," as well as to "foster the spiritual growth of the individual."

  • Freshman Retreat - the Jesuit student's first retreat experience; led by Juniors and Seniors, and aided by Sophomore grounds crew members; the class motto and song are introduced.
  • Midpoint Retreat - a retreat held at the end of the sophomore year, and thus the "midpoint" of the high school career.
  • Junior Retreat - similar in fashion to the Midpoint Retreat; focuses on the preparation for leadership as next year's Seniors; the Cross Mass follows when each student receives his Junior Cross; class rings are usually distributed soon after the retreat
  • Senior Retreats - seniors sign up for the retreat that they believe will best enable their spiritual growth
    • Jesuit Retreat Experience - largest and most popular session; a basic retreat
    • Kairos - created in 2002, an entirely student-directed retreat adapted from the Kairos retreat program at Boston College High School
    • Silent Directed Retreat - requiring an application essay, a retreat where the silence of participants is only broken when conversing with spiritual directors

Campus ministry

Masses, retreats, and prayer services are student-led through Campus Ministry, a student organization.

Student life

Sports

Jesuit Dallas supports a wide range of professionally coached athletics. Unlike most other private schools in Texas, Jesuit does not compete in the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools or the Southwest Preparatory Conference. Instead, following lengthy litigation, Jesuit was one of two private schools admitted to the all-public school University Interscholastic League (UIL), (the other is Strake Jesuit College Preparatory of Houston). As a result, Jesuit now competes in District 8 of Class AAAAA, the state's largest classification. Jesuit also participates in non-UIL sports such as lacrosse, crew, rugby union, ice hockey, fencing, and cheerleading, for which it won the National Cheerleaders Association National Titles for the Large Co-Ed Division in both 2005 and 2007.

Dress code

Shirt
Long or short sleeve dress shirt in solid blue, yellow, pink, or white. Shirts must be made of broadcloth or an oxford material.
Tie
Must be worn with a four-in-hand knot, though the use of half-Windsor and Windsor knots are still practiced; recently, a resurgence in bow ties has also become acceptable, though only popular and allowed in the senior class
Pants
Must be similar in style to Haggar Dockers in navy, khaki, grey, black, or olive. Freshmen must wear khaki.
Shoes
Cap toe, wing tip, or tassel loafer styles in solid black, brown, or cordovan. Must be worn with socks.
Blazers
During the school's second and third academic quarters, all students must wear navy blazers. Seniors are permitted to wear any sport coat consistent with modern dress standards.

Students are free to purchase their uniform at the store of their choosing.

Traditions

  • Freshmen must wear khaki slacks while other classes may wear slacks of any color
  • Freshmen must wear name tags during the first half of the first semester
  • Freshmen, during prayer services and liturgies, must sit in the uncomfortable bleachers of the Arts, Athletics, and Assembly (AAA) building where such school functions are held. This is an obligation that arrived with the completion of the AAA building.
  • Freshmen enjoy lunch on the days of football home games. This means that, during their lunch period, the senior members of the football team often enter the cafeteria and prompt the freshmen to stand up on the tables and sing the school fight song.
  • Freshmen are allotted the "Freshman Steps" outside of the auditorium
  • Freshmen are required to enter through the Hall of Honors
  • Freshmen are assigned the bug catching project for their biology course
  • Freshmen build a chariot in their homeroom for Ranger Day to race, in which the best runners pull their homeroom Big Brother to compete for homeroom bragging rights and the chariot trophy, a stack of several blocks of wood with plaques of previous champions
  • Sophomores join the upper classes in their use of colored pants, traditionally blue
  • Sophomores must stack chairs after prayer services and liturgies.
  • Sophomores usually win Ranger Day due to their involvement in score-keeping.
  • Seniors embark on Community Days in the fall (later in addition to one of three possible retreats at their choosing)
  • Seniors partake every Wednesday in community service, aiding Dallas at their assigned service site
  • Seniors are allowed creative freedom with their uniform - this usually consists of varied blazers, suits, and bow ties.
  • Seniors are allowed to wear cowboy boots with their uniform
  • Seniors are allotted the Senior Lounge
  • Seniors get off campus lunch, and towards the end of the year, open campus privileges to those who qualify
  • Seniors are dismissed first from Mass and Prayer Service
  • Seniors host the Special Olympics and enjoy Jesuit Palooza that evening
  • Underclassmen that enter the Senior Courtyard are apprehended by seniors and forced to ride a stone bison statue, referred to as "the bull," within the courtyard.

Ranger Day


Widely regarded as "the best day to be a Jesuit student," Ranger Day is always celebrated on the Friday of homecoming weekend on the day of the homecoming game, typically around the end of October. In essence, Ranger Day is Jesuit's spirit day where students are pitted against each other in interclass competitions. Ranger Day is characterized by:

File:Rangerday.jpg
An extravagantly dressed senior from Ranger Day 2004
A pair of seniors chasing a pair of sophomores during the Egghead competition from Ranger Day 2005
An example of a freshman chariot from Ranger Day 2005
Body painting
Colors, often blue and gold, the school colors, are applied in creative patterns and letters. Typically tempera paint is used.
Cross dressing
Wearing of skirts, belonging to Ursuline Academy peers, is not uncommon. Though full drag is not approved of, those who wear women's clothing are well respected by their classmates. Some misguided underclassmen believe that the face-painting and skirt wearing relates to the release of the movie Braveheart, in reality, there is no correlation.
Wearing of scanty clothing
Individuals often wear Speedo style swim-suits in combination with body paint. Those who follow this practice are typically those who should never wear a Speedo in public. It should be noted that temperatures on Ranger Day sometimes hover around 60 degrees.
Senior parade
Ranger Day begins in the gymnasium. Freshmen, sophomores, and juniors are seated in the bleachers of the gym. The senior class then processes into the gym. Though methods and themes vary from year to year, the seniors always process in a grandiose fashion, with themes ranging from Roman Times to Superheroes. They are often fraught with inside jokes.
Competitive games
Games are run for students, by students. Occurring throughout the day, they range from Trivial Pursuit and checkers to hot dog eating and jousting and can be very entertaining to watch.
Music
During the day, faculty and student bands play on the steps of the Arts, Athletics, and Assembly (AAA) building.
Senior "advantages"
During the competitions, especially the basketball shooting and paper airplane contests, seniors are allowed to be "creative" in their quest to win.
Chariot races
The climax of Ranger Day. Each freshman homeroom, consisting of roughly twenty students, designs and builds a chariot. This chariot must be made entirely by the students, must be propelled by student runners, and must carry a senior student aboard. Many chariots crash or otherwise fall apart on the track over the 200 meter race.

Rivalries

The school enjoys a lively, spirited rivalry with cross-town Bishop Lynch High School — something many see as ironic as Bishop Lynch is named after the Most Reverend Joseph P. Lynch, who commissioned the Society of Jesus to found a Jesuit high school in Dallas.

Beginning with the 2004-2005 school year, Jesuit and BL reinstated the annual Jesuit versus BL football game after a 17-year hiatus. Currently, Jesuit leads the series 4-0. This year (2007) the Ranger's Varsity beat Bishop Lynch 38-14. Lake Highlands and Coppell are Jesuit's primary public school rivals from before their days in the UIL. Since being allowed into the UIL, the rivalries have only intensified. In 1999 a large "LH" was burned into the football field at Haggar Stadium. In 2006, a determined Jesuit side was defeated 1-0 by Coppell in the private school's first ever appearance in the state's soccer semifinals.

Technology

Jesuit has 8 computer lab facilities for student use located in the library, as well as an "information commons" within the library proper.

Each classroom is equipped with smartboards, large, projection, touch-responsive computer interfaces.

The majority of campus is Wi-Fi-enabled, for students who choose to bring laptops or PDAs to school.

All of Jesuit's computers run Windows XP. To prevent improper use, all computers have a "white list" policy, allowing only certain programs to be executed on the machine. It was added in the 2005-2006 year due to computers being used to run game emulators and other games.

Prior to 2006, Jesuit maintained no web filtering across its network and prided itself on the restraint of the student body, without censorship. Due to rampant abuses against the acceptable use policy each student agrees to, a filtering system was implemented on 3 April 2006 to block non-academic sites such as MySpace, Facebook, and Xanga.

A recent technology development for the 2005-2006 school year is the greater incorporation of the Internet into the school system. This school year saw the beginning of the use of Moodle, software which extends the classroom to the Internet for home access. Furthermore, this year grades are available for students and parents to view online through K12Planet.

In 2006, parents were asked to fill out an online survey as to their views of distance learning. Jesuit is currently contemplating as to whether to give incoming freshman laptops such as fellow Jesuit high schools De Smet Jesuit and SLUH in the near future.

Ranger Connection

The Ranger Connection is the official school store of Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas. The store sells a limited selection of school supplies including combination locks for athletic lockers, graphing calculators, planners, selected books, pens, and pencils. In addition to these items, the store also features a variety of Jesuit Dallas branded apparel and spirit gear including hats, T-shirts, polo shirts, sweatshirts, jackets, and other merchandise. In the weeks nearing homecoming, the store sells tickets for the student homecoming dance. The store, located near the school cafeteria, is open while school is in session during student lunch periods and near the end of the school day. In recent years, the Ranger Connection added an online store with e-commerce capabilities.

Jesuit Dallas Museum

The Jesuit Dallas Museum is a separately chartered, fully functional gallery and museum residing entirely within Jesuit Dallas. It is home to a 15 million dollar art collection. Its collections cover the visual arts including ceramics, painting, prints, kinetic and stationary sculpture and feature, among others, such well-known artists as Salvador Dalí and Dale Chihuly, as well as some pieces that were created by the artists especially for Jesuit. Such as the famous "Window" into Jesuit. It has been said to be one of the finest collections ever assembled at a secondary school.The Jesuit Dallas Museum is distinguished by the wide range and depth of its art collection. Major gifts and purchases have brought over 400 pieces to the school's corridors and courtyards. Internationally celebrated artists share space with a rich trove of Southwestern works. This important concentration of ceramics, kinetics, painting, prints, and sculpture is placed throughout the school complex. Works by Dali, Chihuly, and Pena are as likely to fill an alcove as Texas State Flags are to hug the walls of an intimate hallway.

A Momentum magazine article states:

"The effect of the presence of the art on the students has been nothing short of remarkable. There is a unique sense of pride and respect instilled in each student for "their" paintings. The faculty has become aware of bold uses of color and increased imagination in class assignments. Students gather to discuss why an artist may have chosen a particular color or theme for a work.

The museum is open to the public for tours of the permanent collection and special exhibitions. Volunteer docents guide visitors through the Jesuit Dallas Museum; admission is free. Tours are available between 09:00 and 14:00, when school is in session.

Presidents

  • Rev. Nicolas J. Roth, S.J. 1939-1945
  • Rev. D. Ross Druhan, S.J. 1945-1951
  • Rev. J. A. Sweeney, S.J. 1952-1953
  • Rev. Thomas J. Shields, S.J. 1953-1959
  • Rev. Robert A. Tynan, S.J. 1959-1965
  • Rev. Paul W. Schott, S.J. 1965-1973
  • Rev. Thomas J. Naughton, S.J. 1973-1979
  • Rev. Patrick H. Koch, S.J. 1979-1980
  • Rev. Larion J. Elliot, S.J. 1980-1981
  • Rev. Clyde LeBlanc, S.J. 1982-1986
  • Rev. Michael Alchediak, S.J. 1987-1992
  • Rev. Philip S. Postell, S.J. 1992—

Principals

  • Rev. Joseph C. Mulhern, S.J. 1942-1945
  • Rev. D. Ross Druhan, S.J. 1945-1951
  • Rev. Edward P. Curry, S.J. 1951-1954
  • Rev. Michael P. Kammer, S.J. 1954-1959
  • Rev. Walter C. McCauley, S.J. 1959-1963
  • Rev. Albert C. Louapre, S.J. 1963-1970
  • Rev. Joseph. B. Leininger, S.J. 1970-1972
  • Rev. Patrick H. Koch, S.J. 1972-1979
  • Rev. Brian F. Zinnamon, S.J. 1979-1985
  • Rev. Geoffrey R. Dillon, S.J. 1985-1993
  • Rev. Paul Deutsch, S.J. 1993-1997
  • Mr. Michael A. Earsing 1997—

Notable alumni

References

Template:UIL District 8-5A High Schools

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Jesuit_College_Preparatory_School_of_Dallas&oldid=229701120"