St. Ignatius College Preparatory
Encyclopedia
- This article is about the high school in San Francisco, CA. For the similarly named high school in Chicago, Illinois, see St. Ignatius College PrepSt. Ignatius College PrepSaint Ignatius College Prep is a private, coeducational Jesuit high school located in Chicago, Illinois. The school was founded in Chicago in 1870 by Fr. Arnold Damen, S.J., a Belgian missionary to the United States. The school is coeducational, Catholic, college preparatory and sponsored by the...
.
St. Ignatius College Preparatory is a preparatory school
University-preparatory school
A university-preparatory school or college-preparatory school is a secondary school, usually private, designed to prepare students for a college or university education...
in the Jesuit
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
tradition serving the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
since 1855. Located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in the northern California region of the United States. It covers the City and County of San Francisco and the Counties of Marin and San Mateo...
, in the Sunset District of San Francisco, St. Ignatius is one of the oldest secondary schools in the U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of California. It is known also as S.I.
History
St. Ignatius was founded as a one-room schoolhouse on Market Street by Fr. Anthony MaraschiAnthony Maraschi
The Reverend Anthony Maraschi, S.J. was an Italian-born priest of the Society of Jesus. He was a founder of the University of San Francisco and Saint Ignatius College Preparatory as well as the first pastor of Saint Ignatius Church in San Francisco, California.Born in Piedmont, Italy in 1820,...
, a Jesuit priest, just after the California Gold Rush
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
in 1855. Maraschi paid $11,000 for the property which was to become the original church and schoolhouse. The church opened on July 15, 1855, and three months later, on October 15, the school opened its doors to its first students.
SI was the high school division of what later became the University of San Francisco
University of San Francisco
The University of San Francisco , is a private, Jesuit/Catholic university located in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1855, USF was established as the first university in San Francisco. It is the second oldest institution for higher learning in California and the tenth-oldest university of...
, but it has since split from the university and changed locations five times due to the growth of the student body and natural disaster. In the 1860s, the school built a new site, adjacent to the first, on Market Street in downtown San Francisco. In 1880, SI moved its campus to a location on Van Ness Avenue in the heart of San Francisco, and by 1883, SI had become the largest Jesuit school in the nation. Within 26 years of the relocation, however, St. Ignatius would be completely destroyed. Though the school would survive the tremors of the 1906 earthquake
1906 San Francisco earthquake
The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a major earthquake that struck San Francisco, California, and the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the earthquake is a moment magnitude of 7.9; however, other...
with only moderate damage, the subsequent fires destroyed the school and church, forcing SI to find a new location near Golden Gate Park
Golden Gate Park
Golden Gate Park, located in San Francisco, California, is a large urban park consisting of of public grounds. Configured as a rectangle, it is similar in shape but 20% larger than Central Park in New York, to which it is often compared. It is over three miles long east to west, and about half a...
, a hastily constructed "temporary" wooden building, affectionately known as the "Shirt Factory", which housed the school for more than 20 years, from 1906 to 1929.
In 1927, the high school was separated from the university, becoming St. Ignatius High School. Two years later, SI relocated its campus once more, this time to Stanyan Street, where it remained for 40 years. In the fall of 1969, Father Harry Carlin moved SI to its current Sunset District campus, whereupon the current name, St. Ignatius College Preparatory, was adopted.
Though originally founded as an all-boys school, SI became coeducation
Coeducation
Mixed-sex education, also known as coeducation or co-education, is the integrated education of male and female persons in the same institution. It is the opposite of single-sex education...
al in 1989 and is now home to 1,400 students.
SI celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2005.
Academics and Student Body
To prepare students for college, St. Ignatius requires coursework in English, mathematicsMathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, social science, physical science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
, foreign language, fine art
Fine art
Fine art or the fine arts encompass art forms developed primarily for aesthetics and/or concept rather than practical application. Art is often a synonym for fine art, as employed in the term "art gallery"....
s, physical education
Physical education
Physical education or gymnastics is a course taken during primary and secondary education that encourages psychomotor learning in a play or movement exploration setting....
, and religious studies
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
. Students are taught by a faculty that, in 2004, was one of 12 schools nationwide to be honored by Today's Catholic Teacher magazine for excellence and innovation in education. St. Ignatius offers honors courses and Advanced Placement classes, which may be used for college credit with a passing score. SI has one of the largest and most successful Advanced Placement programs in the country. In 2010, students took 1,422 tests and passed 1,142, breaking the school record in both regards. Also, students scored more than 700 4s and 5s on these tests. This performance ranks SI among the top 150 schools (the top 2/3rds of 1 percent) in the nation. SI’s pass rate of 80.3 percent is 23 points higher than the national average.
Additional information:
- Student body: 33% students of color, 50% girls/50% boys, 24% students receive nearly $2.1 million in financial aid
- Current ethnic diversity: 64% Caucasian, 18% Asian American, 10% Latino, 4% African American, 4% decline to state or other
- Experienced and dedicated faculty (80% with masters degrees, 7% with doctorates, 11 in Jesuit community)
- Active campus ministry program with retreats and Friday morning liturgies
- A vibrant and diverse fine and performing arts program, including new choral/music building
- A top-60 Prep School
- One of the 12 best Catholic schools in the nation for professional development
- A top-30 school in the nation for AP scores, with about 1100 exams administered last year and an 80.9% pass rate
- SAT scores more than 150 points above national and state average
- Financially stable: $75 million in endowment
- 65 athletic teams with over 900 students participating
- 62 clubs with more than 1,000 members
- Nearly 18,000 alumni, two-thirds of whom live in the Bay Area
- Campus is 20 acres on two sites
- Student to Teacher Ratio: 14 to 1; average class size is 25
- Typically 100% graduates attend four year colleges
Athletics
Sports are a major component of student life at St. Ignatius with approximately 1400 students competing on 65 teams in 26 sports, including American footballAmerican football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
, basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
, baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
, soccer, volleyball
Volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...
, water polo
Water polo
Water polo is a team water sport. The playing team consists of six field players and one goalkeeper. The winner of the game is the team that scores more goals. Game play involves swimming, treading water , players passing the ball while being defended by opponents, and scoring by throwing into a...
, swimming
Swimming (sport)
Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...
, lacrosse
Lacrosse
Lacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh...
, tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
, cross country
Cross country running
Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...
, golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
, crew
Sport rowing
Rowing is a sport in which athletes race against each other on rivers, on lakes or on the ocean, depending upon the type of race and the discipline. The boats are propelled by the reaction forces on the oar blades as they are pushed against the water...
, track and field
Track and field
Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
. The Wildcats generally participate in the Western Catholic Athletic League (WCAL) in the Central Coast Section of California, though for some sports, teams belong to other leagues. Its athletics are nationally ranked. The men's rowing team has won the US Rowing Youth National Championships on three occasions, first in 1997 and in consecutive years between 2005 and 2006. In addition, the crew has competed in the world-renowned Henley Royal Regatta
Henley Royal Regatta
Henley Royal Regatta is a rowing event held every year on the River Thames by the town of Henley-on-Thames, England. The Royal Regatta is sometimes referred to as Henley Regatta, its original name pre-dating Royal patronage...
in England, where St. Ignatius won Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup
Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup
The Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup is a rowing event at Henley Royal Regatta open to school 1st VIIIs.-History:The event was instituted in 1946 for public schools in the United Kingdom...
in 2006. The lacrosse
Lacrosse
Lacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh...
team has consistently won the state championship and was ranked nationally in 2007 and 2008, marking the first time a lacrosse team west of the Mississippi has been ranked nationally. The school's soccer team is also nationally ranked by ESPN. In 2009 the SI soccer team won both the WCAL Championship and the CCS Championship. In 2010 they won WCAL for a second consecutive year. The SI Football team reached new accolades when they won the 2006 WCAL Championship for the first time since 1967. The team later went on to win the CCS Division III Championship, setting a new bar for SI Football.
Wildcat teams practice and compete in facilities on campus and in the surrounding area. J.B. Murphy Field and Jack Wilsey Track are used by the football, lacrosse, soccer, field hockey and track and field teams. J.B. Murphy Field has undergone a ten million dollar renovation and now features a Sprinturf synthetic turf surface. SI offers two gymnasiums for basketball and volleyball, four tennis courts, and the Herbst Natatorium for the swimming and diving program and water polo teams. The rowing and baseball teams compete off-campus at San Francisco's Lake Merced
Lake Merced
Lake Merced is a freshwater lake in the southwest corner of San Francisco. It is surrounded by three golf courses , as well as residential areas, Lowell High School, San Francisco State University, Fort Funston and the Pacific Ocean...
and Daly City
Daly City, California
Daly City is the largest city in San Mateo County, California, United States, with a 2010 population of 101,123. Located immediately south of San Francisco, it is named in honor of businessman and landowner John Daly.-History:...
's Marchbanks Field, respectively.
Rivalry with Sacred Heart Cathedral
St. Ignatius' traditional rival is Sacred Heart Cathedral PreparatorySacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory
Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory, commonly known as SH, SHC, or SHCP is a Catholic school located in the Cathedral Hill neighborhood of San Francisco, California. Founded in 1852, Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory is the oldest Catholic secondary school in San Francisco...
, also located in San Francisco. The SI-SH rivalry began with a rugby
Rugby football
Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...
game on St. Patrick's Day in 1893. SI and SH compete against each other in football, basketball, and baseball for the Bruce-Mahoney Trophy
Bruce-Mahoney Trophy
The Bruce-Mahoney Trophy is a sporting trophy played for, annually, by Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory and Saint Ignatius College Preparatory, founded in 1947. The two Catholic high schools in San Francisco are longtime cross-town rivals. The trophy is named in honor of Bill Bruce and Jerry...
, which is named after one SI and one SH alumni who died in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. St. Ignatius is ahead in the series 40–19, with a record winning series of 12 years (1974–1985). Most recently, SI won the trophy in 2010-2011.
Fight Song
SI began an important sports tradition in 1933 when Fenton Gervase O’Toole ’34 wrote the words that generations of Ignatians have sung at rallies and games. The November 8, 1933, edition of The Red and Blue reported on this event:Here it is:
To the Red and Blue we’ll all be true,
We’ll wave her banner to the sky,
We’ll fight for you, old Red and Blue,
We’ll fight for Saint Ignatius High!
And victory will be our goal —
For we will reach it, if we try,
So let us fight—with all our might—
We’re gonna fight, fight, fight, fight, fight!”
Ignatian’s Song of Victory Made by F. O’Toole '34
Notable alumni
- Daniel J. CallaghanDaniel J. CallaghanDaniel Judson Callaghan was a United States Navy officer who received the Medal of Honor posthumously for his actions during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. In a career spanning just over 30 years, he served his country in two wars...
- Congressional Medal of Honor recipient - William CallaghanWilliam M. CallaghanWilliam McCombe Callaghan was a United States Navy officer who served as the first captain of the battleship and the inaugural commander of the Military Sea Transportation Service. Through the course of almost 40 years, he served his country in three wars. His naval career began on a destroyer in...
, 1914, USN Vice Admiral and first captain of the USS Missouri (BB-63)USS Missouri (BB-63)|USS Missouri is a United States Navy Iowa-class battleship, and was the fourth ship of the U.S. Navy to be named in honor of the U.S. state of Missouri... - Igor OlshanskyIgor OlshanskyIgor Olshansky is a Ukrainian-born American football defensive end free agent in National Football League. He last played for the Miami Dolphins....
, 2000, NFL football player, Defensive Lineman for the Miami DolphinsMiami DolphinsThe Miami Dolphins are a Professional football team based in the Miami metropolitan area in Florida. The team is part of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League... - Jerry BrownJerry BrownEdmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown, Jr. is an American politician. Brown served as the 34th Governor of California , and is currently serving as the 39th California Governor...
- 32nd and 39th Governor of California - Dan FoutsDan FoutsDaniel Francis Fouts is a retired Hall of Fame American football quarterback in the National Football League. Fouts played his entire professional career with the San Diego Chargers from 1973 through 1987...
- NFL Pro Bowl Quarterback, played for the San Diego Chargers. NFL Hall of Fame. - Darren CrissDarren CrissDarren Everett Criss is an American actor, singer-songwriter, musician, composer, and a founding member and co-owner of the theater company StarKid Productions. He currently portrays Blaine Anderson, an openly gay high school student, on the FOX television series Glee...
- musician and actor - Chuck Criss - musician (Freelance WhalesFreelance WhalesFreelance Whales is an American indie rock band from Queens, New York, formed in 2008. Consisting of frontman Judah Dadone , and bandmates Doris Cellar , Chuck Criss , Jacob Hyman...
) - George MosconeGeorge MosconeGeorge Richard Moscone was an American attorney and Democratic politician. He was the 37th mayor of San Francisco, California, US from January 1976 until his assassination in November 1978. Moscone served in the California State Senate from 1967 until becoming Mayor. In the Senate, he served as...
- Mayor of San Francisco - John Paul Getty, Jr. - Philanthropist
- Gordon GettyGordon GettyGordon Peter Getty was born on December 20, 1934. He is the fourth child of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty. His mother, Ann Rork, was his father's third wife. When his father died in 1976, Gordon assumed control of Getty's US$2 billion trust...
- Billionaire and businessman - Francis JueFrancis JueFrancis Jue is an Asian-American actor and singer. Jue is known for his performances on Broadway, Off-Broadway and in regional theatre, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area...
- actor - Paul OtelliniPaul OtelliniPaul S. Otellini is an American businessman current president and chief executive of Intel. He is also on the board of directors of Google.- Early life and Education :...
- President and CEO of Intel