A message from
Rev. Raymond P. Guiao, S.J. '82
President and Chief Mission Officer, Saint Ignatius High School
Saint Ignatius High School is a very special place. From the moment you step onto our campus, you feel like there is no other high school like it. For more than 135 years, the responsibility of educating and forming young men to know, love, and serve Jesus Christ has been our mission. And today’s Ignatians will be tomorrow’s leaders in every field of civic and Church life.
In September 2022, our Board of Regents eagerly and enthusiastically approved Vision ’30, our school’s strategic plan. Vision ’30 focuses on three areas: Academic Preparation, Affordability and Enrollment, and Faith Formation. After carefully discerning these priorities, we are now poised to launch a capital campaign with an ambitious goal: $100 million, to bring the strategic initiatives of Vision ’30 to reality. We look for your support to move Saint Ignatius boldly into the future with “The Campaign for Vision ’30.”
The central question in
Academic Preparation is this: How do we prepare students academically to be Ignatian leaders in an increasingly diverse, global, digital, collaborative, and unpredictable world? Through innovative curricular design, a unified culture of professional learning by our teachers, and an unswerving commitment to studentcentered Ignatian pedagogy, Saint Ignatius is committed to advancing what we have always done well: academic excellence. A major initiative of Vision ’30 is a much-needed reimagining of our instructional spaces. While our current classrooms are serviceable, there has not been a significant investment in academic spaces of the school since the addition of the Clavius Science Center – and that happened over twenty years ago! The library and Main Building classrooms were last updated in the mid 1990s, and Loyola Hall classrooms were renovated when I myself was a student in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
In the area of
Affordability and Enrollment, we believe that our financial and admission models should both flow from and target our mission of forming young men in the Catholic, Jesuit tradition. This model must support all that is needed for state-of-the-art educational facilities of 21st century teaching and learning. It is a financial model that must be both fiscally responsible and sustainable for the long term, based on current and future trends in Catholic education. Annual distributions from our endowment are a critical source of funding for financial aid, as keeping Saint Ignatius affordable is yet another one of our strategic commitments.
Faith Formation has always been at the core of our brand of education. After all, even before St. Ignatius Loyola and his first Jesuits started their first schools, the first Jesuits devoted their ministry to “the help of souls.” Our mission at Saint Ignatius High School is to form students to know, love, and serve our Lord. With this is our central commitment, and it behooves us to bring together, in closer collaboration, the strength of our Theology Department, the riches of our Campus Ministry, and the vitality of our Christian Action Team. And with our time-honored focus on cura personalis “care of the whole person,” every student, teacher, and staff member knows that they are respected, loved, and valued.
As a proud alumnus of the Saint Ignatius High School Class of 1982, I know first-hand how formation in academics and faith are at the heart of Jesuit education. Saint Ignatius High School does not produce young men who aremere scholars, but young men with the desire to discern the quintessential Ignatian questions, “What does God want from me? How can I be a force of good for this world?” Vision ’30 is our compass for the future of Saint Ignatius High School. I invite you to partner with us, to embark on a journey to strengthen our future, our legacy, Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam: “For the greater honor and glory of God.”
Yours ever in Christ,
Rev. Raymond P. Guiao, S.J. ’82
President and Chief Mission Officer