St. Anselm's Abbey School

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St. Anselm's Abbey School is an exclusive boys preparatory school for grades six through twelve in Washington D.C..

St. Anselm's Abbey School

Motto	Pax in Sapientia "Peace in wisdom"
Established	1942
Type	Private all-male secondary
Headmaster	Fr. Peter Weigand, OSB, MTS
Faculty	50 (approx)
Students	262 (in 2005-06)
Grades	6–12
Location	4501 South Dakota Avenue NE Washington, D.C., USA
Accreditation	Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools
Mascot	Panthers
Publications	The Priory Press, The Corbie Chronicle
Website	www.saintanselms.org

1 About
2 Prominent Alumni and Faculty
3 See also
4 External links
5 References

[edit] About

The school sits on a forty-acre wooded campus in the city's Northeast quadrant and is run by the Benedictine monks of Saint Anselm's Abbey. It was founded in 1942 as the Priory School by Fr. Thomas Verner Moore, OSB, the superior of what was then St. Anselm's Priory. The school was renamed St. Anselm's Abbey School in 1961, when the monastery was elevated to the status of an abbey.

The school explicitly targets its program to "gifted and talented" boys. In 2004, roughly two-thirds of the graduating class achieved commendation or higher honors from the National Merit Scholar program, and the average combined SAT I score was over 1400. In 2003, roughly half of the senior class achieved the AP Scholar, AP Scholar with Distinction, or National AP Scholar level as defined by the Advanced Placement Program. Each student who has graduated from St. Anselm's Abbey School since its founding has been accepted to an accredited four-year college or university.

The school's curriculum and academic style emphasizes classics and is somewhat idiosyncratic. Grades are called "forms," in accordance with the British school system. In addition to six years of science and five years of a spoken language, four years of Latin are required. Ancient Greek is also offered as an elective for students in the Upper School, as is Arabic for students in fourth and fifth forms. As in many other religious schools, theology is also a required course each year.

Prominent alumni include Brian K. Devine '59, current Chairman of the Board and former CEO of Petco, and Morgan E. O'Brien '62, co-founder, former Chairman of the Board, and current Vice Chairman of Nextel.

The school is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools and is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools.

The school also is home to the longest running high school basketball tournament in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The St. Anselm's Invitational has been a tradition at the school since 1948.

St. Anselm's Abbey is consistently rated by its score in the Washington Post's Challenge Index as one of the top high schools in the Washington D.C. area. In a recent online discussion, Challenge Index creator Jay Matthews said, "Saint Anselm's Abbey in NE D.C. has one of the highest ratings in the country, far above most private schools I know."^[1]

The school makes available to students a large number of clubs and associations, many unique to the school. These include The Cultural Student Organization, Mythology Club, Latin Club, Greek Club, It's Academic, Chamber Orchestra, Jazz Band, Fencing Club, Biology/Forensics Club, Sentence Diagramming Club and Beekeeping Club.

[edit] Prominent Alumni and Faculty

Brian K. Devine, '59 - current Chairman of the Board and former CEO of Petco
Morgan E. O'Brien, '62 - co-founder, former Chairman of the Board, and current Vice Chairman of Nextel
Fr. John Main, OSB, Fifth Headmaster, 1970-1974 - distinguished leader in the field of Christian meditation
John Montroll, current Calculus and Origami teacher - author of many books on origami; one of the world's most distinguished paper-folders