Strake Jesuit College Preparatory

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Strake Jesuit College Preparatory
Motto	"Men for Others", Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, Sic Deus Vult
Established	June 21, 1960
Type	Jesuit Private school
President	Fr. Daniel K. Lahart, S.J.
Principal	Mr. Richard Nevle
Dean	Mr. Kelly Clemons
Faculty	112
Students	864
Grades	9–12
Location	Houston, Texas USA
Campus	Urban, 44 acres
Colors	Green and White
Mascot	The Fighting Crusaders
Yearbook	The Crusader
Newspaper	Magis
Website	www.strakejesuit.org

Strake Jesuit College Preparatory is a Jesuit preparatory school for young men in southwest Houston, Texas, founded on June 21, 1960.

The school is also known for over 100 pieces of art placed around campus. The school is classified as an official art museum with a full-time curator.

The school is located within the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. It is one of only two private schools in Texas that are members of the University Interscholastic League.

1 Location and history
2 Mottos and principles
3 Students and alumni
4 Strake Jesuit Educational Television
5 Hurricane Katrina and Second Session
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Location and history

The land for Strake Jesuit was donated by Frank Sharp, the developer of Sharpstown, when an order of Jesuit priests made their way down to Houston to start the high school. It has operated in the same location for the entirety of its existence. It is still run by the Jesuit Order of priests, with seven or more Jesuit priests living on-site at any given time. It also serves as a training ground for Jesuit novices in different parts of formation.

The campus is located at 8900 Bellaire Boulevard, where it intersects Gessner Drive in the Sharpstown neighborhood. The campus is no longer the size it originally started out as, as between the sale of approximately 1/3 of the property to the Dominican Sisters (for the new and permanent location of Saint Agnes Academy) and a stock market falling-out that involved Jesuit property as collateral, it currently only retains approximately 60% of the land it originally began with.

Strake Jesuit College Preparatory

Saint Agnes Academy, the adjacent Catholic high school for girls founded by the Dominican Sisters, is adjacent to Strake Jesuit, separated by nothing more than the Jesuit parking lot. There are some collaborative activities between the two schools. For example, young women from Saint Agnes are recruited to serve as cheerleaders for Strake Jesuit sports teams. Additionally, there are a handful of classes arranged to include students from both Strake and St. Agnes. These tend to be popular with students from both sides of the parking lot.

[edit] Mottos and principles

The school mottos are:

"Men for Others,"
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, translating to For the Greater Glory of God.
Sic Deus Vult, translating to God Wills It So

In keeping with these mottos, students are required before graduation to complete Junior and Senior service projects, the Senior service project requiring 100 hours of community service.

The "Grad at Grad", an essay written regarding the status of what a Strake Jesuit Graduate should be at graduation, also defines the Seniors of the school at the Graduation. This is used to show an outline of what is expected from each student, namely that he is intellectually competent, open to growth, physically fit, committed to doing justice, religious, and loving.

The patron saints of the school are St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit Order, and St. Stanislaus Kostka, the patron saint of youth.

In 2007 the powers that be at the school put down a student led movement to force the resignation of the school librarian. This movement was supported by several members of the faculty. The movement has been silent since the school bought several big screen tvs to monitor what students were doing on the school computers. As a result horrible incidents such as looking at espn.com have been repressed.

[edit] Students and alumni

Strake Jesuit currently maintains approximately 900 students actively in session. Out of roughly 2000 annual applicants, between 250-300 are accepted to form the freshman class, out of which normally fewer than 200 graduate. Many others transfer to other nearby schools.

The school currently has thousands of graduates, with an average graduating class of 180 in the past 5 years. The 2004-2005 graduating class consisting of 215 students is the largest graduating class Strake Jesuit has ever had.

Many students who have graduated from the high school often return in some capacity to help out. More than 30 former students are currently amongst the active faculty and staff at SJ.

Notable & Famous Strake Jesuit Alumni include:

Jake Voskuhl: Forward for the NBA Charlotte Bobcats
Gray Miller: U.S. district judge for the Southern District of Texas
Nelson Akwari: Player for MLS Real Salt Lake
Eric Mullins: Former NFL player for the Houston Oilers
Christopher Darkins '92: Former NFL player for the Green Bay Packers.
Mark Ellis former member of the Houston City Council
Justin Douglass: Current MLS player for the Houston Dynamos

[edit] Strake Jesuit Educational Television

The school uses a closed-circuit television system known as Strake Jesuit Educational Television (SJET). SJET was established in 1970 when an Audio Visual system of that magnitude was unique for an institution like high school; and even yet today still remains a system rare for most high schools. However, like any television studio, a few technical problems due to the problematic machines and software occur on occasion.

Daily morning announcements are shown in a format similar to a typical television news program. The morning announcements are presented and produced by students under the guidance of a moderator who provides help and knowledge. The Students participating in SJET can take Television Production for class credit.

Around 2000, Strake Jesuit updated its SJET system with the addition of a Smart Board in some classrooms. Smart Boards were finally added to all classrooms after the summer of 2006. Smart Boards use projectors and touch sensitive technology to produce an interactive way of teaching. The Smart Boards are also used for the display of the SJET morning announcements.

Throughout the course of the year, the student body may view new installments of the school's own game show, "Scribbage Match" during the morning announcements. SJET is also commonly used to announce items of interest to the student body, including the student council candidate speeches and messages from the faculty. In addition, "news strips", "interviews", and other programs that are intended to be comical (such as teacher impersonations) are shown on SJET. Special guests are also sometimes featured on SJET.

[edit] Hurricane Katrina and Second Session

In light of the damage and evacuation of New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina, hundreds of students from Jesuit High School in New Orleans flocked to Houston. In response, Strake Jesuit lived up to its "Men for Others" motto as it took in over 400 students that had previously attended Jesuit New Orleans.

Since it was impossible for a school with 900 students to successfully incorporate 400 more students into its present classes, Strake Jesuit opened up a "Second Session" that ran from Sunday through Thursday evenings. During this "Second Session", teachers from Jesuit New Orleans (approximately 30) used Strake's campus to run the school for the 400+ students using Strake's resources.

Upon the conclusion of the 2005 Fall semester, the majority of the New Orleans Students left, closing the Second Session. The students that stayed (due to various circumstances) were incorporated into the normal class schedules.