Bellarmine College Preparatory
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| Bellarmine College Preparatory | |
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| Men for Others Tradition, Wisdom, Justice Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam |
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| Established | 1851 |
| School type | Private |
| Religious affiliation | Jesuit, Roman Catholic |
| President | Fr. Paul G. Sheridan, S.J. [1] |
| Location | San Jose, California, United States |
| Campus | Urban |
| Enrollment | 1,450 |
| Faculty | 145 lay, 20 Jesuits |
| Average SAT scores (2006) |
1820 [2] |
| Athletics | 34 teams in 13 sports |
| Color(s) | Blue and White |
| Mascot | Bellarmine Bell |
| Conference | Central Coast Section |
Bellarmine College Preparatory is an all-male private secondary school located in San Jose, California. It is one of the oldest secondary schools in California. The school is a Roman Catholic school in the tradition of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. While under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of San Jose, the school is sponsored by the Society of Jesus. It is home to powerful baseball, swimming, water polo, forensic, and robotics teams and has exemplary graduation and college attendence rates.
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[edit] History
Bellarmine has its origin in 1851 when Father John Nobili, S.J. founded Santa Clara College for elementary, secondary, and college age students. This structure continued until 1903 when the elementary grades were discontinued.
In 1912 Santa Clara College became Santa Clara University and the high school division became Santa Clara Prep. For five years Santa Clara and the College of the Pacific—as it was known then—deliberated over the sale of the Emory and Elm property behind the historic College Park train station (immortalized in Jack Kerouac and Jack London's works) [3]. Finally in November of 1925 the decision was made to purchase the campus for $77,500 and the high school moved from the Santa Clara campus to its new location. The change also saw a change in school colors from the red and white of Santa Clara to blue and white, in order to honor Mary, the Mother of Jesus. In 1926 the school opened its doors with only 200 registered students, and the name was changed to Bellarmine at the prompting of Archbishop of San Francisco Edward Joseph Hanna. He suggested, while visiting the school in its early days, that the school honor Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, a Jesuit of the sixteenth century, who had recently been canonized a saint and declared a Doctor of the Church. The Jesuits accepted his suggestion and the name Bellarmine became synonymous with the school at Emory and Elm Streets.
For almost twenty years, the number of students remained at 200 until the school needed to increase its student population and improve its campus buildings. Fr. Gerald Sugrue, S.J. was given this task and began the process which would lead the school into the post-war era. The old College of the Pacific buildings were replaced by new classroom buildings, the Schott Academic Center, a library, St. Robert's Jesuit Residence Hall, Vincent O'Donnell Residence Hall, Samuel A. Liccardo Center, Wayne Valley Memorial Gymnasium, Carney Science Center, the Leontyne Chapel, and Matthewson Hall. Bellarmine was a boarding school until the early 1980's when the O'Donnell dormitory had its residential functions completely converted to classroom and administrative functions. From an enrollment of 200, Bellarmine has grown to over 1,400 students from all parts of the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2001, Bellarmine celebrated 150 years of educating young men in the Jesuit tradition. The latest addition to Bellarmine's campus is the Emory Fitness Center.
[edit] Graduate at Graduation
The Graduate at Gradation, which is known to most as the "Grad at Grad," is a statement that outlines the goals of a Bellarmine education. It emphasizes academic growth as well as spiritual and leadership growth.[4] It includes six overall attributes of the perfect graduate:
- Open to Growth
- Intellectually Competent
- Religious
- Loving
- Committed to Doing Justice
- Pursuing Leadership Growth
Many teachers include variations of the statement in their course summaries, which are given to students at the beginning of the school year. The teacher will often use the six overall attributes to list various course outcomes. For example, under the attribute of "Open to Growth", Mr. Scott C. Benson writes that a student of his Literature of the Counterculture class will "become aware of alternatives to current cultural, political, and literary models."
[edit] Student body
Most of Bellarmine's 1,450 students come from the nine San Francisco Bay Area counties, with some students commuting for hours each day to attend the school in the South Bay. Although the racial composition of classes varies year to year, the student population in the 2000s has usually been approximately 55% Caucasian, 20% Asian/Pacific Islander, 15% Hispanic, 5% African American, 2% Middle Eastern, 2% South Asian, and 1% Native American. In terms of religious affiliation, 85% of the students are Christian (69% Catholic, 15% Protestant). Approximately one in five students receive a partial or full scholarships. Additionally, one in five students have a parent or sibling who attended Bellarmine.
[edit] Academics
Graduation requirements require coursework in English, mathematics, social studies, science, foreign language, fine arts, physical education, and theology with additional courses in computer science available. With its emphasis on college preparation, Bellarmine also provides an honors and Advanced Placement program, preparing students to take over 24 AP tests with an 81% of test scores qualifying for college credit. 96.3% of graduates regularly attend four-year institutions throughout the United States and abroad, both public and private, including the University of California system, the Big Ten, the Ivy League, and the United States military academies.[citation needed]
[edit] Athletics
The Bellarmine Bells field 34 teams in 13 sports over three seasons in the West Catholic Athletic League, one of the most intense athletic leagues in the California. Sports include football, basketball, baseball, soccer, volleyball, water polo, swimming, lacrosse, tennis, cross country, golf, wrestling, track and field, and roller hockey. Athletic facilities on campus include an outdoor swimming pool, all weather track, soccer field, baseball diamond, football field, and a gymnasium. Since 1981, Bellarmine has won over 100 Central Coast Section (CCS) Division 1 titles.
Swimming, baseball, and water polo are three of Bellarmine's most notable sports. Under the direction of Coach Larry Rogers, the swim team has won every CCS championship since 1985 and the water polo team has won fourteen of the last fifteen CCS championships. The swim team title streak caught the eye of The San Francisco Chronicle’s Mitch Stevens who wrote, "That put [Bellarmine Coach Larry] Rogers...and the Bells...above such storied high school programs as Poway of San Diego wrestling, Mission Viejo swimming and yes, even De La Salle football."
[edit] Spirituality and service
Central to Bellarmine's mission is its Campus Ministry and Christian Service Program. Campus Ministry, in the tradition of Jesuit spirituality, offers the Freshmen Retreat, one day Sophomore Breakaways, three day Junior Search, and the four day Senior Kairos, the capstone of the Bellarmine retreat experience. The Freshmen Retreat used to include an overnight stay in a classroom on campus, but that was dropped in 2004. Other retreats also include weekend Mother/Son and Father/Son retreats, the Silent Retreat, and the 4th Day Retreat. Campus Ministry also provides personal counseling, assists in student sponsored monthly liturgies, guides the Student Campus Ministry Team, leads Christian Life Communities, sets up daily Mass and morning prayer, and fosters spirituality among Bellarmine's staff and faculty.
Campus Ministry's partner, The Christian Service Program (CSP) provides each student opportunities to engage directly with groups that are often marginalized including the youth, physically and mentally disabled, and socio-economically disadvantaged. Students are required to complete 75 hours of service before graduation, including an extensive senior service project. CSP also oversees service learning in the school curriculum, administers service projects for alumni and faculty and staff, and guides the student run CSP Corps. Emphasizing direct experience and compassionate human interactions, Bellarmine sponsors Immersion trips to Guaymas, Tijuana, Uruguay, downtown San Jose, rural Salinas, and El Salvador in order to directly experience the lives of the poor.
[edit] Co-curricular program
Bellarmine's co-curricular program offers nearly 90 different student groups and clubs emphasizing the arts, athletics, hobbies, diversity, leadership, service, scholastics and student government. Bellarmine also features an intramural athletic program that features touch football, dodgeball, basketball, and softball.
[edit] Speech and Debate
This program is one of the more popular and successful programs at Bellarmine with over 150 participants and it regularly captures both state and national championships via the National Forensic League. In both 2003 and 2004, the Speech and Debate program were back to back California State Champions. In 2005, the team took second in the state and received an honorary award as one of the top two teams in the nation. In 2006, Bellarmine captured the State Championship, and its policy debate team captured the National Championship as well.[5] Bellarmine participates locally in the Coast Forensic Leagues against schools such as St. Francis High School, Westmont High School, Presentation High School, Monta Vista High School, Lynbrook High School, Homestead High School, Saratoga High School, and Leland High School.
[edit] Robotics
Another national championship winning program is the FIRST Robotics Team 254. It has captured the Chairman's Award (the highest award in FIRST), second place at the national championships twice, and has won the Silicon Valley Regional every year of the 8-year-old regional's existence, among other achievements. No other FIRST team has won a regional for more than 3 years in a row.[citation needed]
[edit] Journalism
Bellarmine also has a student run newspaper, The Cardinal, and nationally recognized yearbook, The Carillon. The articles of The Cardinal are written by student journalists from a neutral standpoint, where the objective is to inform.
[edit] Fine arts
In addition to course electives in painting, ceramics, art history, sculpture, drawing and graphic design, Bellarmine also supports various student groups including acapella and improvisational humor groups. Music electives include symphonic band, lab band, jazz ensemble, percussion ensemble, wind ensemble, music appreciation, and choir. Student concerts are held often to showcase these groups effort along with that of outside student bands. Over 100 students also participate in the Theater Arts program which produces a fall drama, a winter musical, and spring comedy. Students also get a chance to display their film talents in the Bellarmine Film Festival which occurs between the months of April and May.
[edit] School fight song
- Fight, fight, fight, fight Bells
- Go on to win the victory!
- It's our strength and might Bells
- To show our foes our bravery, rah rah rah
- Blue and white will conquer
- Whoever the foe may be
- We'll fight to show our power
- And we will win the victory!
- Go Bells!
[edit] Publications
- Connections - A magazine published for the alumni, friends of the school, and parents of current students, replacing the parent magazine called "The Bell News"
- The Family Newsletter - produced by the Bellarmine Mothers' Guild, offers news of interest to the current students and their families
- The Cardinal - The Official Student Newspaper, produced by students
- The Carillon - The Yearbook, produced by students
[edit] Notable alumni
- Joe Albanese: MLB (1958) [6]
- Justin Baughman: MLB (1998-2000) [7]
- Wayne Belardi: MLB (1950-1956) [8]
- Craig Bragg: NFL (2005-), attended UCLA, drafted by Green Bay Packers and currently on Chicago Bears practice squad
- Pat Burrell: MLB (2000-) [9]
- Ming W. Chin: Associate Justice, Supreme Court of California [10]
- Bill Connors: MLB (1966-1968) [11]
- Kevin Frandsen: MLB player, currently for the San Francisco Giants (2006-) [12]
- Bob Gallagher: MLB (1972-1975) [13]
- Ed Giovanola: MLB (1995-1999) [14]
- Greg Gohr: MLB (1993-1996) [15]
- Gregg Hurwitz: Author
- Tom McEnery: Former mayor of San Jose [16]
- Kevin McMahon: Olympian (1987-1990) [17]
- Stephen Mirrione: Academy Award-winning film editor for his work on Traffic
- Pablo Morales: Olympian (1979-1983)
- Marv Owen: MLB (1931-1940) [18]
- Dan Pastorini: NFL (1971-1981, 1983), played in 1975 Pro Bowl
- Stephen Schott: Former owner of the Oakland Athletics [19]
- Jim Small: MLB (1955-1958) [20]
- John Vasconcellos, California State Senator
- Greg Walker (writer): Writer for Smallville, X-Files, and, currently, Without a Trace
- Jim Wilhelm: MLB (1978-1979) [21]
[edit] Miscellaneous
Technology on campus is supported by companies such as IBM, Extreme Networks, Network Appliance, and Cisco Systems.
Jack Kerouac would pass by the school everyday when he worked in the trainyards and even referenced the school in a prose piece he wrote entitled "October in the Railroad Earth" as part of the longer book, Lonesome Traveler.
Bellarmine is the fourth oldest Jesuit Institution in the United States and the second oldest Jesuit Institution west of the Mississippi River (after St. Louis University High, founded 1818). Bellarmine College Preparatory is the oldest High School in the state of California.[citation needed]
Actress Linda Park (famous for her role as Hoshi Sato on Star Trek: Enterprise) acted regularly in Bellarmine theater productions while she went to one of Bellarmine's sister schools, Notre Dame.
[edit] External links
- Bellarmine College Preparatory website
- Bellarmine Online Store
- California Province Society of Jesus
- Past Issues of The Cardinal, Bellarmine's official student newspaper
Categories: Articles with unsourced statements | Preparatory schools in the United States | Education in San Jose, California | Educational institutions established in 1851 | High schools in California | Jesuit high schools in the United States | Private schools in California | Roman Catholic Diocese of San Jose in California
