St. Ignatius College Prep

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This article is about the high school in Chicago. For the high school in San Francisco, see St. Ignatius College Preparatory. For other uses, see Saint Ignatius College (disambiguation).

Saint Ignatius College Preparatory School
IgnatzChic.jpg
Location
Wikimedia | © OpenStreetMap
1076 West Roosevelt Road

Chicago
,
Illinois
60608-1594

United States
Coordinates41°52′3″N 87°39′6″W / 41.86750°N 87.65167°W / 41.86750; -87.65167
Information
TypePrivate college-preparatory school
MottoAd Majorem Dei Gloriam
(For the Greater Glory of God)
Religious affiliation(s)Catholic
DenominationJesuit
Patron saint(s)Ignatius of Loyola
Established1869; 152 years ago (1869)
FounderFr. Arnold Damen, S.J.
AuthorityArchdiocese of Chicago
OversightSociety of Jesus
CEEB code141170
NCES School ID01601838
PresidentJohn J. Chandler[1]
PrincipalBrianna Latko[2]
Teaching staff85.5 (on an FTE basis) (2017–18)[3]
Grades9–12[3]
GenderCoeducational
Enrollment1,373 (2017–18)[3]
Average class size25[4]
Student to teacher ratio16.1:1 (2017–18)[3]
Hours in school day6.2[3]
Campus size23 acres (93,000 m2)
Campus typeUrban
Color(s) Maroon  and  Gold [5]
Athletics conference
Sports
MascotWolf
Team nameWolfpack[5]
AccreditationNCA[6]
PublicationPhantasm[7]
NewspaperSpirit[7]
YearbookPrep[7]
Endowment$34 million[8]
School fees$2,000
Annual tuition$19,850 (2020-2021)[9]
AffiliationJSEA NCEA[3]
Websiteignatius.org
St. Ignatius College Prep
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Chicago Landmark
St. Ignatius College Prep is located in Chicago metropolitan area
St. Ignatius College Prep
LocationChicago, Illinois
Coordinates41°52′3″N 87°39′6″W / 41.86750°N 87.65167°W / 41.86750; -87.65167Coordinates: 41°52′3″N 87°39′6″W / 41.86750°N 87.65167°W / 41.86750; -87.65167
Built1870
ArchitectToussaint Menard[11]
Architectural styleSecond Empire
NRHP reference No.77000480[10]
Significant dates
Added to NRHPNovember 17, 1977
Designated CLMarch 18, 1987
St Ignatius School Chicago IL.jpg
Exterior of St. Ignatius College Prep in December 2010

Saint Ignatius College Prep is a selective private, coeducational Jesuit college-preparatory school located in the Near West Side neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. The school was founded in Chicago in 1869 by Fr. Arnold Damen, S.J., a Dutch missionary to the United States. The school is coeducational, Catholic, college preparatory, and sponsored by the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits).

Overview[]

The Canadian architect Toussaint Menard designed the school's main building in the Second Empire architecture style. It is one of the five extant public buildings in Chicago that predate the Great Fire of 1871. Its construction was begun in 1869, a fact commemorated on the school's façade. The main edifice is on the National Register of Historic Places and was designated a Chicago Landmark in March 1987. The 23 acres (93,000 m2) campus is located on Chicago's Near West Side, adjacent to the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Besides the 1869 building, campus features include the Richard H. Driehaus "1895" Building, the Chicago Walsh-Slattery Center, and the James and Genevieve McLaughlin Center. The latter features a 380-seat McLaughlin Theatre and "Bob Newhart" stage, with an interior modeled after still-extant, late 19th century Chicago theaters. The Grand Gallery on the fourth floor of the 1869 building features a marble plaque commemorating Saint Ignatius alumni who fought in the American wars. The richly paneled Brunswick Room, originally a natural history museum, holds a notable archive of the school's and city's history.

Saint Ignatius's curriculum includes literature, language, math, computer science, art and music, science, and religion.

Tuition[]

Tuition for the 2017-2018 school year is $18,500; however, there is a $2,700 gap between education and tuition costs. Saint Ignatius students received over $2.5 million in need-based grants for 2009–2010; for the 2010–2011 year, Saint Ignatius was awarded roughly $2,690,000. Students who receive financial aid receive an average of $8,000. These are funded primarily through the school's fund-raising efforts, endowment interest, and independent charities that offer special funding for minority students. Over 25% of enrolled students receive some financial aid. The remaining actual cost to operate the school is funded largely from its development initiatives and endowment, including donations and grants from alumni, parents, and friends, along with foundations and businesses.

History[]

Inception[]

In 1837, the Dutch Jesuit Fr. Arnold Damen, S.J. (March 20, 1815, Leur, Netherlands – January 1, 1890, Omaha, Nebraska),[12] was recruited to work with Native Americans in the Dakotas by Fr. Peter De Smet, S.J. In 1844 he was ordained a priest in Missouri. In 1857, Damen was first assigned to Chicago to start a parish for Irish immigrants on Chicago's near-West Side, then an area of sprawling prairie. Construction of Holy Family Church was completed in 1860.[12]

During the 1860s, Fr. Damen, with the help of Jesuits in his community, developed five elementary schools for the children of his parish, now grown to about 25,000 people. It became clear that at least some of the children needed further education. Thus, Fr. Damen undertook to begin a secondary school and a college program for young men. At approximately the same time, the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary began a secondary school for young women about five blocks away.

Supported by loans and many small gifts, construction of the main building of Saint Ignatius commenced in 1869, with designs by the Canadian architect Toussaint Menard. On June 30, 1870, the Illinois General Assembly approved the Charter of Saint Ignatius College. In September 1870, Saint Ignatius opened its doors to thirty-seven young men who had completed the eighth grade, the extent of formal education offered in the area at the time. The College was to offer a six-year program, four years of it in the "Academy" and two more, as was often the custom then, in what is today called "collegiate studies."

Saint Ignatius was one of the first colleges in the Chicago area, predating the University of Chicago by 20 years and graduating its first class little more than a decade after Northwestern University did so. Students were instructed in Latin, Greek, the elementary sciences, writing, math, and rhetoric – the components of a traditional "college" education of the era.

In October 1871, disaster struck Chicago in the form of the Great Chicago Fire. However, Damen's church and college were some of the buildings spared from the inferno, as the worst of the fire was blown northeast. Fr. Damen was away at the time and promised to keep a candle lit on the altar of the Blessed Virgin in the Church, in perpetuum, if the church was spared. The church was spared, and those candles, now electrified, still burn in Holy Family Church.

While Saint Ignatius continued to grow through the 1870s and 1880s, these were difficult years. Many of the original families had moved "up and out" of the neighborhood and, just a few blocks southeast, Polish and Russian Jewish families, new immigrants fleeing the pogroms in their countries, settled in the Maxwell Street area. Just to the north of the school, in the Taylor Street area, Greek and Italian families, fleeing the poverty and contention in their own countries, renewed the cycle of poverty in the area and increased the neighborhood's "foreignness."

There was the concern that Catholic families, having moved to other areas, would not send their boys to the school. Thus, a tentative outreach to the north, to the southwest corner of North Avenue and Ashland, was launched. Called St. Aloysius College, it had only a two-year life in a rented house. However, since the Saint Ignatius neighborhood was becoming "tougher," so it was thought, there were still concerns about enrollment. In these days, there were about 250 young men in the six-year program.

Still, by 1894, the college's enrollment had expanded sufficiently to warrant the construction of a third building, which was completed in 1895. Just two years after the debut of electric power on a grand scale at the World's Colombian Exposition in Chicago, the trustees of Saint Ignatius were still cautious about the staying power of electricity. So the fixtures used in the new building were "transitional," offering both gas and electrical light. With the addition of this wing, the school-owned property was almost completely taken up, leaving only a small "play yard, surrounded by a wall, to its northeast."

It took a long while for the recent immigrants to the area to learn English and find work to support themselves in decency. Worries about enrollment in the secondary school continued. The decision was made to start a new secondary school in a more Catholic part of Chicago. This was the area northeast of Sheridan and Devon, in what was called Rogers Park. An out-going superior of the Jesuit Community at Saint Ignatius, Fr. Henry Dumbach, S.J., began that effort and Loyola Academy opened in 1907. The Jesuits were still unsure whether they would close Saint Ignatius and have Loyola Academy supplant it or keep both. In this mood of uncertainty, Saint Ignatius continued on.

By 1922, St. Ignatius College had become too large for its buildings, with the collegiate part of the school growing significantly. The school buildings on Roosevelt Road were hemmed around by Holy Family Church and Elementary School to the west, a neighborhood of homes to the north, and commercial establishments to its east.

So the Jesuits decided to separate the education of 14- to 18-year-old boys, continuing on Roosevelt Road, and the education of the older students into a separate, collegiate, now-four-year school that became Loyola University Chicago. This college program, and building of new school buildings and a residence for the Jesuits, was sited on the lake shore campus of Loyola Academy, where there was room to expand. To go along with the custom of the time, St. Ignatius Academy was renamed St. Ignatius High School.

The school continued its mission through the hard times of the War years, with many alumni participating and dying, and through the Depression. Students' academic standards and faith development continued strong, and the school was filled to capacity, over 1,000 students, through the 1960s.

World War I–present[]

After World War I, the student body became much more diverse, with the sons of Italian families in the Taylor Street neighborhood coming in significant numbers, as did the sons of Central European families who had immigrated to the United States. These families were primarily of Lithuanian, Czech, and Polish origins. In the late 1930s, African-American families, living in the area in some number by this time, started to send their sons. After World War II, Mexican families lived south of the school in the area called Pilsen. Their sons came. Except in the initial years, Saint Ignatius was never a neighborhood school. Students traveled from long distances to have a Jesuit education.

This principle of inclusiveness through the Depression and the next decades offered great value to the students, allowing them to become friends with young men of a great variety of backgrounds, socio-economically, racially, and ethnically. Nevertheless, it caused its own problems. Except for some Mothers' Club efforts, fund-raising was not in vogue then, or at least not taken up by the school in any formal way. Reduced tuitions for boys whose families could not pay were not made up for by donations from friends and alumni supporting those students. Thus, there was ever less money for building up-dates and repairs: deferred maintenance became the rule.

In the challenging times after Vatican II and the confusion of values in American stemming from the war in Vietnam, vocations to many religious orders, including the Jesuits, declined. So the schools that Jesuits had principally staffed hired talented lay people to take their places. While this offered new value and modeling to the students, it significantly increased school costs due to salaries and benefits.

By the 1970s, Saint Ignatius' buildings had fallen into disrepair. The still-very-low tuitions charged, plus the financial aid offered, gave rise to borrowing money to pay salaries and offer day-to-day maintenance. The "word got around," and many became concerned that the school would close. With this a rumored possibility, enrollment declined. And so did morale.

Fund-raising initiatives begun in the 1970s, such as the "Walk for Ignatius" and annual benefits (the first headlined by Bob Hope in 1976), helped sustain the school's solvency. Nevertheless, it was still highly precarious.

Simultaneously, with academic standards still high, parents who had boys in the school asked why it did not admit their daughters. There was certainly room, and it would be much easier for parents to have their children at one school rather than at two. Around that same time, several Catholic girls' schools in Chicago closed in similar financial distress. Thus some parents were having a hard time finding a challenging Catholic high school opportunity for their daughters. Moreover, obviously, a higher enrollment would greatly boost the school's financial vitality.

In 1979, the school welcomed girls, many of the first of whom were sisters of boys currently enrolled. Parents' and students' enthusiasm for this created a very positive report. Thus, applications for entry climbed from 400 or so boys a year to over 800 boys and girls within two years. Tuition began to increase in more substantial amounts at this time, with the goal of having a balanced budget without short or long-term borrowing.

At this same time, a Board of Trustees was formed, made up of Jesuits and laypeople, replacing the all-Jesuit board of the past. The school was separately incorporated from the local Jesuit community and the Chicago Province of the Society of Jesus. Contemporary programs and processes were invoked.

The president of the school, while still a Jesuit missioned by his religious superior, became the employee of the Board of Trustees. With this highly significant change came new talents and perspectives to the school's governance. These, ultimately, saved the school.

In 1984, under new school leadership and under the direction of its Board of Trustees, the first of many capital campaigns began to improve salaries and benefits and renovate historic school buildings. There was a question at the time of whether to modernize the building, insofar as that was possible, and save money by routing mechanicals on the wall's surface, installing ready-made windows that would be bricked around to fill up the openings, etc. It would have been a savings but a historic travesty. The choice taken was to restore the building to its original styles and decorative designs (see the virtual tour on the school's website).

That decision involved a complete re-roofing in slate, an extended re-working of the masonry, a rebuilding of the front porch and gutters, the building and installation of 493 windows, from 8' to 24' in height, according to the designs of the original windows (still in place at that time), a total re-wiring of the building, new and extended plumbing, new and extended labs, the installation of two new elevators, replacement of most wall surfaces, new heating and pipes, new dire-security systems, new wood flooring in many areas – and professional attention to replacing, in public areas, copies of the original gas-light fixtures. Layers of wall paint were scraped through to find the original colors and designs, and these were replicated. Along the way, it became possible to furnish public areas with antique furniture appropriate to the period, the generous gift of Mr. Richard Driehaus from his collection.

The successful campaign's goals included developing an endowment and an annual campaign to support financial aid. These efforts accomplished their purpose and added two more buildings (increasing the school buildings' total size from 130,000 to about 225,000 square feet), built in an historic style to complement the original buildings. In these efforts, Saint Ignatius became the most successful Catholic school and 6th among all schools in the nation in fundraising.

In 1991, a decision was made to help preserve Chicago's architectural past and offer students references to Chicago's rich architectural history by developing a collection of iron, terracotta, stone, and other metal fragments removed in recent years from their demolished Chicago and Midwest structures. It has developed into a several-hundred piece collection, exhibited around the school buildings and outside, on the campus. Significant works from structures by Sullivan, Root, Burnham, and many others are included in, often, large scale pieces. The most significant object is the only remaining portion, 22 feet, of the terra-cotta cornice from Louis Sullivan's Chicago Stock Exchange, demolished in 1965.

Demographics[]

The demographic breakdown by race/ethnicity of the 1,373 students enrolled for the 2017–2018 school year was:[3]

Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity
School
Year 		American Indian /
Alaska Native 		Asian Black Hispanic Native Hawaiian /
Pacific Islander 		White Two or
More Races
2017–18[13] 5 (0.4%) 47 (3.4%) 155 (11.3%) 173 (12.6%) 0 (0%) 914 (66.6%) 79 (5.8%)

Athletics[]

Saint Ignatius competes in the Chicago Catholic League (CCL) and the Girls Catholic Athletic Conference (GCAC)[14] and is a member of the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) which governs most sports and competitive activities in the state. The school's teams are stylized as the "Wolfpack".

The school sponsors interscholastic teams for young men and women in basketball, football, volleyball, bowling, cross country, golf, lacrosse, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, and water polo. Young men may compete in baseball, football, and wrestling, while young women may compete in cheerleading and softball. While not sponsored by the IHSA, the school also sponsors teams for young men in ice hockey and rugby, for young women in field hockey and dance. There is also a coed sailing team and crew teams for both young men and women.

The only teams in recent memory to represent the school on the national level are the boys and girls crew teams, who compete at the Scholastic Rowing Association of America's National Championships on an annual basis. In 2010, at SRAAs in Saratoga Springs, New York, the boys junior 4+ took second-place. At the 2013 SRAA competition, the girls junior 4+ raced to a second-place finish.

In 2013, the women's water polo team became the first team in school history to win an IHSA state championship title.

In 2012, Jack Keelan '13 won the 3A IHSA State Cross Country Championship, becoming the ninth-fastest runner in state history. In 2013, Keelan won the 3A 1600m and 3200m at the IHSA State Track and Field Championship.

The most recent state champion for St. Ignatius was Conor Dunham, who won the 300m intermediate hurdles in 2014.

In 2020, the St. Ignatius basketball team went to the IHSA Sweet 16 and tied the school record for most wins in a season. However, the season ended due to COVID-19. The team also won the 2020 CCL Sportsmanship Award that same season.

Notable alumni[]

See also[]

Notes[]

  1. ^ "Welcome from the President". St. Ignatius College Prep. Retrieved February 24, 2021 – via ignatius.org.
  2. ^ "Principal's Office". St. Ignatius College Prep. Retrieved February 24, 2021 – via ignatius.org.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g "Search for Private Schools – School Detail for St Ignatius College Prep". National Center for Education Statistics. Institute of Education Sciences. Retrieved November 18, 2020.
  4. ^ "Why a Jesuit Education | Saint Ignatius College Prep". www.ignatius.org.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Chicago (St. Ignatius College Prep)". Illinois High School Association (IHSA). November 10, 2009. Retrieved November 13, 2009.
  6. ^ NCA-CASI. "AdvanceEd-NCA Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement". Archived from the original on May 24, 2009. Retrieved May 23, 2009.
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Student Activities". directory. St. Ignatius College Prep. Archived from the original on 18 October 2009. Retrieved 13 November 2009.
  8. ^ "Inside Ignatius" – via St. Ignatius College Prep (www.ignatius.org).[permanent dead link]
  9. ^ "Tuition & Tuition Assistance". Retrieved April 22, 2021.
  10. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  11. ^ "Chicago Landmarks - St. Ignatius College Prep Building". City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development, Landmarks Division. 2003. Archived from the original on June 13, 2008. Retrieved September 10, 2008.
  12. ^ Jump up to: a b In Chicago kent bijna iedereen pater Damen (in Dutch)
  13. ^ "Search for Private Schools - School Detail for St Ignatius College Prep (2017–2018 School Year)". National Center for Education Statistics. Institute of Education Sciences. Archived from the original on February 24, 2021. Retrieved February 24, 2021.CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  14. ^ "IHSA Chicago (St. Ignatius College Prep)". Illinois High School Association. February 18, 2021. Archived from the original on February 24, 2021. Retrieved February 24, 2021.
  15. ^ "High Schools". directory. Pro Football Hall of Fame. Retrieved November 13, 2009.
  16. ^ Jump up to: a b c d "Notable Alumni | Saint Ignatius College Prep". invest.ignatius.org. Retrieved August 2, 2020.
  17. ^ Dao, James (June 16, 2000). "The 2000 Campaign: Man in the News; A Son of Chicago – William Michael Daley". The New York Times. Retrieved November 13, 2009. Tuesday A Man in the News article on Friday about Commerce Secretary William M. Daley misidentified the Chicago high school that he attended. (The error also appeared in a profile of Mr. Daley on Dec. 14, 1996.) It was St. Ignatius High School, now called Saint Ignatius College Prep, not De La Salle High School.
  18. ^ Jump up to: a b "Muldoon feted by Saint Ignatius at law luncheon". Bar News. Illinois State Bar Association. 40 (7). February 1, 2000. Archived from the original on June 20, 2006. Retrieved November 14, 2009. A 1947 graduate of the school, Muldoon will receive its 2000 Award of Excellence in the Field of Law ... Previous award recipients include former appellate justices Gino L. DiVito and Mel R. Jiganti, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, U.S. Secretary of Commerce William Daley ...
  19. ^ Neubart, Dave (October 29, 2000). "Richard Dreihaus, 57". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on November 4, 2012. Retrieved November 13, 2009. Driehaus grew up on the Southwest Side and graduated from Saint Ignatius College Prep and DePaul University.
  20. ^ "Roster - Erie BayHawks".
  21. ^ Chandler, Susan (11 February 2009). "Mellody Hobson: Champion of financial literacy - Ariel's president teaches children and their parents the power of investing". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on 12 November 2010. Retrieved 13 November 2009. Hobson grew up on the North Side as the youngest of six ... But her mother made sure Hobson had a good education, sending her to Saint Ignatius College Prep.
  22. ^ Lipinski, Dan (20 November 2006). "Remarks by Rep. Dan Lipinski before the National Science Board Commission on 21st Century Education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics". speech. U.S. House of Representatives - Committee on Science and Technology. Archived from the original on 6 January 2010. Retrieved 13 November 2009. I remember Father Fergus, who taught me physics at St Ignatius, taking this childhood fascination and tying it to engineering.
  23. ^ Pearson, Rick (April 1997), "What is Mike Madigan up to?", Illinois Issues, p. 13, retrieved November 13, 2009, Madigan was born into the then-fledgling Democratic politics of the 13th Ward ... he attended St. Adrian Elementary School and Saint Ignatius College Prep, then the University of Notre Dame and Loyola University law school.
  24. ^ 'Illinois Blue Book 1965-1966, Biographical Sketch of John K\j. McNichls, pg. 256-257
  25. ^ Newhart, Bob (2006). I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This: And Other Things That Strike Me as Funny. New York, NY, USA: Hyperion. pp. 24. ISBN 1-4013-0246-7. I lived about eight blocks from Fenwick High School, but I rode the streetcar forty-five minutes to Saint Ignatius.
  26. ^ "Todd H. Stroger Biography". Cook County Government. Archived from the original on May 24, 2011. Retrieved November 28, 2010.

References[]

External links[]

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