| Bellarmine College Preparatory | |
|---|---|
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(For the greater glory of God)
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| Address | |
| 960 West Hedding Street San Jose, California, (Santa Clara County), 95126 United States |
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| Information | |
| Type | Private, All-Male |
| Religious affiliation(s) | Roman Catholic, Jesuit |
| Patron saint(s) | Robert Bellarmine |
| Established | 1851 |
| Founder | Fr. John Nobili, S.J.[1] |
| CEEB Code | 053080 |
| President | Fr. Paul Sheridan, S.J.[1] |
| Principal | Chris Meyercord[1] |
| Asst. Principal | Sonia Torna; Kristina Luscher; Matt Oelkers[1] |
| Chancellor | Fr. Jerry Wade, S.J. |
| Faculty | 180 lay, 11 Jesuits |
| Grades | 9-12 |
| Enrollment | 1,625[2] (2009-2010) |
| Average class size | 25.5[2] |
| Student to teacher ratio | 12.3:1[2] |
| Campus size | 25 acres (100,000 m2)[2] |
| Campus type | Urban |
| Color(s) | Blue and White |
| Athletics | 34 teams in 13 sports[3] |
| Athletics conference | West Catholic Athletic League, Peninsula Athletic League (in lacrosse), and the Skyhawk Conference (in rugby)[4] |
| Mascot | Bellarmine Bell |
| Nickname | Bells |
| Rival | Saint Francis High School |
| Accreditation(s) | Western Association of Schools and Colleges [5] |
| Average SAT scores | 1,820 (2007)[6] |
| Publication | Written Echo (literary/art magazine) |
| Newspaper | 'The Cardinal' |
| Yearbook | 'The Carillon' |
| Endowment | US$57.6 million[7] |
| Tuition | US$13,800 (2008-2009)[2] |
| Admissions Director | Bill Colucci |
| Athletic Director | Terry Ward; Mike West |
| Website | www.bcp.org |
Bellarmine College Preparatory is an all-male, private secondary school located in San Jose, California, USA. Founded in 1851, it is the oldest secondary school in California.
It is a Catholic school within the Diocese of San Jose [8] and sponsored by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). It is home to successful basketball, volleyball, baseball, football, lacrosse, soccer, swimming, water polo, golf, cross country, tennis, speech and debate, quiz bowl, and robotics teams and has high graduation and college attendance rates.
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Bellarmine has its origin in 1851[9] 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) [1]. Finally in November 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, 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 20 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 L. Liccardo Center, Wayne Valley Memorial Gymnasium, James A. Carney Science Center, the Leontyne Chapel and Matthewson Hall. Bellarmine was a boarding school until the 1984-1985 academic year, when the O'Donnell dormitory was converted to classroom and administrative functions. From an enrollment of 200 Bellarmine has grown to more than 1,500 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 Sobrato Center for the Humanities and the Arts, an amazing structure that includes numerous classrooms and a state-of-the-art theater. In 2010, the Schott Academic Center was demolished, and at the beginning of the 2011-12 school year, Bellarmine dedicated its new Lorry I. Lokey Center, housing math, religious studies, and social science courses. Currently, construction is under way for a new student life center to house the dean's offices, student lounges, and counselor's offices, as well as an auxiliary gymnasium with new weight room facilities.
Most of Bellarmine's 1,600 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. In terms of religious affiliation, 75% of the students are Christian (60% Catholic, 14% Protestant). Approximately one in five students receive partial or full scholarships. Additionally, one in five students have a father or brother who attended Bellarmine.
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 more than 24 AP tests, with 87% of test scores qualifying for college credit, as of 2007.[2] In 2007, 95.2% of the graduates chose to attend four-year institutions throughout the United States and abroad, both public and private, including the University of California system, the Big Ten, the Big East, the Ivy League, the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), the NESCAC, and the United States military academies.[3]
The Bellarmine Bells field 34 teams in 13 sports over three seasons in the West Catholic Athletic League (WCAL), one of the most intense athletic leagues in California. Sports include football, basketball, baseball, soccer, volleyball, water polo, swimming, lacrosse, tennis, cross country, golf, wrestling, track and field, and ice hockey. As of the 2009-10 school year, Bellarmine welcomed rugby to its athletic resume. The new rugby team competes during the spring season in the Skyhawk Conference. Athletic facilities on campus include an outdoor swimming pool, a new all-weather track, new soccer field, baseball diamond, new football field, a gymnasium and a weight-lifting room. Since 1981, Bellarmine has won more than 115 Central Coast Section (CCS) Division 1 team titles, more than any other school in the section. Bellarmine's 2002 varsity soccer team was said to be one of the top five high school boy's soccer teams in the past decade after a 25-0-0 season.
Swimming, Cross-Country, soccer, volleyball and water polo are six 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 14 of the last 15 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." Bellarmine's volleyball team has won nine of the thirteen CCS volleyball championships awarded since 1997. In 2010, Coach Scott Petersen's volleyball team was ranked #5 in the country by ESPNRise. Former volleyball coach Patrick Adams is the most successful volleyball coach in CCS history with 305 victories. In the same year, the lacrosse team was ranked #1 in the nation as well at one point during the season. Also, the soccer team has won 17 of the past 18 WCAL championships and has been ranked in the top 20 in the nation almost every year with a #13 national rank in 2010.
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 youth, the physically and mentally disabled, and the 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. Trips have also been added to Los Angeles, Guatemala, Appalachia, Central Mexico and India.
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.
This program is one of the more popular and successful programs at Bellarmine with over 170 participants and it regularly captures both state and national championships via the National Forensic League. In 1994, Bellarmine won the team speech and debate National Championship in Kansas City, MO. 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, its policy debate team captured the National Championship. Over the last six years, (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011) Bellarmine's Speech and Debate program has been the California State Champions.[4][5][6][7] Bellarmine also competes against local schools in the Coast Forensic League.[8] In 2009, Bellarmine reached the final round of the prestigious Tournament of Champions cementing its place amongst the top performing nationally competitive policy debate teams in the country.[9]
Another international championship winning program is the FIRST Robotics Team 254, the Cheesy Poofs. Currently led by AP Physics teacher Ann Roemer and computer science teacher Brad Lindemann, the team has won the World Chairman's Award (the highest award in FIRST), won the World Championships in 2011, placed second at the world championships twice, won the Silicon Valley Regional for twelve of the regional's thirteen years (1999–2006 and 2008–2011), and has the most FIRST regional victories in the world. In 2008, Bellarmine began what has become a successful VEX Robotics program, which currently holds the single-season tournament win record. In the 2009-2010 season, Bellarmine's VEX team won 16 regional competitions, 6 of them being international championships. In the 2010-2011 season, Bellarmine's flagship VEX team, Team 254A, won the VEX World Excellence Award (the highest award in VEX). The Robotics Club is one of the largest organizations at Bellarmine with 79 active members in the 2010-2011 school year. Interested students are invited to join the team regardless of previous experience.
Bellarmine publishes a student-run newspaper, The Cardinal, and a nationally recognized yearbook, The Carillon. The student-operated Writers Guild publishes a biyearly publication called the Written Echo which contains poetry, short stories and art. Bellarmine also has a student-operated radio station, KBCP.
As of 2008, Bellarmine has its own radio station, running daily from 3 pm to 5 pm. It hosts a variety of programs including 15-minute newscasts, College Football Thursdays (seasonal), and a twice-a-week sports show, as well as the 7th period jam with Erik Thorne and Erik Daniels, the Entertainment Weekly and the Joe Sarmiento Show. It runs on an AM transmitter, broadcasting within a 1-mile radius of the school and on iTunes/NiceCast and www.youcastr.com as belltalk radio. It augments school events with live sports broadcasts.
In addition to course electives in painting, photography, ceramics, art history, sculpture, drawing and graphic design, Bellarmine also supports various student groups including a cappella and improvisational humor groups. Music electives include symphonic band, lab band, jazz ensemble, percussion ensemble, wind ensemble, music appreciation, and choir. The symphonic band, percussion ensemble, and jazz ensemble have placed extremely highly, and in the Heritage Festival in L.A. California, the Bells won 1st place in symphonic band, 1st and 2nd place in percussion ensemble featuring Percussion 2&3 and Percussion 4(the most advanced) and above all the Bells won the sweepstakes award for having the highest overall score. 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.
Established during the 2006-2007 school year, Bellarmine's Freshman Experience program is composed of the Big Brother program and the yearly Freshman Retreat, both of which had existed separately long before they were combined under the "Freshman Experience" name. The Big Brother program is made up of upperclassmen who are selected to act as guides and advisers (hence the name "Big Brother") to the incoming freshman class each year. Though there are many activities in which Big Brothers partake with their freshmen, the Freshman Retreat is the most prominent. Each year (usually in October), a day-long retreat is scheduled solely for freshmen and their big brothers that allows freshmen to be introduced to the retreat experience while learning about Bellarmine's emphasis on "brotherhood." Each year, a select group of Big Brothers is chosen to make up the Freshman Retreat Cadre, which works directly with faculty members to plan and schedule the retreat. In addition, a small group of big brothers are chosen each year to act as Big Brother Commissioners. The commissioners work directly with the director of the Freshman Experience program to plan and schedule various activities throughout the school year.
Bellarmine fields a Knowledge Masters Open and Quiz Bowl team. In the Fall 2008 KMO competition, the team placed second in California and third in the world.[10] In the Fall 2009 competition for the KMO, the Bellarmine team took second in California and eighth in the world, while their freshman team took first in the world for the junior high competition. In the Spring 2010 KMO competition, the Bellarmine team once again took second place in California and eleventh place globally,[11] while the freshman team repeated as first globally in the junior high competition.[12] The team won the 2008 Northern California NAQT championship,[13] the 2009 Quiz Kids tournament, and the 2011 Quiz Kids tournament.[14] On December 10, 2010, Bellarmine achieved first place nationally for the first time. They did this with only 17 students on the KMO team, compared to second place Montgomery Blair's squad of 121. In addition, Bellarmine took 4th place at the 2010 NAQT High School National Championship Tournament, improving to 3rd place in 2011.
The Graduate at Graduation, 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.[10] It includes six overall attributes of the perfect graduate:
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."
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.
The Bellarmine train station, College Park Station, is the starting point for Jack London's novel The Call of the Wild.'
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 is the oldest high school in California. [29]