Loyola Jesuit College

Loyola Jesuit College
Motto "Service of God and Others"
Type Private, 6-year secondary
Established 1996 (1996)
Affiliation Jesuit (Catholic church)
Principal Joe-Stanis Okoye, S.J.
Students 600
Location Gidan Mangoro, Karu LGA, Nasarawa, Abuja, Nigeria
Campus Urban, 70acres (0.29 km²)
Colors White and blue
Mascot Roaring Lion
Website loyolajesuit

Loyola Jesuit College is a private, co-educational, boarding, secondary school in Gidan Mangoro outside FCT Abuja, Nigeria, operated by the Society of Jesus in the Roman Catholic church. The school was opened on October 2, 1996, and is named after the Society's founder, St. Ignatius of Loyola. The highly selective, six-year school has claimed the best results on the West African Examination Council (WAEC) examinations for the past seven years, as well as the best JAMB results for several of those years, and is thus regarded as the best in West Africa.[1][2][3]

Campus

Loyola Jesuit College is located on the outskirts of Abuja. It opened its gates on October 2, 1996. Funds to construct the school were provided by the Society of Jesus and benefactors in the United States, along with US$millions obtained through the USAID program ASHA.[4] College facilities include four large classroom and laboratory buildings, three dormitories accommodating 300 boys, one dormitory accommodating 300 girls, a chapel, dining hall, multi-purpose "Memorial" hall, Jesuit residence, and duplex bungalows for all the lay staff. The dormitories are Connelly, Loyola, Regis, and Xavier. Connelly is named after Cornelia Connelly, the founder of the Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus who are on the College staff. The names of the others come from the Jesuit saints Ignatius Loyola, John Francis Regis, and Francis Xavier.[5] The 70.4-acre (285,000 m2) campus is fenced to secure the safety of the students. Upon entering the LJC campus via the front gates, a statue of St. Ignatius of Loyola is seen presenting his knightly sword to the Lord, to become a Cabellero de Cristo, "Knight for Christ."

Admissions

Loyola Jesuit College is one of the most academically selective secondary schools in Nigeria, but welcomes boys and girls of all faiths. In the year 2010, 5000 wrote the school entrance exam and LJC accepted 100, or 2% of its applicants. It is one of the first schools in Nigeria to implement a strictly online application policy. Prospective students both apply online and receive their results online.[6] LJC does not accept transfers: students must enter the school into First Year.

Student activities

The college supports dozens of organized student activities. According to the college's website, "Loyola Jesuit College has broad goals for the development of its students: some of those goals are fostered by the academic program, but many of those goals are fostered only outside the classroom, through the school's extracurricular and formational programs." The school is one of the most noted in the annual Cowbell Mathematics Competition.

Student groups & programs

Most of the groups at Loyola Jesuit College were formed and are run by the students themselves.

Tragic flight claims student lives

At first students from Port Harcourt travelled between school and their homes via buses on the roads. Rising crime along roads during the 1990s made parents believe that road travel was too dangerous. In 2001, when Sosoliso Airlines began services between Port-Harcourt and Abuja, parents placed their children on the flights.[7]

On December 10, 2005, Loyola Jesuit College lost 60 students in the crash of Sosoliso Airlines Flight 1145. Among the many students who lost their lives was a family of three siblings and the Head Boy of the school at the time. The crash claimed 107 lives with two survivors, one of whom was Kechi Okwuchi, a student at Loyola Jesuit. Kechi was treated at Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa,[8] and at Shriners Hospitals for Children in Galveston, Texas, United States.[9] A new multi-purpose auditorium, Memorial Hall, was built in memory of the students who died in the crash.[10][11]

Administration

Presidents

  • Patrick Ryan, S.J., 1999-2005
  • Peter Schineller, S.J., 2005-2007
  • John-Okoria Ibhakewanlan, S.J., 2007-2011  
  • Ugo Nweke, S.J., August to December 2010.
  • Ehis Omoragbon, S.J., 2011-2013
  • Emmanuel Ugwejeh, S.J., 2013-date

Principals

  • Jim Kuntz, S.J., 1996-1999
  • O.T. Jonah, S.J., 1999-2003
  • Marc Roselli, S.J., 2005-2007
  • John-Okorie Ibhakewanlan, S.J., 2007-2011
  • Fr. Ugo Nweke, S.J., 2011-2013
  • Fr. Joe-Stanis Okoye, S.J., 2013-date

Vice Principal-Student Life

Alumni

Loyola Jesuit College graduates have been accepted in top universities around the world. This includes Ivy League colleges in the U.S. such as Princeton University, Harvard University, Yale University, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, and Cornell University, as well as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The Johns Hopkins University, Stanford University, Georgetown University, University of Notre Dame, Georgia Institute of Technology, Purdue University, Illinois Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology, Fairfield University, Boston University, Fordham University, Northeastern University, West Virginia University, Drexel University, Oklahoma State University, Howard University, Texas Southern University, University of Toronto, University of British Columbia, University of Waterloo, University of Nottingham, University College London, University of Edinburgh, Cambridge University, Oxford University, Imperial College London, Canisius College, London School of Economics, University of Ibadan, University of Nigeria Nsukka, Obafemi Awolowo University, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, University of Lagos,California Polytechnic State University.

Notable Alumni

Coordinates: 4°55′37.9″N 6°58′0.76″E / 4.927194°N 6.9668778°E / 4.927194; 6.9668778

Notes

  1. "Welcome to Loyola Jesuit College." Loyola Jesuit College. Retrieved on 12 September 2011.
  2. Musa, Illiyasu. "Why the current reforms in education sector, by Education Minister." Nigerian Newsday. Tuesday 20 December 2005. Retrieved on 12 September 2011.
  3. "Entrance examination into JS 1 2012 - 2013." Retrieved on 12 September 2011.
  4. Funding
  5. "School Life." Loyola Jesuit College. Retrieved on 4 February 2012.
  6. Admissions
  7. Michaels, Daniel. "How Blunders and Neglect Stoked an African Air Tragedy." The Wall Street Journal. 1 October 2007. Retrieved on 11 June 2012. - Available from ProQuest, document ID: 399047247
  8. "Crash Survivor in S/African Hospital, Mother Speaks," This Day
  9. "Enter the Den 2007-2008," Loyola Jesuit College
  10. "Kechi Okwuchi". Various Sources. 2005-12-10.
  11. Africa's Airline Casualties on YouTube The Wall Street Journal

External links

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