Loyola High School (Los Angeles)

Loyola High School of Los Angeles
File:Loyolalosangelesseal.png
Address
1901 Venice Boulevard Los Angeles , (Los Angeles County) , California 90006 United States
Coordinates	34°2′41″N 118°17′48″W
Information
Type	Private, All-Male
Motto	Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (For the greater glory of God)
Religious affiliation(s)	Roman Catholic; Jesuit
Patron saint(s)	St. Ignatius Loyola; St. Therese of Liseaux
Established	1865
President	Rev. Gregory Goethals, SJ
Principal	Frank Kozakowski
Faculty	90
Grades	9-12
Enrollment	1,200 (2008)
Campus	Urban
Campus size	15 acres (61,000 m²)
Color(s)	Blue and White
Athletics	12 sports
Team name	Cubs
Accreditation	Western Association of Schools and Colleges
Publication	Windowpanes (literary & art magazine)
Newspaper	The Loyalist
Yearbook	El Camino
Dean of Men	Michael Wood
Admissions Director	Heath Utley
Athletic Director	Chris O'Donnell
Website	http://www.loyolahs.edu/

Loyola High School of Los Angeles is a Jesuit preparatory school for young men. It is the oldest high school in Southern California, and one of the oldest in California. Loyola is located two miles (three kilometers) west of Downtown Los Angeles, just north of the Santa Monica Freeway, and admits students from the greater Los Angeles area.

History

Loyola High School of Los Angeles is the region's oldest educational institution, pre-dating the University of California system and the Los Angeles public schools. The school was founded in 1865 as St. Vincent's College at the behest of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles Bishop Thaddeus Amat, a member of the Vincentian order. In 1911, the Vincentians agreed to transfer management of the school to the Jesuits. By 1917, after several transitions, the school finally moved to its current location on Venice Boulevard in the Harvard Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. Irish philanthropist Thomas P. Higgins provided the land for the school.

The college was renamed Loyola College the following year, in honor of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus. Until 1929, the campus housed the college, the law school and the high school. At that time, the Jesuits purchased additional property to house the college and separate facilities were acquired for Loyola Law School just west of downtown Los Angeles. The college, now Loyola Marymount University, was moved to the area now known as Westchester in West Los Angeles. Recent campus development of the school occurred in the 1980s; the gym, track, and swimming pool, along with additional classroom space were built after the administration secured major donations. Donations by the William Hannon Foundation, the Ardolf Family, and others have provided for a new science building, counseling and student centers, additional classrooms and central plaza, which are operational as of June 2007. Recent statistics show 99.9 percent of Loyola students go to a Division I or II college or university.

St. Vincent's College, circa 1908

Profile

Admissions

The primary admissions entry point for Loyola High School is in 9th grade, with varying transfer opportunities offered in 10th and 11th grades. Transfer is not allowed going into the senior year, except for rare situations. Admissions decisions are made by a committee headed by director Heath Utley. Admission is based on standardized test scores; recommendations from the candidate's teachers, principal, and minister; involvement in extracurricular activities; a personal statement; and grades. Loyola prides itself on its educational quality as well as its mission to create men for and with others, a hallmark of Jesuit thought. Loyola aims to educate each student as a "whole person." Thus, faculty and staff strive to facilitate student learning in all areas of school life: academic, co-curricular, social, and religious.

Loyola draws its students from all over the greater Los Angeles area, from Pacific Palisades to East L.A., and from Pasadena to Torrance, and the South Bay as well as the San Fernando, San Gabriel and Santa Clarita Valleys. Nearly 40% of the student body is composed of individuals of African-American, Latino, and Asian heritages, which serves to enhance the ethnic and socio-economic diversity of the school.

In 2008, Loyola received more than 800 applications for 305 spaces.

Curriculum

Loyola High School fronting Venice Boulevard

Loyola's curricular requirements cover a breadth of academic topics. Four years each of Social studies, English studies and Mathematics courses are required, along with three years of Foreign language study and of Science, as well as one year of Fine art are required. Six semesters of Theology are also a central part of the curriculum, covering Scripture, systematic theology, Catholic social thought, moral theology and one senior elective. Advanced Placement courses are offered in 19 subject areas, and students are encouraged to take a wide variety of electives outside of the required courses. Over 99% of Loyola graduates go on to higher education, with 96% attending 4-year universities.

Service

Since the 1980s Loyola students have performed over one million hours of service to the community. As part of its commitment to educating men for and with others, Loyola students participate in four major service oriented projects during their high school careers. The freshman serve as tutors on the Loyola campus for the award winning High School Placement Test Prep Projects for 8th (October - January) and 7th graders (February - April), as well as assist with the Special Olympics. The second and third service projects include minimum 25-hour service projects during each of the sophomore and junior years. The Senior Project is a minimum 85-hour immersion commitment to a non-profit service organization during the month of January during the senior year. Inner city grade schools, special education schools, hospitals, hospices, shelters and soup kitchens are preferred sites for this service experience.

Loyola sponsors one of the leading Community Service fairs in metro Los Angeles during the third week of September each year with over 100 local agencies, center, schools and organizations sending representatives to enroll Loyola students as volunteers. This event supports all of the school's service and justice education programs and seeks to support better informed choices for service by the students.

Several times over the course of the year, the Cubs Urban Plunge in Los Angeles is offered to students and faculty as a way of them to better experience the community from the position of the poor, disenfranchised and marginalized. This is one of Loyola's distinguishing programs. Still the only high school in Los Angeles, public or private, to offer such a program, through this three to four day program, students serve in a number of shelters and centers on Skid row, Hollywood and East Los Angeles. This program continues through the summer of 2009 with four urban plunges being offered. An overview of the Cubs Urban Plunge program may be found in the July edition of the "Beverly Press."

Starting in June 2007, Loyola began an out-of-area hands-on service program with a two-week service immersion in New Orleans. The 2008 program took Loyola students to Appalachia, focused in Wheeling and Charleston, West Virginia. In July 2008 Loyola launched its foreign service immersion in Puebla and Cholula, Mexico. In June 2009, Loyola will launch a five week, academic exchange and service immersion with Colegio Del Salvador, the Jesuit high school in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The 2009 summer service immersion program included student, faculty and staff service teams in New Orleans/Slidell, Louisiana in mid June and another student, staff, alumni and parent service team to Lima and Cusco, Peru in late July and early August. Plans for the 2010 service immersion program are not yet set, but likely to include a repeat of the five-week Argentina Intercambio program based in Buenos Aires, a native American reservation in the USA and another project in Latin America. An overview of the summer service immersion program may be found in the July 31 edition of the "Los Angeles Tidings", the weekly newspaper of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Overall, each Loyola student completes at least 150 hours of direct service by graduation with many of them matriculating with over 300 - 400 hours. Non credit service activities include the annual Community Service Fair conducted each September, the Community Service Leadership Team, the annual AIDS Walk Los Angeles, the Peace and Justice Coalition, the annual School of the America's Watch and Ignatian Teach In conducted just before Thanksgiving, Catholic Lobby Day in Sacramento, California, an annual social justice speakers series, and ongoing collection of food, clothing, books and toys for distribution to the needy served by some of the school's 1,000 placement partners. Service and justice are two significant factors considered in making the most of the "Big Seven" awards for graduating seniors each June. Outstanding service leadership is recognized at the annual student awards ceremony and the Annual Community Service Awards Banquet held each May.

Loyola is an active member of the Ignatian Solidarity Network (ISN), an association of 70 US Jesuit high schools, colleges, and universities engaged in social advocacy and justice education for students and adults. National and regional topical workshops included Loyola's hosting of the 2008 ISN conference on comprehensive immigration reform for 500 students and adults from the US and Mexico. In years past, Loyola delegations have participated in national conferences on racism and poverty in New Orleans (2007)and comprehensive immigration advocacy in Washington, DC (2009). For further information on upcoming and previous programs by the Ignatian Solidarity Network go to www.ignatiansolidarity.net

Loyola parent, alumni, faculty, and staff involvement in various service projects with students is a distinguishing characteristic of the Loyola program. Parents and alumni are heavily involved in staffing the Saturday tutoring programs for 8th graders and 7th graders each Fall and Spring. In December 2008, the whole Loyola faculty, staff, and administration spent better part of a retreat day day serving in the same agencies and schools as their students.

Loyola's service program has received numerous awards from the City of Los Angeles, the County of Los Angeles, the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the California State Senate and a number from various agency and civic groups for well over one million hours of student service contributed to the children, men and women of Los Angeles.

Athletics

Loyola High School has a strong history of athletics success, including a national championship in football. Loyola has won at least one CIF Title for the last eight years. In the 2002-2003 academic year, Loyola set the California state record for most section championships (5) won in a single school year: cross-country, basketball, volleyball, track, and golf.

• Baseball: CIF Champs - 1954, 2007
• Basketball: CIF AAAA/Div I-A Champs - 1954, 2002, 2003
• Cross Country: CIF Champs - 1984, 1985, 2002, 2004, 2007; CIF State Champs - 2002, 2004, 2007, 2008
• Football: CIF AAAA/Div I Champs - 1962, 1963, 1975, 1990, 2003, 2005
• Golf: CIF Northern Div. Champs - 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005
• Lacrosse: CIF Certification - 2006; Mission League Champs - 2007, 2009
• Soccer: CIF Division I/Division II Champs - 1998, 2005, 2007
• Swimming/Diving: CIF Champs - 1984, 1994, 1996, 1997
• Tennis: 2009
• Track & Field: CIF Champs - 1984, 2000, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2009
• Volleyball: CIF Div I Champs - 1983, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1995, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2009
• Water Polo:Mission League Champs - 2009

Accreditation and membership

Loyola is accredited by and/or affiliated with the following organizations:

• The College Board
• The Cum Laude Society
• The Jesuit Secondary Education Association
• The National Association of College Admission Counselors
• The National Catholic Education Association
• The Western Association of Schools and Colleges
• The Western Catholic Education Association

Filming location

Loyola High School has served as a backdrop for TV shows, music videos, and films, including:

• Boy Meets World (1993) Season 1
• Donnie Darko (2001)
• Fat Albert (2004)
• My Chemical Romance (2004) Music Video I'm Not Okay (I Promise)
• Pretty Persuasion (2005)
• Coach Carter (2005)
• Thank You for Smoking (2005)
• 3 Doors Down (2005) Music Video Let Me Go
• Flicka (2006)
• Head Automatica (2006) Music Video Graduation Day
• The Haunting of Molly Hartley (2008)
• Panic! at the Disco (2009) Music Video New Perspective
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2009) Season 2

Notable alumni

Business

• Tom Barrack (1965), billionaire, real estate investor
• John Grundhofer (1956), retired chairman & CEO, U.S. Bancorp
• Ed Roski (1957), billionaire, real estate investor

Entertainment

• Stan Chambers (1941), KTLA channel 5 television reporter
• Michael Wayne (1952), film producer, son of John Wayne
• Tony Plana (1970), actor, best known for Ugly Betty
• John Debney (1974), composer for The Passion of Christ
• Andy Ackerman (1974), director for Seinfeld, co-producer of Cheers
• Billy Gould (1981), Bassist for Faith No More
• Billy and Bobby Mauch, child actors, best known for The Prince and the Pauper (1937 film)
• David Agnew (1983), President of Walt Disney Records
• Devin Sarno (1984), Composer, Video Producer
• Eddie Galan (1997), songwriter, producer

Law

• William Byrne, judge for the United States District Court for the Central District of California, best known for presiding over the trial of the Pentagon Papers defendant Daniel Ellsberg
• Tom Girardi (1957), attorney best known for his case against Pacific Gas and Electric that was the inspiration for Erin Brockovich (film)

Miscellaneous

• Gene Baur, President and Co-Founder, Farm Sanctuary
• Gordon Bennett, former bishop
• Gregory J. Boyle (1980), founder of Homeboy Industries

Politics

• Bob Shrum (1961), political strategist
• Anthony Williams (1969), former mayor of Washington, D.C.

Sports

• Toby Bailey, former NBA player
• Danny Farmer (1995), former NFL player
• Ryan Lefebvre (1989), radio announcer for the Kansas City Royals
• Al Pollard, former NFL player
• Tom Roberts (1942), labor arbitrator
• Matt Ware, NFL player, currently with the Arizona Cardinals
• Justin Cruz, NBA player, currently with the Lakers