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 , 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 Abuja, operated by the Society of Jesus of 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.

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. 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. 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. 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 student run.

• The Roar is a student magazine published from the Gidan Mangoro campus since 2000. Editorial positions are held by students at the school.
• The Loyola Union is dedicated to keeping the memory of the Sixty Angels alive. It produces the annual Loyola Jesuit College drama which includes Hopes of the Living Dead, a tragedy by Ola Rotimi, Hard Ground by Ahmed Yerima, and Dance on His Grave by Barclays Anyakorama.
• The Service Programme organised and run by students offers weekend tutoring classes to children from the Gidan Mangoro village.
• The Prison Journal is a student newspaper that was launched in October 2010 to cover college news.
• The Blue Steel is an intra-school, student-organized, soccer tournament in the college. The students form teams named after European clubs and/or National teams and play in a Champions League-style tournament.
• The Golden Rims is a basketball tournament in the college where the students form teams and take up names of existing American NBA teams.
• The Concerned Students International is an advocacy group that formed after the December 2005 Sosoliso plane crash. It hopes to get 60 prominent Nigerians to sign an advocacy commitment to ensure a safer, better future for Nigerians.
• The LJC Band is a mostly male group who play different drums during assemblies, ceremonies, inter-school competitions, etc. Nemi and Simi are the girls in the band
• The LJC Dance Troupe is an amazingly talented group of dancers who perform for the school at various events and ceremonies.
• The LJC Accapella Troupe is a stunning group of talented and innovative vocalists who perform on various occasions for the school.
• The LJC Altar Servers Association are boys and girls selected to minister on the altar in the Chapel of the Good Samaritan. It is a highly selective and respected association.
• The LJC Dancers in the liturgy Association is a Christian student association made up of selective dancers who portray exquisite skill in learning, adapting, and presenting traditional dances on occasion during Sunday masses in the school chapel.
• The Choir is a host of eager students whose duty it is to animate the mass with vibrant or solemn hymns to reflect on the occasion and mood. Using a melody of angelic-like voices, the choir brings to life boring celebrations of mass.

Sosoliso plane crash

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.

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 College. Kechi was treated at Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa, and at Shriners Hospitals for Children in Galveston, Texas, United States. A new multi-purpose auditorium, Memorial Hall, was built in memory of the students who died in the crash.

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

• Mr. Andrew Orji
• Mr. Espedis Edo-Osagie
• Mr. Gabriel Enokela
• Mr. Paulinus Ali
• Sr. Tina Chikezie

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, Georgia Institute of Technology, The Johns Hopkins University, Stanford University, Emory University, Georgetown University, University of Notre Dame, 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, New York University, University College London, University of Edinburgh, Cambridge University, Oxford University, Imperial College London, Canisius College, London School of Economics, Covenant University, 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

• Emmanuel Bez Idakula, singer, songwriter
• Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Andela co-founder, Forbes' 30 most promising young entrepreneurs in Africa 2015

External links

• Official website
• Jesuits, North-West Africa Province