Excellence

Back in 1847, ground was broken for an all boy Jesuit high school in the heart of lower Manhattan. It would become the first of three Jesuit institutions in Manhattan. The second oldest Jesuit high school in the five boroughs of New York after Bronx arch-rival Fordham Preparatory (1841), but the oldest one in Manhattan. It would serve as the foundation for working class families looking to provide the best educational facility possible for their back breaking dollars. The place where boys were made men and where men were made leaders. In a city where the vast majority of public education is a haven for criminal activity and where once reputable parochial high schools fell to the pressure of lowering standards in order to keep afloat in the economically strapped New York Archdiocese, one school continually personifies the highest parameters of educational standards for close to two centuries. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Xavier High School.

If you live in New York, you must know someone who graduated from Xavier. If you ask a son of Xavier,  as what all graduates and current students are referred to as, where they went to school, they would proudly answer Xavier. I have always found it astonishing how proud and dedicated the graduates are.  Alumni who may have graduated from Georgetown or Yale would still answer first with Xavier when asked what school they went to. Why would that be?  Perhaps an astonishing figure like 99.5% of its graduates attending four year colleges and universities. That would even be a rare figure to find among high schools with much smaller senior classes than Xavier in both the public and private educational facilities of New York. Only Regis maintains a figure within that proximity among the local Catholic schools. Maybe it was the “Blue Ribbon School” honors bestowed upon it by the United States Department of Education as an exemplary example of a great academic school. It is in a class of Jesuit schools that are automatically certified by the Board of Regents, entitling its students as Regents exempt.  Maybe competitive figures like only 189 out of 235 in my freshman class actually making it through all four years at Xavier with diplomas in hand in 1989, or to hit home more effectively, five people from my family got in and two came out. Could it be that it is the only school that maintains the distinction of being a partial military school in Manhattan? Well, New Yorkers not familiar with the school call their Junior R.O.T.C. program that. It is true that the school has an active rifle range. Not to be up in arms! The sons of Xavier utilizing the rifle room are cadets of the Junior R.O.T.C.  They are disciplined and dedicated soldiers. In fact, it was not until 1971  the military became optional. Surprisingly enough, more than half the students still choose to enter and remain in the program. A military course is still mandatory for all the students until the military probation period ends. It is a graded class and made part of the curriculum along with math, English, biology, and history. It became as honorable to be part of the military as going to the school itself. It would eventually provide R.O.T.C. college scholarships to the dedicated and high ranking members and would most importantly serve as a test of self-discipline and dedication. The cadets who choose to stay in the program are subjected to one early day a week where uniforms, brass, shoes, and hair length would be inspected by Junior R.O.T.C. Sargents. A violation of school conduct would automatically designate you to our detention... JUG ( Judgement  Under God).