History

St. John's was founded as St. John's College by the Jesuits in 1898 in downtown Toledo, at 807 Superior St. Built in 1899 and 1909, it was demolished in 1976 and 1978.^[4] It was a liberal arts college with a business administration program and a law school that subsequently became a foundation unit of the current University of Toledo College of Law.

Before the shuttering of the college, the Jesuits had purchased property near what is now Gesu church and school, until recently a Jesuit work, for the relocation of its campus. The land was subsequently used as the campus for St. Francis de Sales High School, sponsored by the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales. When the new St. John's opened its doors in 1965 on Airport Highway in Toledo as a college-prep high school, the school took the Titan as its mascot. The schools now have the most-followed high school rivalry in the greater Toledo area.^{[citation needed]}.

Over the years the school has grown (See: Renovations below) to include a new tech wing and athletic facility. The most marked addition to the campus is the new junior high academy. The St. John's Jesuit Academy was added in the 2004–2005 school year, offering seventh and eighth grade college-prep curriculum as well as high school, college-prep, and honors curricula. In 2011, the academy expanded to a 6-8 middle school.

Christian Service

One of the goals of a Jesuit education, found in the St. John's Mission Statement, is educating "men-for-others" (taken from a 1973 address by the Rev. Pedro Arrupe,^[5] former Superior General of the Society of Jesus). As a result, St. John's focuses its education on the "whole person", instilling the values of service in its students. All high school students are required to complete a service project of varying hours in order to pass three of the four compulsory theology courses; Academy students have a similar requirement. The high school also has a Christian Service department that sends students into the greater Toledo area to do service work throughout the school day. This program also organizes on-campus events for inner-city school children such as the annual Easter and Christmas on campus.

Campus Ministry

SJJ Campus Ministry organizes Mass in the McDonough chapel and feast-Masses for the community in the Chapel of St. John Berchmans. The department also reads a prayer each morning at 8:10 a.m. and an Examen prayer, a form of the examination of conscience adapted from the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola, each afternoon.

Renovations

A $3.8 million renovation to the school's Commons and surrounding area, completed in November 2007, added a student-union type atmosphere to the Commons and a performing arts wing. The new Carty Fox Commons now includes a student lounge, food court, and a new book and spirit store. The new Sawicki Center performing arts wing includes a band room, chorus room, instrument storage, director's offices, practice rooms, recording studio, and remodelled McQuade Theater which has been renovated with new lecture chairs, lighting and sound equipment, and an improved stage. A set-storage room was added and an exterior entrance off the Carty Fox Commons.

St. John's added a technology wing, including a news studio for its television channel TV-4, a music technology lab similar to college music composition labs, the Jesuit mural, two computer labs, and the Iott Center library. Following the addition of the tech wing, St. John's added the Lyden Center weight-training facility (largest in the City League), the auxiliary gym, an athletic trainer's office, and renovations to the main gym including a new floor. Also added were chemistry and physics lecture halls, a physics classroom, computer graphic-design lab, and state-of-the-art chemistry and biology labs.

School patron

The School Patron is St. John Berchmans, a Belgian Jesuit who lived in the seventeenth century.^[6] He was chosen because his life exhibited a loving practice of fidelity to God in day to day living and in ordinary things.

School seal

The School Seal is a modification of the family coat of arms of St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits. "Loyola" is derived from lobos y olla, "wolves and pot." Ignatius' coat of arms depicts a cauldron suspended by a chain between two wolves. The wolves symbolize hospitality of the Loyola family; legend has it that during a famine in the Basque country they fed the entire surrounding countryside, "even the wolves." The opposite side of the shield presents the bands of Ignatius' maternal family.^[7]

School colors

The School Colors are blue and Vegas gold and are hailed in both school songs, the Alma Mater and the fight song – blue for filial piety and gold for integrity.^[8]

St. John's College

St. John's College was the original school, founded in downtown Toledo. When the school re-opened years after it closed during the great depression it re-opened as St. John's High School.

St. John's Jesuit High School

The high school opened in 1965. It is an all male, college-prep high school with an enrollment of about 800. SJJ is one of two all-male Catholic high schools in the Toledo area, and one of six Catholic high schools.

St. John's Jesuit Academy

The academy was established in the 2004–2005 school year. The students can use all of the facilities of the college-prep high school but study primarily in their own private wing. Often, students take some of the requisite high-school courses in the academy before enrollment in the High School, enabling them to take more AP courses at the end of their high-school study. The academy has a budding sports, music, and art program. The students attend all Masses and Prayer Services with the High School. The students of the academy are paired with "Big Brothers" in the Senior High and often take part in activities with them. The academy offers advanced curricula in math, science, English, social studies and one foreign language consisting of Spanish, Latin, or Chinese.