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FEATURE JESUIT PERSPECTIVES • WINTER 2016-17 17 the world. Put simply, they’re looking for students who aspire to be and do more. This isn’t a trend that Jesuit is scrambling to follow. It’s been a foundational part of the Jesuit mission from the very beginning.” In May, Jesuit sent off its largest graduating class ever, 189 young men to “go forth and set the world on fi re.” In August, Jesuit welcomed its largest freshman class ever, the class of 2020, with more than 220 students. Among many reasons for Jesuit’s growth is the local population growth. The Tampa Bay area has grown from 1.1 million in 1970, to 2.07 in 1990, to 2.9 million in 2010. And Jesuit sits at the geographic heart of it. “Being centrally located in the heart of Tampa allows us to be accessible to interested families in every direction,” Matesich said. “During Admissions season, I’m regularly gathering information from our current students about transportation logistics, to relay to interested families, and helping arrange car-pooling from their various neighborhoods.” Jesuit’s reputation for excellence is permeating the region. In academics, demonstrated by the burgeoning success of more than 20 Advanced Placement courses, outstanding college acceptances, and new programs such as the 3-year engineering track are building on Jesuit’s rigorous academic foundation established over more than a century. In student life and leadership, demonstrated by a commitment to extracurriculars such as Robotics, Speech and Debate, an expanded Student Council, and Don’t Feed the Artists, and student leaders developed through hands-on opportunities in the more than 30 clubs as well as Jesuit’s leadership retreats. In community service and faith, demonstrated by the more than 40,000 service hours accrued by the student body annually, remarkable service immersion mission trips to Nicaragua, Appalachia, and South Dakota each year, monthly all-school Mass, and the popularity of clubs such as Altar Servers, Agmen Christi, and Key Club, where students are making extraordinary service commitments far beyond school requirements. In athletics, ranking in the Top 5 among all schools in the state, year after year, in the FHSAA’s all-sports rankings, and winning 10 or more District titles annually, in addition to many Region titles and challenging for State titles across the spectrum of sports. The result is more good students desiring to come to Jesuit. “After four years of freshman classes entering with around 220 students, in a few years we should see a student body around 850 year to year,” Matesich said. “This seems to be a good size because we would still not be too large as to not know everyone on campus, but not too small to be spread too thin for extracurricular activities.” For the past few years, morning Convocation at Jesuit meant stuffi ng in as many students as there were seats in St. Anthony’s Chapel. At about 770 students, every square inch of pew was occupied. As applications increased and the number of qualifi ed students rose commensurately, Jesuit was admitting as many qualifi ed students as it could. The increase in quantity and quality of applicants in recent years made an expanded chapel a priority within the school’s Campus Master Plan. Included in Phase I of that plan, and under construction right now, the spectacular new Chapel of the Holy Cross will seat more than 900. When it is completed at the end of 2017, the new chapel will harken a new era. Jesuit will be educating more boys in the Tampa Bay area than ever before. “It’s truly an exciting time of growth here at Jesuit,” Matesich said. “The state-of-the-art and cutting edge additions and improvements around campus are taking our tradition of academic excellence, dynamic spiritual formation, and abundant extracurricular leadership opportunities to new heights. This will continue to allow Jesuit to benefi t the young men of the Tampa Bay area for many generations to come.” The two annual Leaders at Jesuit retreats are helping students develop their leadership abilities Prospective families tour Jesuit several days a week Jesuit’s largest graduating class ever is 189, but classes larger than 200 soon will be routine


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