St Ignatius College Preparatory School

Specialties

St. Ignatius is a Catholic, college preparatory school in the Jesuit tradition serving the San Francisco Bay Area. St. Ignatius strives to develop young women and men of competence, conscience, and compassion through an integrated program of academic, spiritual, and extra-​curricular activities. St. Ignatius seeks to develop students who strive toward the Jesuit ideal of the magis: a thirst for the more, for the greater good, for the most courageous response to the challenges of our time in the fullest development of students’ talents, and for a life-​long disposition to serve.

In a classroom of 25 students, 17 will spend four years in a major co-​curricular (club or sport), 15 will lead a retreat or complete 200 service hours, 12 will graduate with honors, 8 will do all of the above and 10 students will take two or more AP exams. SI has one of the largest and most successful Advanced Placement programs in the country. In 2011, students took 1,418 tests and passed 1,128.

History

Established in 1855.

Rev. Anthony Maraschi, SJ, founded St. Ignatius Academy in 1855 in a one-​room schoolhouse on Market Street. In 1862 the second campus rose right next door (the old Emporium). In 1880, SI moved to Hayes and Van Ness and became the largest Jesuit school in the U.S. That all came to a crashing halt in 1906 when the Great Earthquake and Fire destroyed «the Jewel in the Crown.» Five months later, SI built its fourth campus at Hayes and Shrader (across from what is now St. Mary’s Hospital near Golden Gate Park). That «temporary» campus lasted until 1929 when SI moved to Stanyan Street, the home of Ignatians for 40 years. In 1969, students left their old high school behind and moved into a new 11.4-acre college preparatory campus in the Sunset District. The school became coeducation in 1989 and now stands as one of the region’s leading schools. In its long the school has drawn outstanding men and women to its faculty and has inspired and educated students to make the world a better place.

Meet the Business Owner

Robert W.

Business Owner

SI’s President is Rev. Robert Walsh, S.J., a 1968 graduate of SI and the former president and principal of Loyola High School in Los Angeles. After 18 years in high school administration, he is stepping down as president in June. The school is in the process of selecting his replacement.

SI’s Principal is Patrick Ruff, a native of Washington, D.C., where he studied at Gonzaga College High School. He majored in Chinese at Georgetown University and studied in China for a time. His long career with the Jesuits has taken him to San Jose, where he taught with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, to Loyola High School in Los Angeles and to Boston College High School before coming to SI in July 2008 to serve as the school’s 15^th principal, the second lay person to hold that job.