Bellarmine Preparatory School

School History

Bellarmine was founded in 1928 as an all-boys school, and became the first coeducational Jesuit school in the nation in 1974 after its merger with Aquinas and St. Leo's schools. The date of the school's creation is commonly accepted to be 1928 despite the fact that both Saint Leo's Grammar and High School and Aquinas Academy for girls were founded earlier (in 1912 and 1893 respectively). This can cause confusion since the current parents club, Philomathea, was founded at Saint Leo's and continued at Bellarmine after the merger, so that the club predates the present school. The first graduating class of Bellarmine was in 1929, with 19 students graduating.

Campus

The school sits on a large campus, at the highest point overlooking the city of Tacoma. Poplar trees planted to remember the sacrifices of Bellarmine Alumni in World War II still stand near Memorial Field. Memorial Field remains one of the only real grass high school fields in use in the area, and recently saw the ancient wooden bleachers converted to modern, metal bleachers. The school quad has the qualities of a Grad at Grad printed in metal letters on the concrete.

Houses

Besides being divided by years, the school is divided into six houses, each named for a famous Catholic figure. This is intended to help students bond outside their grade levels. Most competitive activities internal to the school are done by house.

Educational extra-curricular activities

Bellarmine Prep is home to the highly competitive FIRST FRC Robotics Team 360. The team is well-decorated and highly respected within Northwestern FIRST, both for the quality of the robots produced and for the amount of community service the team is involved in. It has also won many other awards during its long history. including the position of Regional Chairman's Award Winner for the 2009 Microsoft Seattle Regional and the 2011 Microsoft Seattle Cascade Regional. Team 360 was also on the winning alliance at the 2011 and 2012 Autodesk Oregon Regional FIRST competitions.

Bellarmine also boasts a Knowledge Bowl team and a growing number of Model UN delegates, both under the direction of Ken Brown. Also, many students do independent work in the school greenhouse or with Ben Meeker of the art department.

Athletics

Bellarmine Prep is one of the most athletically competitive schools in the state of Washington, with over 70% of the student population competing in at least one athletic activity. It has been named All-Sports Champions by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association the past four years, winning it for the first time in school history in 2004 with the second highest All-Sports score recorded in state history, and the highest score for a 2A, 3A, or 4A school. In 2004, the men's soccer team won its first state title in school history with an undefeated record of 20-0-2. One of the high points in the season was their quarterfinal victory over Inglemoor High School, who was previously ranked 6th in the nation. Prep was in turn recognized as the #1 high school men's soccer team in the nation for 2004. In 2008, the men's soccer team went on to win its second state title, over Puyallup High School; it was determined by penalty kicks. Bellarmine Prep High School has excelled in all sports with the men's golf team gathering seven state championships, including four individual champions: Todd Erwin (also four-time Washington State Open winner and Canadian Tour winner), Patrick Brownfield, Dusty Brett (played at Stanford with Tiger Woods), and James Feutz (2010). The wrestling team has had two state champions, Bob Turner and Dan Stabb. The girls cross country has four state championships as a team and three girls who have combined for 5 individual championships. The boys tennis team has recorded 9 individual/doubles state championships and nine team state championships including a run of four in a row from 2005-2008. The girls soccer team has five state championships to their credit, and the boys have two. The girls volleyball team won their first state championship in school history in 2012, and repeated in 2013. The fast pitch team has one state championship in 1985. The girls tennis team has six team state championships to their name along with four individual titles won in a row by Sonja Olejar from 1989-1992, and four state titles in doubles. The girls golf team has won seven state championships in a row plus three more from 2003-2005 giving them a total of ten along with four individual champions: Becky Gardner, Chris Yun, Alivia Brown, and Olivia Benzin.

Boys' sports offered: cross country, basketball, wrestling, tennis, golf, track and field, baseball, lacrosse, ping pong, and gaming.

Girls' sports offered: volleyball, cross country, basketball, fast pitch, track and field, lacrosse, soccer, tennis, and croquet.

Theater

Bellarmine has a lively theater program which puts on two shows a year: a fall musical and a spring play, as well as a Dramafest featuring student-written one-act plays. In recent years, the department's musical productions have been nominated for several 5th Avenue High School Musical Theatre Awards, with one win in 2014 and two in 2015. The department is known as a lively place, with strong leadership from faculty and dedication from student performers, designers, and craftsmen and women. Graduates of the department have gone on to high-quality institutions in the performing arts.

The students work in six sub-departments of the theatre program: acting, set building, costume designing/hair and make-up designing, sound design, light design, and stage managing.

Recent Shows: Spring Play 2016 - "The Tempest", Fall Musical 2015 - "My Fair Lady", Spring Musical 2015 - Little Women, Fall Play 2014 - Much Ado About Nothing, Spring Musical 2014 - Fiddler on the Roof, Fall Play 2013 - The Secret in the Wings, Spring Musical 2013 - West Side Story, Fall Play 2012 - And Then There Were None, Spring Musical 2012 - How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Fall Play 2011 - Taming of the Shrew, Spring Musical 2011 - Pippin, Fall Play 2010 - The Miracle Worker, Spring Musical 2010 - Curtains.

Community service

Bellarmine is committed to community service. Sophomores must complete a total of thirty hours and also participate in helping out at the local L'Arche farm with their Community Period (homeroom). Additionally, a community service class is required for graduation. Several community service clubs are active on campus such as Habitat for Humanity and Key Club, and there is a sophomore retreat offered that involves several hours of community service.

In 1993 Bellarmine started a tradition of housing temporarily homeless families in academic buildings during non-school hours for a small span of the year, called Phoenix Housing. Bellarmine provides these persons dinner, breakfast, and overnight accommodations with the help of student volunteers.

Religion

Religion is an integral part of the Bellarmine curriculum, with eight credits required for graduation (new for the class of 2018), as well as an additional half credit of community service class. contrary to popular belief, Bellarmine has the highest catholic to non catholic ratio than any other school in the Tacoma area.

Retreats

Bellarmine holds a required student body retreat for the freshmen, called "My Place in this World". Freshmen and sophomores are also required to attend Faith in Formation meetings. These generally occur during Community Period (homeroom). The sophomore meetings focus more on volunteer work, including participation in a Habitat for Humanity build or work with L'Arche.

An optional overnight retreat, the Francis Xavier Urban Plunge, is offered in the fall and spring for sophomores. The retreat focuses on "street life" in the Tacoma area, and was previously available to freshmen.

The Junior Encounter is an optional, three-day, weekend, off-campus retreat. Six occur each year, three for males and three for females. The details of the retreat are a tightly-kept secret from underclassmen, and the entire event is generally considered to be a strong bonding experience for the class.

Four retreats are offered to seniors. Senior Pilgrimage is a weekend hike up a mountain. Montserrat is an Ignatian, directed retreat which is made in complete silence for a 24-hour period, and the Manresa is also a silent retreat over a 48-hour period. The Magis is a three-day overnight retreat.

Bellarmine students may also work on crew or team for the Senior Pilgrimage, Magis retreat, and Junior Encounter.

Mass

All-school Masses are rare, normally on Ash Wednesday, the last day before Christmas break, and the Feast of Saint Robert Bellarmine. The entire school attends, but active participation is optional.

There are many options for students who wish to attend Mass more often. It is offered on the final B day of a week (Thursday or Friday) during Community Period (homeroom). Those not going to Mass may stay in their Community Period and do homework. There are also occasional Masses during lunch, and Mass is offered on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays prior to the start of school.

Academics

Bellarmine offers a number of AP classes, along with other special programs.

Art

Bellarmine is home to an art program with many resources, including pottery wheels, kilns, and glaze required for a wide variety of ceramics. There is also a photo lab and classes in photography are offered.

Marine chemistry

The marine chemistry program is available to students who score sufficiently well on the school entrance examination and opt into doing extra research work to fulfill this requirement. It is a four-year program where students learn the skills needed to do chemical and biological marine research in their first two years, and then apply those skills in their own research projects during their junior and senior years.

Notable alumni