Why De Smet Jesuit

We know you have options.

In St. Louis, “Where’d you go to high school?” is a legendary question. The answer says something about your values, your faith, where you’re from, and where you’re going.

#WhyDeSmet

8 students stand smiling in dress code (khakis and collared shirts and quarter zips)

Why Our Families Choose De Smet Jesuit

Top Reasons From Parents

Top Reasons From Parents

1. Delivery of mission
Our mission—to inspire and prepare young men to transform the world for the greater glory of God—is accomplished in part through daily reflective prayer, our comprehensive service program, annual class retreats, the strength of student-teacher relationships, and care for the individual student.

2. Caring community
In addition to a dedicated faculty and staff that values students, our parents also enjoy a lively and generous Spartan Parents Association.

3. Communication of mission and educational philosophy
From the freshmen Odyssey experience that emphasizes brotherhood to preparing our seniors for college with advanced curriculum and four years of laptop instruction, we use online communication, social media, and weekly newsletters to actively share our story.

Top Reasons From Students

Top Reasons From Students

De Smet Jesuit’s students lead remarkably balanced lives imbued with a refreshing mixture of academics, co-curricular activities, faith, service, and commitment to others. They report better than average among their same age peers’ sleep patterns and eagerly support their peers by attending their activities and performances. Independent School Management

Why all boy?

We know how boys learn.

Boys learn better when positive and trusting relationships are the foundation. Research supports this concept. So do our graduates. At De Smet Jesuit faculty members are accessible and responsive to both students and parents, and students recognize their De Smet Jesuit brothers as brothers for life.

Boys require engagement.

Our block classes encourage project-based learning.
Our rotating schedule allows for varied class times and flexibility.
Our curriculum challenges students to be prepared for college.
Our Jesuit lens of commitment to justice puts boys outside their comfort zones and into the community.
Our Innovation Center Caves evoke the deeply spiritual place where St. Ignatius wrote what was to become the Spiritual Exercises. They serve as purposeful, creative spaces for student inspiration.
We know boys have high standards for learning in a meaningful, active way, and we hold their attention in a way that leads to understanding and mastery.

Boys respond to what works and what doesn’t in a classroom.

Our teachers employ reflective teaching from the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm, a teaching method that includes setting context and using experience, reflection, action, and evaluation. Teachers remain fluid and flexible in the classroom, and open to changing things up in response to the needs of our students.

Why Jesuit?

We help students become loving and faith-filled human beings.

Through retreats, daily prayer, reflection, service, senior compañeros program, athletics, and community celebrations, our students mature spiritually.
Our comprehensive service programs instill a lifetime habit of service and encourage students at each grade level to be men for and with others.
Our philosophy of cura personalis drives genuine relationships and care for each individual student.
We are strengthened by a network of nearly 90 Jesuit secondary schools in the US.
Our universal Jesuit profile of the Graduate at Graduation means we are equally committed to our students’ academic success as we are to forming well-rounded humans with their eyes toward deepening a relationship with God.