by Anthony Ramirez ‘16

If the wisdom of the universe was in the house next door, would you notice? Well, if you haven’t noticed the Jesuit residence, the answer is no. The Jesuits are an unending source of worldly knowledge, and to think they are only a few steps away. Father Ober, a Jesuit and teacher at Saint Ignatius, decided to share some of his wisdom.

Though they may not be as easy to follow as they sound, Fr. Ober’s most important lesson he has learned from his years as a Jesuit is to “find God in all things,” and that patience is a necessary part of life. This also relates to what Fr. Ober believes is the most difficult part of the vocation “living up to the ideals all the time [and] being open minded.”

It is difficult to imagine any man could live up to all the ideals that faith pushes us to pursue, but the Jesuits are expected to be close. What would make a man want to place this much pressure on himself to live a holy life? Possibly the “excellent” pay? For Fr. Ober “the reward of being able to work with people is worth more than money.”

This is enough for many, or at least the Jesuits, to devote their lives to other people, without asking for a worldly reward.

Beside insight in the Jesuit ideologies, Fr. Ober offered two bits of advice to the students of Saint Ignatius. First, “take the spirituality program of the school seriously,” it will help you realize what life is truly about. Secondly, “find one area of study you really enjoy, hopefully even more than one.” Let this be the inspiration for continued study and development in your life.

With this much knowledge and wisdom to offer, the Jesuits are an invaluable resource. Talk to them, and find out how they view the world; it may even change the way you view it. And remember, as the Jesuits do, try to “find God in all things and in all people.”

by Brendan O’Donnell ‘16

This year, as everyone besides the freshmen has noticed, Saint Ignatius is implementing a number of changes to create a more college-like atmosphere. Among these changes are moving announcements from over the P.A. to a daily email, removing of the bells that start class, and adding several televisions around campus.

These changes have come in the third year of Principal Bradesca’s tenure and are the latest items on the list of other major changes that he has made, including the BYOT policy and the ban on cell phones during school hours.

One major change is the movement of announcements from the P.A. to the email. “We got feedback from teachers that a good portion of students do not listen to the anpart of the announcements. We decided to move the announcements to the email because it is a more permanent way to access the information. We figured that now was a perfect time to do this because of the new BYOT program.”

The announcements are now handled by the Dean of Student Life, Tim Evans ‘87. The content of the announcements, in general, has not changed, and club announcements still take up the majority of announcements. There are no longer “dynamic” announcements, such as announcing an improperly parked car, included in the main block of daily announcements. (These may still be broadcast over the P.A.) The removal of announcements also changed the schedule of classes, removing the homeroom period and moving the end of school to 2:50 from 2:55.

Another new change is that there is no longer a bell to start classes, except for first period and after the examen at the start of eighth period. However, the bell to end classes remains. According to Mr. Bradesca, this was done as a compromise with the teachers. “The original intent was to remove all the bells completely,” he said. “There was a compromise with some teachers who wished to keep both of the bells.” He also said that the change was “experimental” and therefore subject to change.

A third new change is the addition of several televisions across campus. Currently, these TVs only show news and weather, and many of them have had technical problems. According to Mr. Bradesca, however, the televisions will have more information related to the school.

“Right now, the TVs around campus are not doing what we want them to do,” he said. “Eventually, they will have scrolling announcements, student life events, and athletic news.”

The televisions will be another way to show announcements and their ability display immediate updates means that they can be used to show important events from around the school and worldwide news.

These are the most notable changes that the school has made to increase the college readiness aspect of the school. Currently, there are no changes in the works, but, as Mr. Bradesca says, there may be more in the future: “College preparation is always something that we are trying to increase. As new research comes out we will adapt to it. If something is proven to benefit students, we will give it a try.”

Ultimately, Principal Bradesca and the staff believe that, as a college preparatory school, St. Ignatius must continue to provide a more college like experience to its students.

“College preparation is one of the main ingredients in our mission,” Bradesca says. “We are not only forming men for the church, but also men for the world.”

by Brian Sabath ‘17

With every passing year, Saint Ignatius offers its students some of the newest technology to work with, so it was just a matter of time until the school acquired that most sci-fi of modern educational devices: a 3D printer. This year, students in Mr. Jarc’s junior and senior 3D Studio Art class have an excellent opportunity to work with this newsworthy technology that is shaping the field of 3D art.

The MakerBot Port Replicator 5th generation, one of the leading 3D printers in the growing industry,waspurchasedoverthesummer.The juniors and seniors were treated to a pleasant surprise when they found out their class would be using the new technology, which cost only about $3,000, despite its novelty.

The Fine Arts Department aren’t the only ones making good use of the 3D printer: In the science department, Mr. Emancipator is using the machine to combine science and the arts, while Mr. Ward is developing a way to use the technology as means of benefiting the robotics team.

Depending on the complexity of the task, the MakerBot can take anywhere from half an hour to five hours to complete a project, all of which time the mesmerizing toing and froing of the printer’s stylus can captivate an audience. It is therefore fitting that the printer will eventually move to the library. Students can watch the printer in action, to see what imaginative thing an Ignatius student designed.

Our very own 3D printer, the MakerBot, will be of great use throughout the school. Already in use by the Fine Arts Department, and expected to get even more use out of the Science Department. The MakerBot is just another way Ignatius is preparing students for their further studies, and using state-of-the-art technology right in the classroom.

by Patrick Millican ‘15

Surveying Rade or the Senior Lounge last year, one could see hundreds of faces mesmerized and illuminated by the glow of their smartphones, then legal on campus. But look out from the same vantage point this year and you’ll see a similar scene–students engaged with technology–but the cellphones have been subrogated by tablets and laptops. The obvious reason for the shift lies in the new BYOT program, but that program’s origins and the accompanying changes in cellphone rules, are not as well-known to students.

While many Ignatians see the BYOT as the brainchild of Principal Bradesca, its progenitor is in fact the Board of Regents, who decided five years ago to investigate and implement a one-to-one BYOT program on Saint Ignatius’s campus. (“One-to-one,” in this context, refers to a program whereby each student possesses his own private piece of technology, as opposed to school property shared by students, as was the case in years past with Mr. Hess’s iPads or the Theology Department’s Chromebooks.) The dual purposes of the program were, first and foremost, to promote digital citizenship and literacy, and, secondarily, to prepare students for college and the constant use of technology there.

First came the research into the Ignatius student body: According to Bradesca, “We discovered that most students already had items of technology at home that they were already familiar with. Why make a student with a laptop go and buy an iPad?” Then, in the course of researching other schools that have implemented programs similar to ours, especially Brebeuf Jesuit in Indianapolis, the Administration came to the conclusion that certain steps needed to be taken to ensure that implementation of the program went smoothly.

For example, each teacher was given an iPad two years ago, in addition to the laptop he or she already had, in order to become acquainted with the relevant software and hardware that students would be utilizing alongside teachers in classrooms. Secondly, over the past five years the bandwidth of the school’s wifi has grown to comply with the eventual stress placed upon it by 1500-odd laptops and tablets.

Since the program officially began in August, Principal Bradesca is proud to report that the reaction from many students and faculty has been overwhelmingly positive. “In fact,” he said, “one student lost his BYOT-enabled iPad on campus, and it was eventually located by using the wifi signal to figure out which router it was accessing and thereby determine where on campus it was.” And, in spite of many fears voiced by students who professed discomfort with leaving their backpacks unattended with their mandatory piece of technology for fear of it being stolen, Principal Bradesca can confidently say that, as of writing, there have been no thefts of BYOT devices thus far this year.

But where does that leave cellphones? Doesn’t the ubiquity of laptops and iPads obviate cellphones? After all, they can perform all the same functions, except calling, which has never been allowed on campus. That kind of thinking is shared by Principal Bradesca, who says that the new cellphone policy is the result of the obsolescence of smartphone technology with the advent of the BYOT. (The new cellphone regulation, in Principal Bradesca’s own words, is that “Smartphones are not permitted for use during the school day,” in case anyone wasn’t entirely certain what it was.) The cause, therefore, was not in fact complaints from too many teachers that students were using their phones in class, but rather that cellphones simply present too much potential for abuse when other avenues of technological interaction are available for classroom use.

But, as with any new policy, from the get-go it hasn’t been universally followed. Still, Principal Bradesca says, “I see students walking across campus with their phones.” He isn’t a proponent of siccing the “cellphone police” (as he terms rigorous and predatory enforcement of the cellphone policy) on students because “that’s not realistic,” and he does plan on allowing an initial grace period. That is not, however, to be taken advantage of or to become an excuse for habitually flouting the rules, since he plans on a gradual ramp-up of enforcement that could eventually include “confiscation and JUGs” if students don’t comport themselves accordingly.

Though it may take some time for compliance to be universal, given how well the school has responded to the BYOT and the cellphone policy, eventually, Principal Bradesca believes, “everyone will get the message.”