The Lords Of The Jesuit Graduate Profile

The Lords of the Jesuit Graduate Profile
As one approaches the midpoint of their academic career at Jesuit High School, a student should reflect on how he has advanced himself during the past two or three years. One should also ruminate on how he will advance himself in his final two years at Jesuit and as an adult. This academic institution imparts five key pillars to its graduates in order for Jesuit graduates to be successful Christian adult men. The two areas of the graduate profile that I am focusing on in my reflection are the following: being open to growth and being religious. These two characteristics of being open to growth and being religious have grown copiously during my last three years at Jesuit and have clearly allowed to

As both a student and an athlete at Jesuit, I have become open to growth for the purpose of bettering myself. In my three years at Jesuit, I have learned to accept myself for my talents and limitations, my victories and defeats. One academic weakness, which I have accepted, is my test-taking skills in Algebra II Honors—an infamously difficult course—during my sophomore year. This honors course definitively caused me to feel much more grief and anxiety than any other class I had taken already. Instead of continuing to do poorer as I previously was doing alone, I began to seek help from a tutor for the first time in my entire life. Although I personally prefer to do my work without help, I learned to let go of my stubbornness and to understand how receiving outside help could benefit me. In the spirit of being open to growth, I have begun to seek new experiences, even those which involve some risk or the possibility of failure. I have particularly sought out new experiences in the form of joining Jesuit’s wrestling team as an eighth grader that did not know a single student from my grade prior to entering Jesuit. On the topic of wrestling, I had participated in club wrestling before but had never participated in anything as grueling and emotionally charged as

As a practicing Missouri-Synod Lutheran my entire life, I never was exposed to any Catholic doctrine or traditions before I went to Jesuit. Ever since I have attended Jesuit, I am beginning to take more responsibility for exploring and validating my own faith. Furthermore, I began to realize that I needed to better understand my own faith; one pathway that I am presently using is my taking of Confirmation classes at much church in order to become an adult member of my church as well understanding my beliefs with greater clarity. Another conduit that I have used to better my understanding is becoming increasingly involved with my youth group. Relating to a Jesuit theology class, my church history class influenced me the most to understand Lutheranism. This class, in some ways, holds contempt toward any Protestant Church that formed during the Reformation. Many times during class I asked questions about the stances of the Catholic Church on many beliefs of the Lutheran church in a respectful manner. One specific question asked in this class was the Catholic Church’s stance about the idea of being saved eternally by the grace of God and not by works. I learned that my theology disagrees with the Catholic Church’s stance on this issue. I have become fond of the principle that I can ask theological questions in that