Thesis advisor: James O'Toole / In the 1960s American Jesuit secondary school administrators struggled to resolve a profound tension within their institutions. The religious order's traditional educational aim dating back to the 1500s emphasized influence through contact with "important and public persons" in order that the Jesuits might in turn help direct cultures around the world to a more universal good. This historical foundation clashed sharply with what was emerging as the Jesuits' new emphasis on a preferential option for the poor. This dissertation argues that the greater cultural and religious changes of the 1960s posed a fundamental challenge to Catholic elite education in the United States. The competing visions of the Jesuits produced a crisis of identity, causing some Jesuit high schools either to collapse or reinvent themselves in the debate over whether Jesuit schools were for richer or for poorer Americans. The dissertation examines briefly the historical process that led to this crisis of identity, beginning with the contribution of Jesuit education to the Americanization of massive numbers of first and second-generation immigrant Catholics as they adjusted to life in America in the first half of the twentieth century. As Catholics adapted, increasingly sophisticated American Jesuit schools became instrumental in the formation of a Catholic elite, and many of the institutions found themselves among elite American schools. This elite identity was disrupted by two factors: the cultural volatility of the 1960s and the Jesuits' election of a new leader, Pedro Arrupe. While some Jesuit educators embraced Arrupe's preferential option for the poor, others feared it would undercut the traditional approach of outreach to the elite. Through a case study of one Jesuit boarding school, the dissertation seeks to expand our understanding of the impact of 1960s social change into the less-explored realms of religion and education. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History.

The purpose of this study was to assess how graduating students at St. Paul’s High School are fulfilling the characteristics of the Jesuit Secondary Education Association’s Profile of the Graduate at Graduation. These characteristics include being open to growth, intellectually competent, religious, loving, and committed to doing justice. While these five characteristics are identified as desired traits for graduates of St. Paul’s, there has not yet been an evaluation process undertaken in order to gauge student attainment of these characteristics. The methodology involved a document analysis, a collection of data from the sixty-two JSEA schools’ websites, and four interviews with St. Paul’s graduates from 2014. The three-fold approach allowed for a deep understanding of the context and experience of the Profile. This allowed for a reflection that showed there is a successful outline for creating a culture where the Graduate at Graduation is central to the mission of JSEA schools, which in turn makes the characteristics attainable.