, motto_translation = One heart and one mind , address = 2429 Bristol Pike , location = , region = , town = Bensalem , county = Bucks County , state =

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, zipcode = 19020-5298 , country = USA , country1 = , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , other_name = , former_name = Holy Ghost Apostolic College , schooltype = , fundingtype = , type =

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

college-preparatory A college-preparatory school (usually shortened to preparatory school or prep school) is a type of secondary school. The term refers to state school, public, Independent school, private independent or parochial school, parochial schools primaril ...

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

, religious_affiliation =

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, denomination =

Congregation of the Holy Spirit , image = Holy Ghost Fathers seal.png , size = 175px , caption = The seal of the Congregation depicting the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Trinity. , abbreviation ...

, patron = , established = , founder =

John Tuohill Murphy John Baptist Tuohill Murphy, C.S.Sp. (24 June 1854 – 16 April 1926) was an Irish Roman Catholic priest in the Congregation of the Holy Ghost, who served from 1886 to 1899 as the president of the Pittsburgh Catholic College, which was later re ...

, status = Currently operational , closed = , locale = , sister_school = , school_board = , district = , us_nces_district_id = , local_authority = , educational_authority = , category = , oversight = , trust = , authorizer = , superintendent = , trustee = , specialist = , session = , school_number = , school_code = , ceeb = 390870 , us_nces_school_id = , president = Gregory J. Geruson , chair = , chairman = , chairperson = , dean = , administrator = , rector = , director = , principal = Kevin Burke , campus_director = , headmistress = , headmaster = , head_of_school = , head_teacher = , executive_headteacher = , acting_headteacher = , head = , r_head = , officer_in_charge = , chaplain = Daniel Sormani , staff = 35.6 , faculty = , teaching_staff = , employees = , key_people = , grades = 9– 12 , years = , years_taught = , gender = All-male , age_range = , lower_age = , upper_age = , enrollment = 444 , enrollment_as_of = 2019–2020 , capacity = , sixth_form_students = , grade_preK = , gradeK = , grade1 = , grade2 = , grade3 = , grade4 = , grade5 = , grade6 = , grade7 = , grade8 = , grade9 = 106 , grade10 = 103 , grade11 = 125 , grade12 = 110 , grade13 = , other = , other_grade_label_1 = , other_grade_enrollment_1 = , other_grade_label_2 = , other_grade_enrollment_2 = , international_students = , classes = , average_class_size = 18 , ratio = 12.5:1 , system = , classes_offered = , language = , schedule_type = , schedule = , hours_in_day = 6.5 , classrooms = , campuses = , campus = , campus_size = , area = , campus_type =

Suburban A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

, houses = , student_union = , colors =

Red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

Royal Blue Royal blue is a deep and vivid shade of blue. It is said to have been created by clothiers in Rode, Somerset, a consortium of whom won a competition to make a dress for Queen Charlotte, consort of King George III. Brightness The ''Oxford En ...

, &

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

, slogan = , song = , fight_song = , athletics = , athletics_conference = , sports = , mascot = , nickname =

Firebirds Firebird and fire bird may refer to: Mythical birds * Phoenix (mythology), sacred firebird found in the mythologies of many cultures * Bennu, Egyptian firebird * Huma bird, Persian firebird * Firebird (Slavic folklore) Bird species ''Various sp ...

, teams = , team_name = , rivals = , accreditation = MSA , USNWR_ranking = , national_ranking = , test_name = SAT , test_average = 1280 , bar_pass_rate = , decile = , publication = Embers , newspaper = The Flame , yearbook = , products = , endowment = , budget = , fees = , tuition = , annual_tuition = $24,100 , revenue = , communities = , feeder_schools = , feeder_to = , graduates = , graduates_year = , affiliation = , alumni = , alumni_name = , nobel_laureates = , information = , website = , footnotes = , picture = , picture_caption = , picture2 = , picture_caption2 = Holy Ghost Preparatory School (often shortened to Holy Ghost Prep, Ghost, or HGP) is a Catholic college-preparatory high school for young men in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, United States.

missionaries founded the school in 1897.

History

Father

founded Holy Ghost Prep in 1897 as Holy Ghost Apostolic College, a preparatory school and junior-college seminary for young men studying to become Congregation of the Holy Spirit members. In the 1950s, the school started to move its college-level program to Duquesne University. It opened its doors to non-seminarians in 1959 for the first time. In 1967, the school discontinued the seminary program. Holy Ghost Preparatory School was formed as a non-profit institution a year later. In the 1990s, the school began a long-range planning process, which resulted in significant structural enhancements to the campus. Today, its enrollment consists entirely of non-resident, college-bound students. In 2015, Gregory J. Geruson became the school's first lay president. The school's "Vision 2020" Strategic Plan has resulted in the building a new STEM Tower. Step One of the STEM Tower, the Brennan Innovation Center, opened in August 2017. The rest of the STEM Tower was completed in time for the 2018–19 school year. In early 2018, the school also opened the Holt Center, including a performing arts center, a multi-purpose gymnasium, music instruction rooms, and training areas for baseball, track and field, golf, lacrosse, and rowing. The Holt Center serves Holy Ghost students and will be available to community groups.

Admissions

Holy Ghost Prep consists of 444 students. Located near the I-95 corridor in metropolitan

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, the school attracts students from more than 100 feeder schools from Bucks County, other metropolitan Philadelphia counties, and

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

Demographics

Curriculum

Graduation requires coursework in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

, social studies,

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

, foreign language,

fine art In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwork ...

s, and

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

with many electives, including computer science, cinematography, and portfolio art. As a school for the college-bound, HGP offers an extensive honors and

Advanced Placement Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States and Canada created by the College Board which offers college-level curricula and examinations to high school students. American colleges and universities may grant placement and course ...

program, preparing students to take AP tests for college credit in 23 areas of study prescribed by the

College Board The College Board is an American nonprofit organization that was formed in December 1899 as the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB) to expand access to higher education. While the College Board is not an association of colleges, it runs a ...

. AP Calculus AB teacher Jerry Colapinto was awarded the 2007

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad. The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...

AP Teacher of the Year award for Pennsylvania. Holy Ghost Prep has been recognized by the

National Blue Ribbon Schools Program The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program is a United States Department of Education award program that recognizes exemplary public and non-public schools on a yearly basis. Using standards of excellence evidenced by student achievement measures, ...

Extracurricular activities

Athletics

Holy Ghost Prep has many interscholastic and intramural sports teams. Major sports include

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

ultimate Frisbee Ultimate, originally known as ultimate Frisbee, is a non-contact team sport played with a frisbee flung by hand. Ultimate was developed in 1968 by AJ Gator in Maplewood, New Jersey. Although ultimate resembles many traditional sports in its ath ...

bowling Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), though ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

, swimming,

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

, cross country, rowing

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

, and

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

. Athletic facilities on campus include seven fields for various sports, a fieldhouse holding an auditorium and gymnasium, an all-weather track, as well as a new facility, the Holt Center, containing a performing arts theater, music studios, gym, batting cages, as well as a room for the rowing team. Holy Ghost Prep is a member of the Bicentennial Athletic League. The Firebirds have a tradition of excellence in all sports. There have been seven Pennsylvania state champions in school history: the 1972 and 1974 basketball teams, the 1992 soccer team, and, most recently, the 2011 tennis team. In 2013 and 2014, the soccer team won the PIAA state championship. In 2015, the hockey team won its first state championship. Harold “Jr.” McIlwain ('93) won the 400m in 1992 PIAA state track championships and followed that with the 800m title in 1993. Holy Ghost Preparatory School also added a rowing team in Fall 2015. In the fall of 2020, Holy Ghost Prep left the Bicentennial Athletic League. It began to compete as an independent program while maintaining its membership with the PIAA and District One.

Notable alumni

* Kevin Collins (1986), actor and voice-over artist who appeared in TV shows, such as ''

Law & Order ''Law & Order'' is an American police procedural and legal drama television series created by Dick Wolf and produced by Wolf Entertainment, launching the '' Law & Order'' franchise. ''Law & Order'' aired its entire run on NBC, premiering on ...

'', ''

Guiding Light ''Guiding Light'' (known as ''The Guiding Light'' before 1975) is an American radio and television soap opera. It is listed in ''Guinness World Records'' as the third longest-running drama in television in American history. ''Guiding Light'' a ...

'', and ''

All My Children ''All My Children'' (often shortened to ''AMC'') is an American television soap opera that aired on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from January 5, 1970, to September 23, 2011, and on The Online Network (TOLN) from April 29 to September 2, 20 ...

'', Steven Spielberg's film ''

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

'' and starred in Jamil Dehlavi's '' Infinite Justice''. *

Ryan Gunderson Ryan Gunderson (born August 16, 1985) is an American professional ice hockey Defenceman, defenseman currently playing for HC Fribourg-Gottéron of the National League (ice hockey), National League (NL). Playing career Amateur Gunderson attended ...

(2003), professional ice hockey player for Brynäs IF of the

Swedish Hockey League The Swedish Hockey League (officially SHL; sv, Svenska Hockeyligan) is a professional ice hockey league, and the highest division in the Swedish ice hockey system. The league currently consists of 14 teams. The league was founded in 1975, an ...

, and former player for the Columbia Inferno of the ECHL and of the

Lowell Devils The Lowell Devils were a minor ice hockey team in the American Hockey League playing in Lowell, Massachusetts, at the Tsongas Center. As their name implied, they were the top minor league affiliate of the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey L ...

and Houston Aeros of the AHL *

Nolan Jones Nolan Allen Jones (born May 7, 1998) is an American professional baseball infielder and outfielder for the Colorado Rockies of Major League Baseball (MLB). He made his MLB debut in 2022 with the Cleveland Guardians. Amateur career Jones attended ...

(2016), professional baseball player for

Cleveland Guardians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central division. Since , they have ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

. *

Frank Seravalli Frank Seravalli is an American sports reporter. He is a Hockey Insider and President of Hockey Content at Daily Faceoff and contributor to Sportsnet and Bally Sports broadcasts of the NHL. He was previously a Hockey Insider for Canadian sports ne ...

(2006), senior hockey reporter for Canadian all-sports network

TSN TSN may refer to: Science and technology * Translin, DNA binding protein involved in microRNA function * Taxonomic serial number, a stable and unique taxonomic serial number issued by the Integrated Taxonomic Information System * The Science Netwo ...

* Paul McCrane (1978), actor who guest-starred on ''24'' and played Dr. Robert Romano in TV series ''ER'' from 1997 to 2003. * Timothy J. Savage (1964), U.S. federal judge *Rand Geiger (2002), producer of ''Stranger Things''"A Holy Ghost Prep grad is a producer on the spooky Netflix hit 'Stranger Things'" Philadelphia Inquirer
/ref>

Notes and references

{{authority control Catholic secondary schools in Pennsylvania Educational institutions established in 1897 Boys' schools in the United States Schools in Bucks County, Pennsylvania 1897 establishments in Pennsylvania Spiritan schools