The Bishop's School is an
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
college preparatory
Episcopal
day school located at 7607 La Jolla Boulevard in
La Jolla, a community of
San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...
. Bishop's offers courses for students in the sixth through twelfth grades and has a 9:1 student-teacher ratio.
History
Bishop's was founded in 1909 by
Ellen Browning Scripps and her half-sister (Eliza) Virginia Scripps, with gifts of land and funding, at the request of the Right Reverend
Joseph Horsfall Johnson
Joseph Horsfall Johnson (7 June 1847- 16 May 1928) was the first Bishop of Los Angeles in The Episcopal Church. He founded The Bishop's School in La Jolla, California and served on the Pomona College board of trustees. The Bishop Johnson College ...
, at that time
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
of the
Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles
The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles is a community of 48,874 Episcopalians in 147 congregations, 40 schools, and 18 major institutions, spanning all of Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties, and part of Rive ...
. Originally, it was a boarding school for girls only. The earliest parts of the campus were designed by architect
Irving Gill
Irving John Gill (April 26, 1870 – October 7, 1936), was an American architect. He did most of his work in Southern California, especially in San Diego and Los Angeles. He is considered a pioneer of the modern movement in architecture. Twelve ...
, responsible for a multitude of buildings in La Jolla. The current tower building was designed by
Carleton Winslow as a replacement for the original Gill tower.
Since the School's inception, the following have served as Head of School:
* Anna Frances O'Hare Bentham (1909–1915);
* Margaret Gilman (1915–1918);
* Marguerite Barton (1918–1921);
* Caroline Cummins (1921–1953);
* Rosamund Larmour Loomis (1953–1962);
* Florence Stowell Bill (1962–1963);
* Ruth Jenkins (1963–1971);
* Philip Perkins (1971–1974);
* Dorothy Anne Williams (1974–1983);
* Michael Teitelman (1983–2009);
* Aimeclaire Lambert Roche (2009–2018);
* Carol Barry (interim; 2018–2019);
* Ron Kim (2019–present).
The School is known for its reputation in academics, arts and athletics.
Bishop's became co-educational after merging with the San Miguel School of San Diego, California in 1971. In June 1983, the boarding department was closed. The school expanded to include sixth grade in the fall of 2009.
Campus
The Bishop's School's 11-acre campus is located in the heart of
La Jolla, only one block away from the Pacific Ocean. At the center of the campus is the Quad, a grassy
quadrangle that is an important part of school life at Bishop's. Tradition prohibits anyone from setting foot on the Quad before lunch on school days. Most of the school's buildings are situated around the Quad, including three of the school's most prominent buildings: Bentham Hall, St. Mary's Chapel, and the Tower. The school campus contains a total of 12 buildings, the oldest of which was built in 1898. Many of the historic buildings on campus were designed by architect
Irving Gill
Irving John Gill (April 26, 1870 – October 7, 1936), was an American architect. He did most of his work in Southern California, especially in San Diego and Los Angeles. He is considered a pioneer of the modern movement in architecture. Twelve ...
, one of the pioneers of the modern movement in architecture.
The school has been designated a
historical landmark
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
by the city of San Diego. Bentham Hall (designed by Irving Gill) was listed as historic in 1994 and the remainder of the campus in 1998. Designated elements include Scripps Hall (Irving Gill, 1910–11), Gilman Hall (Irving Gill and Louis Gill, 1916), St. Mary's Chapel (
Carleton Winslow, 1916), The Tower (Carleton Winslow, 1930), Wheeler J. Bailey Library (Carleton Winslow, 1935), and gardens.
Leadership
Ron Kim started as Bishop’s 13th Head of School in August 2019. For the 2018–2019 school year, he served as the interim assistant head of school at
The Buckley School in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
. Prior to Buckley, he was the head of school at
BASIS Independent McLean (Virginia) and spent 23 years at
Phillips Exeter Academy
(not for oneself) la, Finis Origine Pendet (The End Depends Upon the Beginning) gr, Χάριτι Θεοῦ (By the Grace of God)
, location = 20 Main Street
, city = Exeter, New Hampshire
, zipcode ...
in Exeter, New Hampshire, where he held various administrative and teaching roles during his distinguished career; the most recent were assistant principal, dean of faculty, history instructor and girls' varsity basketball coach. Ron was the youngest dean of faculty ever appointed at Exeter.
Rankings
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 ...
Advanced Placement Program ranked the AP Biology program the strongest in the nation for two consecutive years (2004 & 2005), as Bishop's achieved the highest rate of achievement for medium-sized schools (300–799 students). ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' recognized Bishop's in 2007 for its high matriculation rate to eight selective American colleges.
In 2019, the school was recognized as one of the top 20 sought-after private high schools in the country and
Niche
Niche may refer to:
Science
*Developmental niche, a concept for understanding the cultural context of child development
*Ecological niche, a term describing the relational position of an organism's species
*Niche differentiation, in ecology, the ...
ranked the school 30th best private high school nationally. In 2020, The Bishop's School was ranked as the No. 1 Christian high school in California, the best private high school in San Diego and the best high school for STEM.
Student activities
Academic League
The Bishop's Academic League team participates in the Northern division of the City League. In 2015 the Bishop's Novice team captained by Hamilton Allport and Ryan Feng won first in the county with an undefeated record. In 2016 the Bishop's Junior Varsity team captained by Hamilton Allport and Ryan Feng placed first with a record of 6-1. The 2019 season saw the team reach greater heights, with Tobey Shim and Yasha Kharrati leading the Junior Varsity to an undefeated 7-0 first place finish. The two also joined Varsity captains Rohit Raguram and Sebastian Hayden in a successful playoffs run which included the team's first-ever city championship title as well as a 2nd-place finish in San Diego County.
Advanced Topics in Economics
In 2015, students in an advanced economics class experienced great success in numerous local, state and national competitions. In the Economics Challenge the teams finished with two of the top five spots. In the Southern California Economics Challenge in Los Angeles the teams placed first and third after a strong finish in the quiz bowl rounds. The team eventually advanced to place sixth in the National Semifinals. Additionally, members of the team traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts for the Harvard Precollegiate Economics Competition and a meeting with Eric Maskin, the 2007 Nobel Prize winner in the field of Economics. A research team within the class headed by Nikhil Palanki also authored a paper on consumer price index across income levels and was invited to present their research at the 9th Annual Undergraduate Conference, a part of the Economic Scholars Program hosted by the
Dallas Federal Reserve. In 2017, the class was restarted and continued to succeed at many national competitions. In the Economics Challenge the teams finished with two of the top five spots and in the Finance Challenge the team took the position of first place in the state of California and fourth in the country. The class, headed and captained by seniors Rachel Hong and Sajan Palanki went on to compete at Harvard Precollegiate Economics Competition and the Stanford Economics Competition and at both Kevin Chen won first place in the country.
Arts
The Bishop's Singers have performed in New York's
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...
and in Chicago's Symphony Hall, as well as on
The Today Show. The school also has a strong visual arts program, featuring student exhibitions and engagement in art competitions.
Athletics
The school (known in competition as the "Knights") currently offers 40 varsity and junior varsity teams. Sixty percent of Bishop's students compete in one or more sport.
The Knights have had significant success in athletics. The program's 117
California Interscholastic Federation titles ranks fifth among all San Diego schools.
Bishop's is known throughout Southern California as a
water polo
Water polo is a competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the ball into the opposing team's goal. The team with the ...
power, winning the C.I.F. title in boys’ water polo in its district in 2002–2006, 2008, 2010, 2019-2021. The girls’ water polo team won in 2000–2002, 2004–2007, 2011–2018 and 2020-2022.
The 1997 football team, led by Bishop's football coach and former college All-American and NFL safety
Shane Walton
Shane Scott Walton (born October 9, 1979) is a former American college and professional football player who was a safety in the National Football League (NFL) for a single season in 2003. He played college football and soccer for the University ...
, won the C.I.F. State Championship. The 2010 football team earned the school's second State Championship after finishing the season 14-0. The Knights defeated Brookside Christian (Stockton) 40-14 in the C.I.F. State Championship Division IV Bowl Game. The 2014 football team went 13-0 and won the C.I.F. San Diego Section Division IV championship, and the 2016 football team also won the C.I.F. San Diego Section Division IV.
Twenty percent of the Knights’ student-athletes go on to play at the collegiate level.
McDonald's All-American Destiny Littleton played for
South Carolina Gamecocks women's basketball
The South Carolina Gamecocks women's basketball team represents the University of South Carolina and competes in the Southeastern Conference (SEC). Under current head coach Dawn Staley, the Gamecocks have been one of the top programs in the count ...
, winning a national championship during the
2021-2022 season. The Knights also had the top boys lacrosse recruit in the nation Isaiah Dawson who now plays fo
Harvard Men's Lacrosse Current
Notre Dame Fighting Irish Football
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team is the intercollegiate football team representing the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana, north of the city of South Bend, Indiana. The team plays its home games at the campus' Notre Dame ...
quarterback
Tyler Buchner also attended the school.
Mock Trial
The Bishop's Mock Trial team won the San Diego County championship in 2010–2012, 2014 and 2015. The team is made up of AP U.S. Government students who are completing a class project as first-year players. Numerous graduates have continued to participate in mock trial at the collegiate level at schools such as Duke, University of Illinois, George Washington, Princeton, and Tufts.
Model UN Team
The Bishop's Model United Nations team has participated in regional and national Model UN conferences for over two decades. The Bishop's Model UN Team has won numerous awards, most recently at the Columbia Model United Nations Conference and Exposition, the UCSD Triton MUN conference and the USD MUN conference. The Secretariat of the Bishop's MUN team also hosts an annual conference for other high schoolers, dubbed KnightsMUN, every December. In 2019, over 150 participants from 20 schools across Southern California attended the conference. Due to concerns over the spread of
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, the 2020 KnightsMUN conference was virtually hosted on
Zoom
Zoom may refer to:
Technology Computing
* Zoom (software), videoconferencing application
* Page zooming, the ability to magnify or shrink a portion of a page on a computer display
* Zooming user interface, a graphical interface allowing for image ...
.
School Publications
The School publishes its magazine, "Bishop's," twice a year.
The school also publishes several monthly, daily, and quarterly publications.
Speech and debate team
The Bishop's School Speech and Debate team competes in the San Diego Imperial Valley Speech League (SDIVSL), a division of the California High School Speech Association (CHSSA). The team is the largest single extracurricular on campus including sports teams, boasting upwards of sixty active members in a given school year. They primarily compete in Congressional debate, Parliamentary debate, Lincoln-Douglas debate, and various individual speech events. The team consistently sends several qualifiers to the California State tournament each year.
At the end of the 2018–2019 school year, Tim Kelly (class of 2020), won Debater of the Year for SDIVSL.
Over the course of the 2017-2021 school years, Schuyler Capita (class of 2021) became the first student to qualify for the California State tournament four years in a row.
Spirit team
The Bishop's School does not have a cheerleading squad but has a spirit team called "The Dungeon." The Dungeon is a co-educational spirit team that cheers at various "Knights" athletic events. The Dungeon is responsible for attending all of the athletic events and raising crowds of students to support their peers. Community and school spirit is a fundamental part of the curriculum, and The Dungeon serves as a co-educational spirit team to further student involvement in school life.
Student publications
Bishop's has several student publications. Noteworthy publications include:
*''The Tower'', Bishop's official student newspaper and magazine, published monthly. It covers a variety of topics, but all of them are designed to have some link to Bishop's.
*''The Daily Urinal'', an independent daily newspaper which was founded in 2004 and received its moniker after being posted in campus restrooms. Although originally intended to be a humorous publication, the "DU" has tackled both important and controversial issues at Bishop's. It is distributed daily via email.
* ''Globe'', a student-led magazine, is an annual publication with the purpose of sharing the global and cultural experiences of students and faculty through word and art.
* ''Reflections'', the Upper School Literary Magazine, is an annual publication that accepts prose, poetry, and art of all kinds.
* ''Dragonwings'', the Middle School literary magazine.
*''Quanta'', a science publication, was established at Bishop's in 2010.
*''Spectrum'', a student diversity newsletter, distributed monthly via email, was established at Bishop's in 2016.
*''Eye on Visual Arts'', an art publication, was established at Bishop's in 2019.
Notable alumni
*
Pancho Barnes
Florence Lowe "Pancho" Barnes (July 22, 1901 – March 30, 1975) was a pioneer aviator and a founder of the first movie stunt pilots' union. In 1930, she broke Amelia Earhart's air speed record. Barnes raced in the Women's Air Derby and was a m ...
— 1910s, pioneering female aviator
*
Tyler Buchner — 2021, Notre Dame quarterback
*
Andrew Campbell — 2002, yachtsman, four-time All-American and
2008 Summer Olympics
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...
competitor
*
Andrew Phillip Cunanan — American spree killer
*
Gretel Ehrlich
Gretel Ehrlich is an American travel writer, poet and essayist.
Biography
Born in 1946 in Santa Barbara, California, she studied at Bennington College and UCLA film school. She began to write full-time in 1978 while living on a Wyoming ranch ...
— 1963, travel writer, poet, and essayist
*
M.F.K. Fisher
Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher (July 3, 1908 – June 22, 1992) was an American food writer. She was a founder of the Napa Valley Wine Library. Over her lifetime she wrote 27 books, including a translation of ''The Physiology of Taste'' by Brillat-S ...
— 1927,
epicurean, culinary historian, and memoirist
*
Marjory Gengler
Marjory Logan Gengler Smith (born May 3, 1951) is an American retired tennis player. In 1973, while a student at Princeton University, she was captain of the women's tennis team and led them to an undefeated season in 1972. She was the top ranked ...
— 1969, tennis player
*
Edwin "Eddy" Glazener - 2012, Redwoods PLL Professional Lacrosse Defenseman
*
Jean Guerrero
Jean Carolyn Guerrero (born March 31, 1988) is an American investigative journalist, author, essayist, columnist and former foreign correspondent. She is the author of ''Crux: A Cross-Border Memoir,'' winner of the PEN/FUSION Emerging Writers Pr ...
— 2006, investigative journalist, author, and former foreign correspondent
*
J. J. Isler — 1981, yachtswoman,
1992 Summer Olympics
The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...
medalist and
America's Cup
The America's Cup, informally known as the Auld Mug, is a trophy awarded in the sport of sailing. It is the oldest international competition still operating in any sport. America's Cup match races are held between two sailing yachts: one f ...
competitor
*
Gary Jules — 1987, singer-songwriter
*
Eric Lax
Eric Lax is an American author who has written books on modern medicine, four books on Woody Allen including a biography, and a personal memoir ''Faith: Interrupted'' about his loss of Christian faith.
Biography
Lax was raised in an Episcopalian ...
— 1962, editor, writer, and author
*
Elliott Liu — 2008, chess player
*
Chris McKenna — 1988, television writer, producer, and film writer
*
Inga Orekhova — 2009, professional basketball player
*
Roy Perkins
Roy Perkins (born May 9, 1990) is an American paralympic swimmer who competes in the S5 classification. At the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, Perkins won one gold and one bronze medal. At the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, he won two si ...
— 2008, Paralympic swimmer, two-time Paralympic gold medalist
*
Ankur Rathee
Ankur Rathee (born 24 March 1991) is an Indo-American actor. He is best known for his role in the Amazon Prime Video show ''Four More Shots Please'' (2019-2020).
Early life
Ankur was born in Hisar, Haryana. He graduated from Princeton Univ ...
— 2009, actor and dancer
*
Marc Rosen
Marc Rosen (born May 12, 1976) is an American film and television producer.
He has been an executive and producer in film and television at major studios/networks as well as independent companies for 20 years. With the recent 2-hour finale of ...
— 1994, film and television producer, executive or co-executive producing 40 hours of high-end ($4–$8mn/episode) scripted content, including
Sense8 (Netflix)
*
Honoré Desmond Sharrer — 1938, painter in the style of Magical Realism
*
Kevin Stadler — 1998, professional golfer
*
Bonnie St. John
Bonnie St. John (born November 7, 1964) is an American former Paralympic skier, author, and public speaker. St. John had her right leg amputated below the knee when she was 5 years old. Despite these challenges, she went on to excel as an athlete, ...
— 1982, the first African American woman to win a silver medal at the
Paralympics
The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaired ...
*
Elise Trouw
Elise Ashlyn Trouw (born April 27, 1999) is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer.
Early life and education
Trouw was born in Newport Beach, California to Arie and Anne Trouw. The family moved to San Diego wh ...
— 2017, pop/alternative/rock singer and multi-instrumentalist
*
Colin Walsh — 2007, Major League Baseball player
*
Shane Walton
Shane Scott Walton (born October 9, 1979) is a former American college and professional football player who was a safety in the National Football League (NFL) for a single season in 2003. He played college football and soccer for the University ...
— 1998, NFL defensive back
*
Melissa Winter — 1984, Deputy Chief of Staff for First Lady
Michelle Obama
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (born January 17, 1964) is an American attorney and author who served as first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. She was the first African-American woman to serve in this position. She is married t ...
See also
*
San Diego Historical Landmarks in La Jolla
*
Primary and secondary schools in San Diego, California
References
External links
The Bishop's SchoolThe Bishop's School Athletics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bishop's School
Preparatory schools in California
High schools in San Diego
Private high schools in California
Private middle schools in California
La Jolla, San Diego
Irving Gill buildings
Landmarks in San Diego
Educational institutions established in 1909
1909 establishments in California
Episcopal schools in the United States