Notre Dame High School, San Jose, California
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Notre Dame High School is a
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
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 ...
for girls in
San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...
. Founded in 1851, Notre Dame is the oldest high school in
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
(tied with
Bellarmine College Preparatory Bellarmine College Preparatory is an all-male, Jesuit, private secondary school located in San Jose, California. Founded in 1851, it is the oldest secondary school in California and the second-oldest west of the Mississippi River. In 2020, Niche ...
).


History

Notre Dame is an all-girls Catholic high school situated in
downtown San Jose Downtown San Jose is the central business district of San Jose, California. Downtown is one of the largest tech clusters in Silicon Valley, as well as the cultural and political center of San Jose. History The town was first settled in 1777. T ...
. The school was founded as the
College of Notre Dame Notre Dame de Namur University (NDNU) is a private Catholic university in Belmont, California. It is the third oldest college in California and the first college in the state authorized to grant the baccalaureate degree to women. In 2021, the u ...
by the Catholic
Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur (Congregationis Sororum a Domina Nostra Namurcensi) are a Catholic institute of religious sisters, founded to provide education to the poor. The institute was founded in Amiens, France, in 1804, but the opposi ...
. The Sisters of Notre Dame also ran St Joseph's (now the site of Adobe's HQs), St Leo's, St. Clare's, St Francis Xavier and St Mary's where many of the female students later came to Notre Dame High School and Notre Dame de Namur College. On August 4, 1851 the Women's
College of Notre Dame Notre Dame de Namur University (NDNU) is a private Catholic university in Belmont, California. It is the third oldest college in California and the first college in the state authorized to grant the baccalaureate degree to women. In 2021, the u ...
and convent opened on ten acres of land at 1 Notre Dame Avenue and Santa Clara Street. Notre Dame was the sister school to the all Men's
Santa Clara College Santa Clara University is a private Jesuit university in Santa Clara, California. Established in 1851, Santa Clara University is the oldest operating institution of higher learning in California. The university's campus surrounds the historic Mis ...
located two and a half miles away West on
The Alameda, San Jose The Alameda is a historic district of Central San Jose, California, west of Downtown San Jose. The district is centered on an ''alameda'' (Spanish for tree-lined street), a historic portion of El Camino Real connecting Downtown San Jose to Missi ...
. In 1868, it became California's first chartered women's college authorized to grant the baccalaureate degree to women. In 1900 the Conservatory of Music was built. In May 1901 US President McKinley visited the school and was presented rosebuds by the students. In 1923 the College of Notre Dame, high school and elementary school moved: to the Ralston estate, located in
Belmont Belmont may refer to: People * Belmont (surname) Places * Belmont Abbey (disambiguation) * Belmont Historic District (disambiguation) * Belmont Hotel (disambiguation) * Belmont Park (disambiguation) * Belmont Plantation (disambiguation) * Belmon ...
on the
San Francisco Peninsula The San Francisco Peninsula is a peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area that separates San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. On its northern tip is the City and County of San Francisco. Its southern base is Mountain View, south of Palo A ...
while part of the high school (Santa Clara Street Academy) moved to the O'Connor Mansion at Second and Reed Street in San Jose. The O'Connor Mansion, was donated in 1898 to the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur by Judge Myles P. O'Connor and his wife, Amanda. In 1958, the construction of two buildings began.
Julie Billiart Julie Billiart (12 July 1751 – 8 April 1816) was a French nun, saint, educator, and founder of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. She was born in Cuvilly, a village in Picardy, in northern France. She was paralyzed and bedridden for 22 years, ...
Hall served the purpose of a gathering place for school functions, a gym, and a cafeteria. Madonna Hall, later renamed Donnelly Hall in honor of Sister Mary Emmanuel Donnelly, is a two-story building that contains classrooms, teacher offices, and now a fully functional computer lab. In 1965 a convent and chapel complex was built on the northeast corner of the campus (South 3rd St & East William St). It has a traditional Spanish architecture and central courtyard designed by architect Warren Gilbert. Today it has two stories and is referred to as the 'Student Life Center.' The first story houses two art classrooms, a garden, a religious studies classroom, counseling offices and various teacher and staff. The second story is home to the business office. On September 9, 2002 Manley Hall, a three-story building designed by Anderson-Brulé Architects replaced the O'Connor Mansion. The building, though modern in design and use, still conveys an air of age and history, as was the intent of the architects. To add to this feeling was the inclusion of the fireplaces and artifacts saved from the O'Connor Mansion, the more noticeable being the fireplace located in the library and the glass doors (though one is a replica) of the Alumnae Room. All of the floors of this building are decorated with the class photos from the school, the earliest dating before the 1890s. In 2016 a major renovation of the campus was announced. The expansion of the campus now includes the entire city block bounded by East William, South 2nd street, East Reed and South 3rd street. It would involve the removal of six older campus buildings and the addition of four multi story buildings. It is currently going through city permit approval.


School symbols

Notre Dame's crest is the coat of arms of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. The school's original mascot, the Gremlin, was replaced in 2000 during the 150th anniversary of the school's founding. The new mascot, the Regent, expresses the students' abilities for growing, moving on, and facing new challenges. In addition, each year the freshman class chooses their own class mascot and colors.


Extracurriculars

Notre Dame High School of San Jose (NDSJ) provides a wide variety of activities outside of classes, including numerous clubs, sports, and interaction with the San Jose community. Clubs can range from different cultures (i.e. Filipino Student Association, Latinas Unidas, Vietnamese Student Association) to hobbies (i.e. Culinary, Art, Film Fest) to helping students reach their goals in the future (i.e. Math Team, California Scholarship Federation).


Admissions

Notre Dame San Jose admits around 170 young women each year. Many students come from the Catholic middle schools and other private schools in the region. The school holds an open house each October for families to visit. They offer Seventh graders a "preview afternoon" in April where they can more about the school. Seventh grade catholic school students can join Notre Dame's LEADS program (Learn, Empower, Act, Discover). The school requires a High School Placement Test (HSPT) and a completed application form to be considered for admission.


Women of Impact

Notre Dame honors women leaders making significant contributions to their fields and society annually at its "Women of Impact" event. Past honorees have included:
LaDoris Cordell LaDoris Hazzard Cordell is an American retired judge of the Superior Court of California and former Independent Police Auditor for the city of San Jose, California. She is an advocate for improving transparency into charges of police misconduct. ...
(
Superior Court of California Superior courts in California are the state trial courts with general jurisdiction to hear and decide any civil or criminal action which is not specially designated to be heard in some other court or before a governmental agency. As mandated by t ...
judge), Aparna Bawa (COO of
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 ...
), Kim Rivera (CLO of
Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...
), and Kelly Powell Bruno (CEO of the National Health Foundation),


Notable alumnae

*
Angela Dimayuga Angela Solita Dimayuga (born 1985) is an American chef and political activist. She was an executive chef at Mission Chinese Food New York, and help build the restaurant in the early years. Dimayuga was included in the Zagat's "30 Under 30" List i ...
- American executive chef and cultural advocate * Maude Campbell-Jansen - Californian composer * Michelle Do - American competitor at the
2000 Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...
. *
Miroslava Chavez-Garcia Miroslava Chávez-García is a professor of history at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She holds joint appointments in the Departments of Chicana/o Studies and Feminist Studies. Chávez-García's research focuses on Chicana/o hist ...
- Professor at
University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...
*
Linda Park Linda Park (born July 9, 1978) is a South Korean-born American actress, best known for her portrayal of communications officer character Hoshi Sato in the television series ''Star Trek: Enterprise''. Early life Park was born in South Korea and ...
- South Korean actress in
Star Trek: Enterprise ''Star Trek: Enterprise'', titled simply ''Enterprise'' for its first two seasons, is an American science fiction television series created by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga. It originally aired from September 26, 2001, to May 13, 2005 on Uni ...
*
Fatima Farheen Mirza Fatima Farheen Mirza (born April 10, 1991) is an American novelist best known for her novel '' A Place for Us'' (2018), which was a New York Times Best Seller. She was also honored by the National Book Award Foundation as a "5 Under 35" Honore ...
-
New York Times best selling author ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. John Bear, ''The #1 New York Times Best Seller: intriguing facts about the 484 books that have been #1 New York Times ...
of ''
A Place for Us ''A Place for Us'' is the debut novel of Fatima Farheen Mirza, published in New York on June 12, 2018. It is the first book published by Sarah Jessica Parker's new imprint, SJP for Hogarth. The novel focuses on the varied experiences of an Indian ...
''


References


External links


Notre Dame-San Jose WebsiteSisters of Notre DameNDSJ Twitter
{{authority control Girls' schools in California Educational institutions established in 1851 Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur schools Roman Catholic Diocese of San Jose in California Catholic secondary schools in California High schools in San Jose, California 1851 establishments in California