Mission Statement: Jesuit High School, in its mission as a Catholic, Jesuit, college preparatory school, labors to form men engaged in the world who are dedicated to serving God by being open to growth, intellectually competent, religious, loving, and just. What is a Jesuit School? Jesuit schools embody an academic tradition that has stood the test of time, and Jesuit high schools have a long-established foundation of forming ordinary boys into extraordinary men. The Jesuit Order, formally known as the Society of Jesus, is renowned for 470 years of excellence in education throughout the world. It was in 1548 that St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, opened the first Jesuit school. Today the Jesuits maintain nearly 100 secondary schools and colleges and universities in the United States alone. More than 50 percent of these institutions, including Jesuit High School of Tampa, which was founded in 1899, are more than 100 years old.