All Marian Catholic alumni, myself included, were changed by our high school experience – the opportunities we received, the teachers we had, and the memories we made. We are the people we are today because we attended Marian at such a formative time in our lives. To this day, my closest group of friends are fellow Marian classmates, and I know I am not the only one. The relationships made and lessons learned at Marian last a lifetime. However, many alumni have not visited the school in years. When I returned to Marian as the Vice President of Advancement in December 2019, I had a lot of questions: What does the school look like today? How does it compare to my experience? And what are the plans for the future? Marian has definitely changed since I graduated more than fifteen years ago, but it continues to deliver excellence and love to every student who walks through its doors. Moreover, the leadership at Marian recognizes the challenges facing our community and Catholic education overall, and is proactively looking to tomorrow.
Marian Today
Marian Catholic remains strong: its reputation is solid; its enrollment is stable; and its finances are secure. The school is committed to its mission and its Catholic, Dominican heritage. Marian continues to deliver a second-to-none college preparatory education. Ninety-seven (97) percent of Marian graduates attend college. Ninety (90) percent of graduates attend a four-year college or university, compared to only 21 to 54 percent at the local public high schools. One out of four Marian graduates attends a top 100 college or university (based on US News and World Report rankings), and at least 25 percent of students earn college credit through our Advanced Placement courses. Graduates from the Classes of 2020 and 2021 attended schools like Harvard, Princeton, Dartmouth, Notre Dame, Cal Poly, and NYU. Our faculty is likewise accomplished, with 73 percent holding a master’s or doctoral degree (and 29 percent being Marian alumni!). Marian remains the largest private high school south of the City of Chicago and Northwest Indiana. Even though our numbers have declined since their high point in the early 2000’s, enrollment has stabilized at about 900 students per year for the past few years. This is more than enough students to field competitive athletic teams, award-winning performing arts programs, and over 40 other clubs and activities. Our marching
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MARIAN MATTERS SUMMER 2021
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band has won the state championship (in class) for the last 40 years – an unheard of record – and our speech team holds 12 individual state championships. In the past five years, 95 Spartans have committed to play college athletics, including at the Universities of Michigan and Louisville; and Donovan McIntyre '21 recently signed with the San Francisco Giants. Marian also remains financially secure. Because of the foresight of prior leadership and the Dominican Sisters, Marian is blessed with one of the largest endowments of any Catholic high school in the country. Although our endowment is largely restricted for scholarships (meaning it cannot fund everyday expenses or new facilities), it provides continued stability to our financial aid program and the school overall. Approximately 60 percent of Marian students receive some form of financial assistance. Without our endowment and the continued generosity of our donors, we would not be able to provide all the opportunities we do for our students. Marian today is more diverse than ever before. While the majority of our students are still Catholic, they come from nearly 70 different zip codes and all socioeconomic, racial, and cultural backgrounds. Seventeen (17) percent of students are from outside Illinois, including a small international population. Seventy-one (71) percent of our students are of Latino, African American, or Asian descent. Our diversity is a point of strength, as our students enter college and beyond having already been exposed to, befriended, and learned from individuals different than themselves, all in the context of a loving environment. Marian today is also, in many ways, more in touch with its Dominican heritage than ever before. As the number of Dominican Sisters present in the building grows smaller, Marian’s staff has made it a point to ensure students understand the importance of our Catholic, Dominican identity. The Four Pillars of Prayer, Study, Community, and Preaching adorn the walls. The Dominican blessing is recited at the end of each
