FEATURE
This spring, Prep President Ken Boller, S.J. completes a six-year tenure at Grand & Warren – an era of outstanding growth in numerous areas. From the rapid development of the school’s global education initiatives, to the completion of a 12-year cycle of campus renewal, to the expansion of Prep’s scholarship endowment, the “Boller Era” will have a lasting impact at Prep. Before moving on to become the pastor of Saint Francis Xavier Parish in Manhattan, Fr. Boller sat down with Jim Horan, ’70 to reflect on his Prep years.
Setting the Tone Jim Horan: I’d like to begin by asking: how did you come to be president of Saint Peter’s Prep? Ken Boller: Well it’s an interesting story of course. This is my third presidency, and I was a principal twice, but when I started at Fordham Prep, I said I would serve eight to ten years. The provincial came along in year eight and said, “How about nine years?” So we set in place a process to get a successor. That was the fall of 2012, and at that time, Fr. Bob Reiser indicated he was moving on from Saint Peter’s Prep – I have to distinguish our Preps! They opened a search committee and the provincial asked me if I would apply, so I did. I was interviewed and I was awarded the “gold seal.” [...] It’s an example of the kind of cooperation between the province and the Board of Trustees, where they were searching for a president, and the provincial made someone available, but he was behind the scenes kind of monitoring the process, as he has been in my successor’s transition. Given your long experience in what was then the New York Province, and also your experience as a member of Prep’s board of trustees [1993-1999], I’m sure you were familiar with Prep on different levels. When you think of Saint Peter’s Prep vis-a-vis the other schools in the province, how are we different, being on this side of the river? I had been very familiar with Prep, as you said, serving on the board, and as a matter of fact Fr. Bob Reiser is a very good friend of mine... and various things he was facing as the president would come up in 8 SPRING 2019 n SPPREP.ORG n PREP MAGAZINE
8 This interview has been edited and condensed. View the extended version at spprep.org/prepmag conversation. So I was aware of Prep’s story... we have five Jesuit high schools in the area, [and they] are more similar than different. But they are distinctive. And Hudson County, northern New
Jersey, is the flavor that makes Prep what it is.
We have wonderful Hudson County roots. Hudson County continues to be the place for immigrants and it’s reflected in our student body. Although we don’t gather this information, I’m quite confident that close to 40% of our current students are either immigrants themselves or their parents are immigrants, so they are first generation. Prep truly has the opportunity to be quite transformative. Even though Xavier and Fordham Prep had significant immigrant populations, it’s even larger here in Hudson County and at Prep. Immigrants make it real in a certain way: the highfalutin idea of a prep school – looking to the stars and looking perhaps to the Ivy Leagues. I think our young men are equally talented with those at any other school, [and] their families have great hopes for them because they have moved from their place of birth...for their children. The aspirations are
very high, and we are able to serve them.
Talking about Jersey City and Hudson County in 2019: many times you’ve addressed alumni, older alumni, and informed them that they graduated from a school in downtown Jersey City, and our current students are graduating from a school in the historic Paulus Hook neighborhood – And fashionable!
