Bellarmine Preparatory School

Bellarmine Preparatory School is a private, Roman Catholic, coeducational high school run by the USA West Province of the Society of Jesus in Tacoma, Washington, United States. It is located in the Archdiocese of Seattle. Today, it serves just over 900 students from the Greater Tacoma area, including Olympia, Gig Harbor, Federal Way, and Puyallup. It was founded in 1928 by the Jesuits. History Bellarmine was founded in 1928 as an all-boys school and became the second coeducational Jesuit school in the nation in 1974 after its merger with the schools Aquinas and St. Leo's. The date of the school's creation is commonly accepted to be 1928. However, Saint Leo's Grammar and High School and Aquinas Academy for girls were founded earlier (1912 and 1893, respectively). Philomathea, the parents club, predates Bellarmine as it was founded at St. Leo's before moving to the school during the merger. The first graduating class of Bellarmine was in 1929, with 19 students graduating. Campus The school sits on a large campus of 42 acres, at the highest point overlooking the city of Tacoma. Poplar trees were planted as a memorial to Bellarmine Alumni in World War II near Memorial Field. Memorial Field remained a grass field up until 2017, when it was replaced by a new turf field over the summer before the 2017-2018 school year. The school quad has the qualities of a Grad at Grad printed in metal letters on the concrete and the letters AMDG printed at the quad's center-most point. Student life