Jesuit’s newest Blue Jays put on the school’s signature khaki uniform on August 12, 2020, at the school’s time-honored Investiture ceremony. Welcomed by their Big Brothers and the Jesuit faculty and staff, incoming students visited all of their classes in a “mini-schedule” before entering the stately Chapel of the North American Martyrs to be formally welcomed into the ranks of the Jesuit student body.

After an opening prayer led by Fr. Devin Dyer, S.J., Admissions Director Bret Hanemann ’85 began the ceremony by outlining the Profile of a Jesuit Graduate at the Time of Graduation:

1. Open to Growth
2. Intellectually Competent
3. Religious
4. Loving
5. Committed to Doing Justice

Jesuit’s interim president, Fr. John Brown, S.J., implored the new Jays to remember that Jesuit education offers the opportunity for true, transcendent freedom. He emphasized the importance of their memory, their understanding, and their will in fulfilling their true potential on Carrollton and Banks and beyond. “Jesuit High School will help you to have a strong will. You will take all the things you’ve learned in your memory, you will take all the ways that you understand them, and you will use them to orient yourself in the right direction: free to be the person that God has made you to be… everything that you do will be directed to the greater glory of God.”

Incoming students and their Big Brothers were treated to an impassioned speech by 2015 alumnus Harrison Bond. A basketball player, a pole vaulter, valedictorian, and senior class president at Jesuit, Bond recently graduated from Vanderbilt University with a degree in economics.

Bond, who is preparing to apply to law and business school for a dual degree, emphasized that Blue Jays should work hard and treat each other with brotherly compassion. During his time at Jesuit, Bond was diagnosed with cancer, and, as he related to the students, his journey to overcoming his disease was supported by all of his teachers, administrators, and classmates at Jesuit.

Watch parts of the ceremony—including Bond’s Investiture speech—by clicking below.