For many Seattle Prep seniors, starting college next fall not only means the beginning of their higher education journeys, but also the end of their catholic ones. At Prep, most students have attended catholic middle or elementary school prior to high school, and have only ever known an education that is intertwined with faith. With monthly masses, daily prayers, and Jesuit values embedded into nearly everything students do at school, it’s worth asking the question of what happens to spirituality once it’s no longer required?
Recent Prep graduate Lucia Schnieder ’25 was raised in catholic schools her whole life and is currently a freshman at the University of Washington. Now as a student at a large university rather than a small Jesuit school, she has reflected on her growth in taking action with her own faith life.
“At Prep, mass, prayer, and time to grow in our faith are worked into our daily schedules and curriculum. That structure is definitely not the norm at a big public state school like UW, so I’ve had to be more independent about going to mass, praying, and reflecting” Schneider shared.
Like many of her fellow seniors, Adri Torres ’26 will also be attending a non-catholic school next year, where she will be pursuing her dream of playing college soccer at Pitzer College in Claremont, California.
“I chose Pitzer even though it’s not a religious school because it was more important to me to play soccer and I knew I could still take my faith with me, so I had to give up one for the other” Torres said.
While a loss of structure means less opportunities to practice faith, it also brings freedom to explore and learn more about the perspectives of others.
“Meeting all these people and seeing how differently they approach the world compared to the people I generally surrounded myself with up to this point has been really interesting and has taught me so much about Christian, Jewish, and athiest backgrounds” Schneider described.
When it comes down to making the long-awaited decision of where to attend college, making sacrifices is a common experience. However, new and unfamiliar environments can force students to see the world in a new way, and grow even closer to the parts of themselves they thought they might lose in going to college, like their spirituality.
When asked about what she will miss most about going to a catholic school, Adri shared ”having the space to learn about my faith and understand where my spiritualitly comes from, but it’s just something that I’m gong to have to find on my own.”
As the catholic schooling experiences of many students cumulate with high school graduation, they are left to reflect on the purpose their Jesuit education has served in their life. Though it’s a drastic change from the comfort of catholic school, when Prep sends us into the world faith becomes an active choice rather than something to mindlessly participate in during the school day, which is all the more meaningful.
