All Hallows High School, a celebrated fixture of the Grand Concourse area for the past 80 years, has been educating young men in the Christian Brothers tradition for a total of 100 years. For the past five years, the school has been named one of the 50 best Catholic high schools in the country by the Catholic High School Honor Roll, and has much to celebrate.
The enrollment of the school currently stands at 639 students, making it small by the standards of most high schools. However, the school prides itself as a small community that supports every boy and helps him to attain his goals.
While discipline is the reason area parents send their children to All Hallows, school president Paul Krebbs and principal Sean Sullivan believe that discipline is really the first ingredient in creating a thriving environment leading to academic success.
“The parents are quietly screaming out for discipline,” Sullivan said. “Once discipline is instilled, the atmosphere is conducive to learning.”
The school prides itself on three very important aspects of learning: spirituality, discipline, and guidance. Those key ingredients have born measurable, tangible results.
The school boasts a 100% on-time graduation rate, and for the past ten years, 98%-100% of graduating seniors in the grades 9 to 12 school have gone onto college, including Harvard, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Fordham, Iona, Columbia, and Syracuse.
One exciting feature of the school’s academic program is the film program, with a state of the art media editing room. The students produce four short films each year, and it is an integral part of the curriculum. However, that curriculum includes strong traditional courses, like Latin, as well as many AP courses to earn college credit.
“I plan to attend Cornell University to major in political science,” said student body president Thomas Rivera. “I dream of someday becoming a senator from New York. I can say I wouldn’t have any of those dreams if it wasn’t for All Hallows.”
With the warm, caring environment part and parcel of the school’s academic success, it relies on the donations of individuals and alumni to keep its doors open, as 70% of the students who attend All Hallows receive some form of financial aid. With that assistance, comes respect for the opportunities given to the students.
“A graduating senior who had gone through personal and family difficulties and overcome great odds, said to me: “you know what AH means, it means ‘almost home,’” Sullivan stated, speaking of the initials of the school on the insignia all seniors wear on their sweaters. “That says it all.”
