April '25 School Spotlight - St. Jerome Institute in Washington, D.C.

Isabella Maciejewski
May 1
3 min read

April 2025 School Spotlight – St. Jerome Institute in Washington, D.C.

St. Jerome Institute – Washington, D.C.A Living Tradition of Catholic Humanism in the Nation’s Capital

St. Jerome Institute (SJI), nestled in the heart of Washington, D.C., stands as a strong model of the renaissance in Catholic education. Founded in 2019 as a continuation of the acclaimed St. Jerome Academy in Hyattsville, MD, the Institute exists to restore Catholic education by reuniting faith, reason, beauty, and wonder in a fully integrated liberal arts and sciences high school curriculum.

SJI’s mission is not merely to prepare students for college or careers, but to lead them into the fullness of their humanity by forming them to see, love, and live the truth. Drawing on the riches of Catholic anthropology and the great tradition of Western civilization, the school offers students a vision of education as formation—a journey that is simultaneously intellectual, moral, spiritual, and artistic.

At the heart of the Institute’s pedagogy is a robust, four-year core curriculum grounded in seminar-based learning. Students participate in interdisciplinary seminars in Humanities, Natural Philosophy, Mathematics, Art History, and Theology, where they encounter primary texts, analyze beauty, and enter into the perennial human conversation about God, nature, the self, and society. This curricular unity is guided by a thematic structure that builds across the high school years—from Exodus and Odyssey: The Human Quest, to God and Nature, God and the Human Person, and God and Society. Each theme provides the philosophical and theological coherence that binds disciplines together and animates the school’s pursuit of wisdom.

Beyond the classroom, SJI fosters a vibrant culture of community and service. Students participate in Practicum, where they work alongside skilled adults and local mentors to learn practical trades and serve the neighborhood. Whether maintaining gardens, engaging in local outreach, or developing entrepreneurial guilds, students are formed in responsibility, craftsmanship, and stewardship. This emphasis on service flows from a vision of education deeply rooted in Catholic social teaching and a commitment to the common good.

SJI’s studios in fine arts and music form another pillar of student life. In Fine Art Studio, students learn the disciplines of observation, imitation, and creation through classical techniques and sacred subjects. In Music Studio, they encounter Gregorian chant, music theory, and composition, learning to express truth through beauty and order. Latin, taught conversationally and through immersion, is a cornerstone of the curriculum—culminating in student-composed Latin plays and engagement with the Church’s intellectual and liturgical patrimony.

Refectum, a daily period of rest and contemplation, gives space for silence, prayer, and physical formation. Whether in spiritual direction, quiet reading, or communal games, students learn to integrate leisure and reflection into their daily rhythm.

Perhaps most striking is SJI’s insistence that education is not fragmented or compartmentalized but holistic and ordered to the whole of reality. Theology is not confined to a religion class—it permeates the curriculum. Art is not extracurricular—it is integral to how students see and shape the world. In the words of the Institute, “Relation to God is innermost to each thing and common to all things,” making the curriculum a unified vision of creation, culture, and the Creator.

As a young school, SJI already draws national and international attention from educators and institutions seeking to learn from its model. Graduates are thriving at selective universities and vocational pathways alike, equipped not just with academic credentials, but with the intellectual virtue, moral clarity, and cultural literacy to live lives of purpose and sanctity.

In a cultural moment marked by fragmentation and confusion, St. Jerome Institute offers students and families something rare: an education that forms the whole person, rooted in truth, animated by beauty, and nourished by grace.

To learn more about St. Jerome Institute, visitstjeromeinstitute.org

Author: Isabella Maciejewski

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