The Center for Ignatian Identity and Formation accompanies every student at this Jesuit, Catholic middle and high school in Boston through a seven-year formation journey from their first days in the Arrupe Division through graduation. Through service immersion, sacramental life, ongoing outreach, and a formal certificate pathway, the Center builds a foundation of formation that runs deeper than any service hour.
This past fall, BC High dedicated the newly renovated Center to Margarete and John A. McNeice '50, GP'13. The renovation expanded the Center's capacity from 8 to 15 or more, creating what John Mark describes as a true "home for mission:" open, visible, and built for the accompaniment that defines Ignatian formation.
Students shaped by the Center for Ignatian Identity and Formation graduate with skills and perspectives that carry directly into college and adult life.
At BC High, a private high school in Boston with a tradition rooted in more than 160 years of Jesuit education, formation is the rhythm of the school itself. The Center accompanies each student in all facets of his experience: developing his understanding of himself, of God at work in his life, and of his responsibility to those on the margins. Students leave with the self-awareness, service orientation, and capacity for discernment that come from six years of intentional formation. That is what distinguishes a BC High graduate from this college prep school in Boston.
One question families often ask is what "Ignatian formation" actually means at BC High.
All of the Center's retreats and programs engage students regardless of religious background. The Center uses expansive language and experiences that broaden the concept of God, faith, and spirituality. Students who practice other faiths are encouraged to be observant and devout in their own traditions. Retreats regularly include Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, and students with no religious background, and all find meaningful experiences they can interpret from their own standpoints.
No matter what a student believes when he arrives, seven years of formation at one of the best private high schools in Massachusetts will deepen his understanding of himself and his place in the world.
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Our Center is focused on the students' formational development, including how they experientially and spiritually understand themselves, their relationship with others in their lives, and how they relate to the world, especially in seeking to stand with those on the margins.
At BC High, a young man's education is the heart of what we do. We begin by caring for and accompanying him in all facets of his experience in our community. Throughout his time here we constantly seek to develop his understanding of himself and thus God at work in his life. We practice the art of reflection, discernment, and where he is called to be in encountering those seeking justice and belonging in our world today. With depth of thought and learning, high level engagement through athletics and the arts, and the encouragement to experience the wonder of our world, a young man experiences a transformative education that allows him to view the possibility of his impact upon our world.
— John Mark, Director, Margarete & John A. McNeice, Jr. '50, GP'13 Center for Ignatian Identity and Formation
Retreats are at the heart of the Center for Ignatian Identity and Formation experience and they're only part of the story. Service immersion, ongoing outreach, and the sacramental life of the school run alongside and between those retreats, forming students week by week across all six years at BC High.
Formation in this Jesuit school in Boston begins in the Arrupe Division, not at the start of high school.
Both the 7th and 8th grade retreat experiences introduce students to the ideas of self-reflection, spiritual practice, and an awareness of the world's needs.
The Center for Ignatian Identity and Formation begins accompanying students from their first year. Grade 6 programming is currently in development, and we're designing experiences that introduce students to the Ignatian tradition from day one.
Stay tuned for updates as we build out this next chapter of the BC High experience.
Students spend a service day with local organizations, working on park and beach cleanups, gardening, and urban farming.
Takeaway: Care for creation is a spiritual practice.
Focused on the ministry of being present, 8th graders serve at local homes for the elderly or assisted living facilities. Students encounter the dignity of each person in a direct, unhurried way.
Takeaway: Every person I meet carries inherent dignity worth seeing.
The high school formation arc builds progressively, with each year asking more of the student as he matures in faith, service, and self-awareness.
Service immersion trips count toward retreat credit and are among the most significant formation experiences the Center offers.
Domestic
International
Takeaway: Service changes me as much as it changes the places I go.
Beyond immersion trips and retreats, the Center runs a set of weekly and ongoing service programs that make accompaniment a regular practice. Learn more about the Cardenal Project, St. Mark's ESL Classes, St. Louis Project, and Toni Morrison Project here.
Lazarus Funeral Ministry Students serve as pallbearers and mourners at the funerals of homeless women and men, one of the most direct expressions of the Jesuit call to stand with those on the margins.
Takeaway: Every person deserves to be accompanied, even at the end.
The Center partners with the Jesuit community and faculty to embed spiritual formation across the full rhythm of the school year, reaching students every week alongside their retreats and service commitments.
A few examples of what that looks like in practice:
Each House selects a weekly recipient organization aligned with the values of their patron. Students and faculty donate throughout the week toward that organization.
This year, the community raised donations for 29 different organizations, contributing over $25,000.
On November 1, 2025, 49 BC High students were confirmed at St. Teresa of Calcutta parish with Bishop Barbosa. They were the first class to complete BC High's sacramental preparation program.
Over 60 students are enrolled in the second class. At this year's all-school Easter Mass, 3 students were baptized, 4 were confirmed, and 8 received their First Communion.
More than 175 students, staff, parents, and alumni walk the streets of Dorchester each Good Friday, visiting four churches and experiencing three stations of the cross at each, followed by reflection.
The Jesuit community offers daily Mass, with the Center supporting student and faculty attendance. All-community Masses and prayer services are held throughout the school year.
Each day begins with morning prayer, with awareness of the liturgical season and the life of the school community.
The weekly Examen is a structured Ignatian practice of reflection, written with awareness of liturgical seasons and school themes, that asks students to look at where they found meaning and where they fell short. This is central to what distinguishes a Jesuit school in Boston from other private high schools.
The Contemplative in Action Certificate at BC High signals that a student has gone beyond the standard requirements to deepen his formation through reflection, service, and retreat: the capacity for self-awareness and the integration of faith and action that a Jesuit education calls for.
33 members of the Class of 2026 received the Contemplative in Action Certificate at graduation. 15 students from the Class of 2027 and 12 from the Class of 2028 are currently enrolled.
To earn the Contemplative in Action Certificate, a student must complete:
In years past, the Center for Ignatian Identity and Formation expanded its service immersion footprint with three significant new experiences.
A new collaboration with Colegio San Ignacio brought students to the island to engage with poverty and ecological justice in the wake of recent hurricanes, deepening the Center's Jesuit school-to-school network.
For the first time, students traveled to the Flathead Reservation in Montana, where they engaged directly with the realities of life in one of America's most historically significant and underserved communities.
49 students were confirmed in the Center's inaugural sacramental preparation program in November 2025. The program has since grown to 60+ enrolled students across baptism, confirmation, first communion, and reconciliation.
All of the Center’s retreats and programs welcome students regardless of faith background. The Center for Ignatian Identity and Formation uses expansive language and experiences that broaden rather than narrow the concept of God and spirituality and actively encourages students of other faiths to be observant in their own traditions.
Service requirements run from grade 7 through grade 11, with experiences that build progressively from local environmental service in 7th grade to weekly outreach programs and multi-week immersion trips by junior and senior year. Students can also pursue domestic and international service immersion trips for retreat credit.
The certificate recognizes students who have pursued deeper formation through additional reflection, service hours, and retreat experiences. It signals to colleges the capacity for self-awareness and the integration of faith and action that Jesuit education calls for.
At BC High, faith and action are two sides of the same coin. Matthew 25 (the call to serve those on the margins) is the foundation of the Center's programming. Retreats, service immersion, and the weekly rhythm of outreach and spiritual life are all expressions of the same conviction: that reflection on action points back to faith, and faith demands action.