With the 1967-1968 school year, St. Joseph’s High School will enter into a new phase in the development of Catholic education in the archdiocese. As Georgia Tech and Georgia State began as divisions of the University of Georgia, so St. Joseph originated in 1961 as a city annex to St. Pius X. St. Joseph achieved its autonomy after only one year as an annex.

Immediately it began its rapid climb to distinction among private secondary schools in the Atlanta area. St. Joseph graduated its first class only three years ago in 1964.

In 1965 students were the recipients of approximately $59,000.00 in scholarships and grants to schools including Notre Dame, Brown University, Marquette, Boston college, Emory, Georgia Tech, University of Georgia, University of Vermont, Dominican College in New Orleans, Fontbonne in St. Louis, and Annapolis Naval Academy.

Colleges recognize this school in the heart of downtown Atlanta. Here, on property used for Catholic education since the turn of the century, St. Joseph’s is drawn into the dynamic life of one of the nation’s leading cities. The school is within a few blocks of two of Georgia’s most outstanding college campuses, Georgia State and Georgia Tech.

It is within walking distance of the commercial, merchandizing and banking centers of the southeast. Nearby are the new auditorium and Exposition Hall, city hospitals, art museums and theaters—all education and cultural resources that become more and more an integral part of its daily academic program.

Among educators it is commonly agreed that one of the greatest influence in the educational development of a child is the inter-relationships of the students. St. Joseph’s is unique in the metropolitan area because its school population draws from practically every segment of the community, crossing social, racial and economic lines. With an anticipated enrollment of over 500 students during the coming year, it reaches as far south as Jonesboro, west to Mableton, north to Marietta and east to Stone Mountain. Improved public transportation makes it easily accessible to every part of metropolitan Atlanta.

In a questionnaire recently submitted to parents, almost unanimously they consider this as a great advantage in the education of their children. It teaches them to live and work with people from diversified backgrounds. The central location in the city teaches them responsibility since it exposes them to the world in which the majority will work as our nation grows ever more rapidly into an urban, industrial society. Parents are sensitive to perceive, as is the Church, that this society must be affected and influenced from within by the Christian values which are instilled in our children through Catholic education.

Christianity cannot be taught in a vacuum. It is a way of life intimately related to the patter of life found in our cities. Nothing gives better testimony to the Church’s identification with the city than the uniformed children who daily make their way into its environs to learn its way, understand it, and ultimately to transform it.

With the closing of Drexel High School in June, St. Joseph, integrated since 1964, will achieve a racial balance proportionate with that of the community itself. Thus, being a truly central high school, not determined by a particular geographical district, it becomes one of the few schools assured of a continued balance in its racial enrollment. It also includes in its community a representation of Lain American and Asian students.

The Christian atmosphere, which is the hallmark of Catholic education makes this truly Catholic or universal institution in the full sense of the word. This distinguishing characteristic brings the educational values so long a tradition in the Church to the American democratic society as we find it in Atlanta.