Mission and Identity
Our Mission
Our Lady of the Hills College Prep is a co-educational Catholic high school,
committed to providing a quality college preparatory education to students from all
social, ethnic, and economic backgrounds within a caring, diverse
Christian community that values the potential and dignity of every student.
Central to this purpose is our belief that every child is a child of God
and each student deserves the right to seek truth in Jesus Christ for the greater glory of God.
(The OLH Mission Inspired by the Jesuit and Dominican Charisms)
Our Philosophy
Our Lady of the Hills College Prep is committed to providing an excellent academic, values-based education for the children of the Texas Hill Country. OLH College Prep is a Catholic community that merges Christian living with academic goals. We hold the belief that we are created to know, love, and serve God. We work to instill knowledge of moral values in each student whose behavior reflects a respect for the dignity of all God’s creation.
Our Lady of the Hills College Prep provides an educational environment that addresses the development of the whole person. The curriculum addresses a broad range of content areas across disciplines relevant to the educational and personal development of each student.
Our Catholic Identity
Practical experience in Christian living is realized in the pastoral activities program through retreats, service projects, and days of recollection, liturgies, and other forms of personal spiritual formation. All students are offered an opportunity to reflect on their spiritual life and relationship with God. The curriculum and extracurricular activities reflect the best of the Jesuit and Dominican orders and their philosophies of service to others. Our Lady of the Hills is committed to assisting students to become mature in their faith, to become critical thinkers, and challenging each student to develop his or her talents to the fullest. The theology program is academic in nature. Students are tested and graded on their ability to comprehend and assimilate information regarding doctrine, morality, Church history, and practice. Every student is required to study theology.Students are given the opportunity to think critically, examine attitudes, challenge assumptions, and analyze motives. All of this is important if students are to make decisions with the freedom that allows them to develop a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ.
Our Philosophical Roots
Three tenants of our philosophy are Study, Service and Social Justice. The Jesuit and Dominican orders are reflected in all aspects of student life and curriculum. Study
St. Ignatius of Loyola: Jesuit Charism of Study. Respect for human and natural capacities, taking into account natural abilities, earning, culture, and manners as gifts to be used for the service and glory of God. For this reason, Jesuits have a keen interest in education.
St. Dominic: Dominican Charism of Study. "To ponder his law day and night" is to contemplate and share with others the fruit of contemplation; to lead others into Christ who is truth. This is the essence of Dominican study.
Service
St. Ignatius of Loyola: Jesuit Call to Service: Jesuit practice "of seeking perfection in our prayer and spiritual exercises in order to help our neighbor, and by means of that help of neighbor acquiring yet more perfection in prayer, in order to help our neighbor even more."
St. Dominic: Dominican Charism of Study. "Our study ought principally to look to this: that we may be useful to the souls of our neighbors." And living in service to sacred truths means working to find ways of conveying it, that is, to put other truth such as philosophy, literature, archeology, economics and language, at the service of the Gospel, so that it may be understood and believed.
Social Justice
St. Ignatius of Loyola: Jesuit Call for Social Justice: through scholarship, advocacy, and participation in associations, Jesuits actively contribute in understanding and responding to local, national, and global issues and systems, which impact the lives of "the least" in countries in the world.
St. Dominic: Dominican Call for Social Justice: Called to be prophets, to be the "wakers" of people's consciences, to be people who, in season and out of season, remind the world of the primacy of the Word of God, the Word who desires salvation for all people and who draws himself close to those who are excluded or despised.
Veritas Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam: Truth for the Greater Glory of God
