Mission & History
Core Purposes
As an apostolic instrument of the Society of Jesus and the Roman Catholic Church, Creighton Preparatory School:
- Offers holistic formation and college preparatory education to young men.
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Builds Men for Others who serve and seek justice in our local, national, and international communities.
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Fosters an extended community and supportive network of leaders who act with integrity and compassion for others.
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Develops men of faith whose lives give witness to Gospel values.
Core Values
Our faith, scholarship, leadership, and service endeavors are grounded in the following values and Jesuit principles:
Education of the Whole Person
We believe that education is holistic and a sacred process. Therefore, we encourage our students to become Open to Growth, Intellectually Competent, Loving, Religious and Committed to Justice. We educate our students to be prepared for higher education and for life.
Cura Personalis
We recognize that education must take place in the context of caring relationships. Supported and guided by our faculty and staff, our students must discover their unique gifts and talents, and their inherent worth. To enable this discovery, faculty and staff must be supported to develop their individual strengths.
Magis
We believe that effective people constantly examine their daily decisions and lives. We commit ourselves to apostolic decision-making by asking the questions, "What more can I do?" and "How can I do what I do more effectively to bring forth the greater glory of God?"
Leadership
We prepare our students to be leaders in service of others. We recognize that leaders will make a difference by their actions, choices, examples and influence, regardless of whether they are in positions of responsibility. We expect our leadership to promote justice.
Men & Women For & With Others
We recognize our responsibility to work collaboratively in the formation of the Reign of God. We actively encourage all members of our constituencies to be generous in sharing their time, talents and resources with others in need, to be fair and just in their relationships, and to live the faith that does justice in the world.
Diversity
We believe that from the Oneness of God comes the diversity of creation. We embrace diversity, social, economic, racial, ethnic, religious, and gender as part of God's plan for us.
History
In 1878, John A. Creighton made good on a promise he made to his brother Edward Creighton and Edward's wife, Mary Lucretia (Wareham) Creighton, that the family fortune would be used to create a school for boys in which education was quality, Catholic-based, open to all young men of promise and, most of all, affordable.
From its beginning in 1878 until 1958, Creighton Prep operated as a department of Creighton University. As both the university and the high school at Creighton grew and became more complex in their operation, it became clear that they would each be better served by separating and becoming distinct institutions. In anticipation of such a separation, in January of 1953 the present plot of land was purchased on Western Avenue at a cost of $50,000. In the spring of 1956, Creighton began a capital funds campaign, one of its purposes being to raise money for a new building for Prep. This new classroom building was completed in the spring of 1958, at a cost of $1,584,000.
Since then, a series of updates and additions have been completed throughout the school. Below is a rough time line and description of those updates.
- Creighton Prep 1878
- Creighton Prep 1958
- Creighton Prep 1961
- The Tin Gym 1970
- Henry L. Sullivan, S.J. Campus Center 1992
- Dr. James B. & Joan C. Peter Science Center 1999
- Cassem Memorial Library 2003
- The Heider Center 2009
- The Lannon Learning Commons 2020