Oakcrest was founded by a group of like-minded educators and parents who envisioned a school that would offer young women an integrated educational experience based on a solid Christian anthropology, grounded in the liberal arts tradition, with formation in the Catholic faith. This foundation would foster in them the pursuit of excellence, a flourishing personal life, and service to others. Hence, the school’s motto: virtus et veritas.

Virtue and truth—because the pursuit of excellence is based on truth and supported by virtue.

How so? Because only when we know who and what the human person is (anthropology) can we begin to understand how to educate so that each one can grow and flourish personally by using her freedom wisely to direct her life toward worthy goals, live her vocation—her calling—leave a legacy, and be happy here and hereafter.

As a matter of fact, the quest for truth and the pursuit of virtue (excellence) were the driving forces in ancient Greece that gave rise to what became the liberal arts tradition. As Socrates said, “Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.” The earliest schools, precursors to the eventual universities, were based on a shared inquiry in pursuit of truth—truth about everything. For, as Aristotle posited, “All men are born wanting to know.”

To know what? Everything—everything there is to know—but most importantly, to understand what it means to be a human person, to cultivate the soul. To what end? To be happy—i.e., to live the “good life,” the life of virtue: the intellectual virtues (knowledge, understanding, and wisdom) as well as the moral virtues (wisdom, justice, courage, and moderation), which integrate all dimensions of the human person—intelligence, will, desire, ambition, relationships, etc.—into a harmonious balance that permits one to be as happy as one can be in this imperfect world while contributing to the welfare of the community and leaving behind a worthy legacy.

Shorthand: be good and do good—which came to be summarized in the term excellence.

The dictionary definition of “excellence” is: “extremely good,” “of the very best kind,” and “the possession of chiefly good qualities in an eminent or unusual degree; surpassing merit, skill, virtue, or worth.” In other words, the goal of education is to help each person bring out the best of their potential in all the dimensions of their personhood. That is, to flourish—to be the best you can and to do the best you can. Pursuing excellence means striving to achieve at your highest potential in the best way, according to right reason (truth).

Furthermore, pursuing excellence and excellent education applies to everyone—to the intellectually brightest as well as to the intellectually challenged, to the Olympic athlete as well as to the physically handicapped. Pursuing excellence challenges me to make the most of my potential and to find joy in the effort and ongoing improvement. It also means living my responsibilities in regard to others and to the community at large.

Furthermore, the liberal arts and the liberal arts tradition are not limited in scope to a particular historical moment. They are a living reality that advances with the advances in human knowledge. That is why a real liberal arts education, like the one offered here at Oakcrest, prepares its students to engage with the culture they have inherited, help advance it further by their own contributions, and pass it on to the next generation as an inheritance to be advanced further.

This ideal, fleshed out by Christianity—by knowing that we are destined for eternal happiness, loved by a merciful God, and provided with the grace to reach it—becomes the pursuit of sanctity, of holiness in the middle of the world, along with the pursuit of human excellence. Which is why Oakcrest aims to launch each student on an ongoing discovery and lifelong effort to become who she is called to be:

But one cannot give what one does not have. Or, as Pope Paul VI said in his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi (December 8, 1975): “Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.”

This is why Oakcrest has initiated the Oakcrest Teacher Institute—to give its faculty the tools with which to become those witnesses by understanding and carrying out the school’s mission. Its program rests on four pillars that support the school’s entire educational program. Phrased as questions, these foundational understandings are: What is the human person? What is a teacher/student? What is a school? What is instruction?

These translate into a structured program of training and inquiry during in-service days and faculty workshops where guided discussions, speakers from outside and within the school, peer observation and evaluation, presentation of educational philosophy, and methods of delivering content—along with team-building exercises—ensure that Oakcrest’s faculty and staff are equipped to help form our students and cultivate their minds and hearts in content and character.

And since parents are the primary educators of their children, the school works closely with you to support you in that most important mission by offering opportunities to help you carry out that trust through parent-teacher conferences, the Mothers and Fathers Clubs, spiritual activities such as days of recollection, and opportunities to hear speakers on topics related to parenting and education.

To that end, we will be presenting our next series, Striving for Excellence, which will specifically address:

Pope Leo XIV’s Apostolic Letter Drawing New Maps of Hope states:

“Christian education is a collective endeavor: no one educates alone. The educational community is a ‘we’ where teachers, students, families, administrative and service staff, pastors and civil society converge to generate life…Catholic universities and schools are places where questions are not silenced and doubt is not banished, but accompanied…Educating is an act of hope and a passion that is renewed because it manifests the promise we see in the future of humanity…The specificity, depth, and breadth of educational action is the work—as mysterious as it is real—of ‘making the being flourish […] it is taking care of the soul…’”