Catholic high school has 125 reasons to celebrate
One of L.A. Archdiocese’s earliest parochial campuses marks milestone
Pomona on Friday celebrated a long-standing educational pillar in the community, Pomona Catholic High School.
The school, at 533 W. Holt Ave., was established in 1898 and is one of the oldest in the Los Angeles Archdiocese. It celebrated 125 years of education Friday with a special outdoor Mass led by students and attended by Archbishop José H. Gómez in the school chapel, a breakfast and campus tours for attendees.
It originally was named the Academy of the Holy Names. Six nuns from the Mother House in Oakland made up the teaching staff. The school also acted as an all-girls boarding school until a fire in 1927 forced it to relocate, and a new building was erected.
The academy was renamed St. Joseph High School in 1948, before it was changed to Pomona Catholic School in 1953, according to the school’s history page. The school was coeducational for a period of time from 1948 to 1962, when it produced its last class of coed graduates before returning to its roots as a girl’s Catholic school.
Today, the campus culture is described as a family with a strong sisterhood, said Director of Development Hazell Castañeda.
“We’re often referred to as a beacon of light on the corner of Holt and White,” Castañeda said, referring to the school’s location. “And I think that’s just very true of everything that goes on within these hallways.”
The campus is shared between a coed middle school and an all-girls high school, which boasts a 100% college acceptance rate, officials said in a news release.
The high school has established acceptance agreements with Mount St. Mary’s University, Azusa Pacific University, the University of Laverne, Point
Loma Nazarene University, Grand Canyon University and the University of Redlands.
“I am extremely grateful for the many opportunities offered to me in my time at Pomona Catholic, especially for my teachers who have helped guide me in my academic success,” recent graduate Savannah Herrera said in the release. “Pomona Catholic provided me with the tools to achieve my goal of being accepted into (Brown University) and being awarded the Gates Scholarship.”