By Daniel Payne
CNA Staff, May 21, 2025 /
10:05 am
A Catholic school in Southern California is preparing to launch a “house system” that it says will help students connect with one another and foster leadership among young Catholics preparing to go out into the world.
JSerra Catholic High School in San Juan Capistrano said in a press release that the house arrangement will “foster community, provide mentorship, and cultivate leadership rooted in Gospel values.”
The six houses into which students can be grouped — Alta, Carmel, Monterey, San Onofre, Petra, and Ventura — are “each named after places significant to the life of St. Junipero Serra.”
The school said the new program “comes at a critical time as young people are experiencing greater social disconnection and mental health challenges than ever before.” It cited studies indicating that young people are experiencing extreme social disconnection with their peers, engaging in “70% less social interaction with their friends” compared with two decades ago.
“This new house system is more than just a way to build school spirit, it’s a transformative approach to helping our students grow as leaders and deepen their faith,” Eric Stroupe, the principal of JSerra, said in the release.
‘We really want God to do something miraculous’
Brian Ong, the house director for JSerra, told CNA in an interview that the school has developed the house system — and its approach to education more generally — with the mindset of “fields, not factories.”
“The Bible often uses metaphors from the field,” he pointed out. “We’re trying to cultivate the seeds we feel God has planted. We really want God to do something miraculous.”
The school, founded in 2003, had been debating launching the house system for several years starting in 2021, Ong said. He pointed out that numerous other schools in the area have house systems of their own, though JSerra wanted to develop a unique approach to the practice.
“Last year we decided that this was something God was leading us to do,” he said.
One goal of the house system, Ong said, is to help the large student body feel more connected to those with whom they might not normally interact.
“We have approximately 1,300 students at JSerra,” he said. “When you ask students how many people they really know, it’s usually less than 50. Even if you double that, there’s still 1,200 students you don’t know.”
“You don’t interact [with others] because you don’t play the same sport, or do the same extracurricular activity, or they’re in the business magnet and you’re in the law magnet,” Ong acknowledged. With the house system, “we’re trying to intentionally have them interact with each other if they wouldn’t normally.”
There is a significant mentorship component to the program as well.
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“We want every student at JSerra to have a mentor,” he said. Students will meet in their “dens” three times per week for 30 minutes each time, speaking to older mentors and “ensuring that freshmen and sophomores experience friendship, encouragement, and support,” according to the school.
Houses will also allow students a chance to excel in leadership, he said, with opportunities for students to serve as presidents, curriculum directors, and other roles to teach them real-life skills.
Ong said the school has already hosted a “calling day” in which students were “called” into their respective houses. “Next school year it will really take off,” he said.
The parental response has been “overwhelmingly positive” as the program has launched, Ong said.
Other Catholic institutions have implemented similar programs. Franciscan University of Steubenville’s “faith households,” for instance, bring students together “to help members grow in mind, body, and spirit through prayer, mutual support, and accountability in the ongoing conversion process exemplified in the life of St. Francis.”
The university allows students to join one of several dozen single-sex households together with others who “seek to do the will of the Father in their lives.” Joining a household is not a requirement, but according to Gregg Miliote, director of media relations at Franciscan University, the vast majority of students do join one. There are currently 49 different households at Franciscan University.
At JSerra, meanwhile, student houses “will earn points through competitions, service projects, and school spirit initiatives, culminating in the awarding of the JSerra Cup to the top-performing house at the year’s end.”
Ong said the system “immerses students in very practical and hands-on ways into a culture that allows them to internalize the core Christian values we idealize as a school.” The program “multiplies their opportunities for exercising the virtues that are at the heart of our mission,” he said.
Daniel Payne is a senior editor at Catholic News Agency. He previously worked at the College Fix and Just the News. He lives in Virginia with his family.
