Academics

Upper School | 9-12

Welcome to the Upper School

Educating the whole boy continues through Upper School. The coordinate program with St. Catherine’s allows boys and girls to come together as intellectual peers in coed classes and offers a broad array of course options. Academic rigor intensifies while sports, the arts and extracurricular activities broaden.

St. Christopher’s exposes students to diverse opportunities that allow them to explore a multitude of interests – including woodworking, Jazz Band, and digital video to name a few. We field 14 interscholastic sports teams and offer other after-school options for boys who opt out of athletics.

Highlights

  • Daily chapel service
  • X-Term, an experiential learning program
  • Exchange program with schools in Australia and New Zealand;
  • Three school plays
  • A series of music and choral concerts, including Lessons and Carols at Christmas
  • Ongoing service projects
  • Mentor relationships with Middle School boys
  • A peer advisor program where juniors and seniors work with freshmen to ease the transition to Upper School
  • An environmental awareness group
  • Robotics
  • Regional science competitions
  • School and regional poetry competitions
  • Battle of the Books
  • Political awareness club
  • A school literary magazine, Hieroglyphic
  • A printed and online newspaper, The Pine Needle
  • Field trips to plays, art exhibits, and other regional places of interest that tie in with curriculum study
  • 1:1 technology model

Upper School Head Tony Szymendera

List of 5 items.

  • Hometown: (Click Here)

    Philadelphia, Pennsylvania  

  • Education: (Click Here)

    Haverford College, B.A. in English; Virginia Commonwealth University, Master’s of Education in Administration

  • Previous work experience: (Click Here)

    Bishop Kenrick High School, Norristown, Pa.

  • Passion: (Click Here)

    Baseball. Mr. Szymendera, who was named his college team’s MVP, has coached Varsity baseball since 1988 and is a die-hard Phillies fan.

  • Fun Fact: (Click Here)

    Tony met his wife Heather in 1987 when she was a dorm supervisor at St. Catherine’s and he was just starting out as a St. Christopher’s English teacher. She now teaches Upper School math at St. Catherine’s while he oversees STC’s Upper School, a true coordination story then and now.
“In the end, what matters most about what happens on this campus, in this place, is what kind of person you become. Will you be a man of excellence who strives to do your best in the class, on the athletic field, in your other activities? Will you become a man of honor whose word is good and true? Will you be a man of courage who will choose the hard right over the easy wrong? Will you be a man of compassion who provides another with an opportunity even at some cost to yourself? This is what we want to do—and it is a lot harder than just taking some classes. You can do that anywhere. But here you will be asked to find out all that you can do and be.”
-- Tony Szymendera, Upper School Head
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