Character, friendship, and service — woven into every part of the student experience.
We cultivate the moral imagination through stories, myths, poetry and examples of virtue and vice that stir the heart. Training them to love truth, reason well, and judge rightly in their lifelong pursuit of learning. Rightly ordered loves — placing love for God first — puts all other affections into their proper place.
Student life at Donum Dei is built around formation, friendship, and joy. Every student belongs to one of our four houses — Pegasus, Caladrius, Hippogriff, and Griffin — where cross-grade friendships, leadership, and healthy competition take root, and where students remain for their whole journey at the school. Enrichment offerings like Youth Chorus and Art History round out the classical curriculum, and service to our San Francisco neighbors is woven into the rhythm of every school year.
House System
The Donum Dei House System exists to integrate academic and character formation, providing positive motivation towards holistic development. Within these Houses, students are encouraged to build friendships across grades, practice leadership skills, engage in healthy competition, and be mentored by faculty members and older students. By providing this structure, students learn to bring their talents and ideas into the life of the school with real responsibilities, real participation, and the possibility for real failure. Through healthy competition and shared goals, students learn to work together, solve problems, initiate new ideas, and participate in meaningful traditions. Each year, new students are inducted into Houses, where they will remain members throughout their time at Donum Dei.
Service
We are missionally-focused to bless San Francisco. Together as a community, we have partnered with various ministries across the city to join in the work they are doing, such as the Alpha Pregnancy Center and CityTeam San Francisco. We also partnered with Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child, gathering and sending shoeboxes filled with Christmas gifts to children around the world. These opportunities to serve together meaningfully contribute to the education and formation of our students' hearts, minds, and bodies in ways that build up wisdom, knowledge, and character. We are committed to building up our community in order to shine light, truth, and love to the city of San Francisco and beyond.
Enrichment
The co-curricular activities offered at Donum Dei are designed to enrich the lives of each of our students. A liberal arts education distinctly values the form and beauty of things, inviting the student to mimic those forms. Enrichment opportunities become vessels through which beauty flows and the learning experience is enhanced. Youth Chorus: Students learn a love for singing — connecting music and body movement as much as possible — through the use of Christian hymns and classical songs. Art History: Students are introduced to beauty in the visual arts, and are trained in the ways of the Classical artists.
Train in memorization, clear communication, and dramatic story-telling along with performance opportunities.
Develop techniques to speak and write articulately, expressively, and confidently. Identify questions and present answers that reveal God's power and divine nature found in creation.
Train in the development of the voice and instrument with various Christian hymns and other classical songs.
Learn the wisdom found in art throughout the ages and the techniques that bring beauty to life.
Strengthen bodies, improve balance and posture, and develop sportsmanship, develop practical skills to cultivate strong character and lifelong habits that will prepare students to thrive at home, in the community, and in the wider world.
DONUM DEI
CLASSICAL ACADEMY
