The Battle of the Raiders: Private vs Public School (Video)

Feature Photo By: Joe Dillon – A drone captures a view of the Rangeview football field. Rangeview purchased a drone during the 2015-2016 school year.  

Video By: Jorion Marshall

A Day in the Life

I arrive into the boys division at Regis Jesuit High School, and first period was about to start. We pause in the hallway as the morning prayer begins. I know the prayer on the intercom, but it sounds weird to me in English, not in the Spanish I am used to at St. Pius every Sunday. After it’s finished, I am introduced to my female student, senior Brielle Bajek. She leads me to her first period in the girls division and the day begins.

Rangeview High School is a public high school of about 2,300 students. Regis Jesuit High School is a private Catholic school of about 1,700 students. They have a block schedule of four, one hour and twenty-five minute classes a day.

The school campuses are only seven miles apart and both share the Raiders mascot, yet we are so different.

This is my six-hour glimpse into the private school experience.

PERIOD 1- Philosophy:
It was an independent work day. The ladies were working on making a “silo” based off of a philosopher’s views. The classroom, which was actually a small cafeteria area, was full of poster paper and markers that would soon bring color to the pencil sketches. Brielle and her group were working on the views of the philosopher Robert Nozick. There were fewer than 17 girls in the class — and of course no boys — and they were almost all white. The girls were quietly working and productive. I got to learn what a silo was.   

PERIOD 2- Theology: The study of religion

(For this class, I am with junior Anastasia instead of Brielle.)

There were several students that had just come back from a retreat called Kairos, which was a big religious retreat for both male and female juniors. This class was preparing for a big test they were going to have that coming Friday. At this point, I realized that every single girl in the class had an iPad.

I asked Anastasia why, and she said, “It’s a requirement, we all have to have one.” She also stated that the school does not provide the students with them; they must purchase their own on top of the approximately $15,000 yearly tuition.

PERIOD 3- Journalism:

(Once again with Brielle.)

Coming from a co-ed school, I thought that at least their electives would be co-ed as well, but it is not so. The class had about 15 girls and zero guys. At the moment, the class was working on video profiles on students in the school. Although there are different journalism classes for boys and girls, both classes had the same assignment. 

Along with math, this is the only similar class we have on our schedules. Right away I noticed how awesome their journalism lab was — dozens of large-screen Mac computers and a huge flatscreen TV on the wall.  

Aside from that, a lot was familiar — news is news. I did notice that, compared to the Review’s newsroom, the Regis journalists seemed to work much more independently and there seemed to be not as much communication among the students.  

LUNCH

A student can either eat in the division or in the cafe that is in the electives’ building. It is one of the only times that I saw both genders interact (besides passing periods). Anastasia took me to lunch in the girl’s division.

The weather was nice outside and at least 50 percent of the girls were eating outside at tables. I ordered some mac ‘n’ cheese and let me tell you, I could eat that all day. It was great. I got cookies as well, and they were delectable. There were many options for lunch – sandwiches, meatball subs, coffee, mocha, mac ‘n’ cheese, pizza and other items. Needless to say, the lunch experience was very different from RHS. Only seniors are allowed to leave campus.

PERIOD 4- AP Calculus:

(With Brielle)

During the first five minutes of class, there was an ending prayer to the day. This was a class where, as students, we could both connect to the struggle of having Advanced Placement classes. Here, they used a program called “Notability.” With this program, everyone was able to look at the presentation that the teacher was presenting on their iPads and take individual notes on the slides. I feel that this program is actually very beneficial towards the learning of the students, but as of right now, I still do not know what derivative is — next year.

MY REVIEW

Coming from a public school of 2,300 students, Regis Jesuit was definitely and notably different. In terms of academics, I could easily relate to the hours of loaded homework and stress that challenging classes brings upon us.

Overall, I think the rigor of the honors-level academics at RHS and Regis were very similar. Certainly, being separated from the males in the school is a huge difference as well as the technology at every student’s fingertips.

Personally, if I had known more about Regis before freshman year, and if I had money, I might have applied — it provides a great learning environment that meshes with my religious ethics.

That said, I love the diverse environment at Rangeview — it is like the New York City of schools: large, crowded, diverse, somewhat chaotic at times, we put on great parties (think best Homecoming in Colorado) but it has family feeling that we are all in this together, and it cannot be beat by any other school. At Regis, the food was great and the people were nice, but regardless, we are both so distinct in our own unique ways.

Photos 1-8 (By Vanessa Güereca) 

1. Brielle and her group work on their silo poster. 
2. An iPad is used to take notes on what the teacher is talking about.
3. Brielle works on her video profile as the rest of her class does as well. Class size is relatively smaller than RHS.
4. It’s lunch time and students make line for the cafe. 
5. Mac ‘n’ Cheese, cookies and orange juice are purchased in the girls’ division cafeteria. 
6. The courtyard is full of girl’s enjoying the weather for their lunch. 
7. Students work on the calculus presentation that was being worked on in class. 
8. The calculus teacher is telling the students what to input into their calculator on the learning board.
9. The girls division building is actually one of older buildings on campus. (Jorion Marshall)