Impact Report 2023-2024

Our Common Home

Thank You for Supporting

“Our Common home”

 

Fairfield Prep, you have once again shown us the power of community. United by a shared purpose and a collective desire to make a difference, your support allows us to create transformational experiences. And transformed men of Prep go forth and transform the world. Your gift made an impact. 

Giving for Fairfield Prep 2024-2025

Every donor makes a difference.

2149

Donors

$ 414815

From Gifts of $1,000 or Less

$ 11762884

Total Dollars Raised

44.2 %

of Donors in the Hearthstone Society

123

Households are part of the McAuliffe Society

96

New members in Loyola Circle
"

Thank you to our Prep community and all that they do to support our great mission. Let us always live our lives with a generous heart for others. Hail Fairfield Prep. "

— President Christian Cashman, P ’15, ’23

Build the Brotherhood - Forging Connections

Mason ’25 recalls being “completely blown away” the first time he toured Prep’s campus. But his induction into the Prep brotherhood began in earnest with a knock on his front door in 8th grade. Michael Connelly ’83 from Prep’s development office had come to tell Mason he’d been awarded one of Prep’s new Magis merit scholarships. “That helped seal the deal,” Mason notes.

Prep’s all-boy nature and the sense of brotherhood on campus have been the best part of Mason’s Prep experience so far. “The brotherhood really is a true thing. It’s not that hard to see in everyday life,” says Mason, who points to examples like the way the community has come together in hard times or how guys will invite others who are alone to sit with them at lunch. “There’s just this general sense of belonging here. Nobody can slip under the radar.”

Mason’s eye-opening first tour of Prep was shortly after the addition of the McLeod Innovation Center and the Barrett Science Center. The fact that alumni gave money to renovate areas of the campus where he now spends most of his free time has left an impression on Mason, who hopes one day to follow suit. “They could have done that for their college,” he observes. “It really shows that Prep had such a profound impact on them that that’s what they wanted to do.”

Mason, who was named All Conference and All State in football his junior year, has been making the most of the opportunities available to him at Prep. He’s captain of the football team, earned summa cum laude honors for the last three years, serves in student government, and attended the Kairos retreat, among other activities. Mason has always seen himself as a leader, and credits Prep with helping him expand his leadership abilities and grow as a person.

At Prep, Mason found the academic challenge he was seeking. His AP Calculus AB course junior year stretched him in math, which has always come easily to him even in the advanced courses he’s taken since 5th grade. Mason also extols Prep’s English teachers for helping him “fall back in love with English and the language side of school” by enabling him to see the subject as a way to build skills for thinking and analysis, rather than simply reading and writing.

“It’s good for your formation as a person to be able to do hard things. It really prepares you for the real world,” asserts Mason, who appreciates Prep’s emphasis on developing the work ethic and mentality necessary for college.

Like many Prep graduates, Mason’s possibilities for the future are wide open. Before committing to the Naval Academy, he had more than a dozen offers to play Division I football in college, including from Princeton, Yale, Penn, and all three military academies. He’s still thinking about what he’ll major in, maybe engineering or economics, but he’s already set on a minor—English.

“Prep’s a really special place,” says Mason. “I’m glad to be here and have this opportunity.”

I feel like the connections you can make with the teachers here is like no other. Every adult at Prep cares about the kids here and wants to make their experience the best possible.

— Mason Frey ’25

Invest in Intellect - The Power of Relationships

Ask the 2024 Southern Connecticut Conference (SCC) Swimmer of the Year, Owen ’25, which of his many accomplishments he’s most proud of, and his answer might surprise you: earning summa or magma cum laude all three of his Prep years. It’s an honor he says he values more than any race he’s won.

“Academics always come before sports or swimming—that’s what’s going to set you up for the future,” explains Owen, who has verbally committed to swim for Notre Dame after graduation.

A young man of many talents, Owen can be found practicing his viola for the Prep orchestra after he finishes afternoon swim practice, dinner, and homework. For his Prep entrance exam essay, Owen understandably chose to write about the Jesuit ideal of cura personalis. Since then, he believes his Prep experience has delivered on his expectations of opportunities to grow in mind, body, and spirit.

Beyond Prep’s robust athletics program and domination in the pool, Owen lauds the great classes, teachers, and mentors he’s had at Prep. “You honestly develop such a unique relationship between teacher and student here. The teachers are genuinely interested in who you are and your life. They know so much about what they teach…They want to see you succeed, and they want to see you grow as a kid,” he says.

“They’re preparing you for life, not just college,” Owen continues, recalling the time a chemistry class on air pressure segued into a lesson on changing a flat tire. “Things like that happen all the time here. That makes me love learning.” The ability to study in the recently renovated lab facilities in the Barrett Science Center is the icing on the cake for Owen, whose academic interests lie in the sciences. “Having such a new high-tech facility makes the quality of learning a lot better,” he explains.

Owen appreciates how faith and service are woven into the fabric of daily life at Prep, and he tries to be a man for others himself as an Algebra II and Spanish tutor. “Being here definitely helped me grow a stronger faith… I can confidently say during my time at Fairfield Prep I’ve 100% felt closer to God,” says Owen, who is grateful for the transformative experiences available at Prep and looks forward to continuing that journey through formation opportunities like the Kairos retreat, Prep’s hallmark formation experience. “It’s really amazing to see that the retreats that the school sponsors can do so much to change a person for the better,” he says.

While Prep’s successful swimming and diving team was one of the factors that initially drew Owen to the school—and the structure, friendships, and success he’s found through the program still put swim team at the top his list of his best Prep experiences—that initial connection to Prep was a gateway to so much more. Reflecting on his relationships with everyone from teammates and friends to teachers, counselors, and coaches, Owen says, “I’ve just met so many people here who have completely changed my life.”

The education at Prep sets people up on a road that will make the world better. I think that’s what we’re ultimately looking for—a society that we can all be proud of.

— Owen Tharrington '25

Commit to Care -Care that Sparks Greatness

First, I was a fan, then a student, then a graduate, then a coach, and now a teacher—in that order. The joke in my family is that I never really left Prep,” says Vin O’Hara ’01, who currently teaches English and social studies at Prep and led the Prep hockey team to a state title in his first year as head coach.

Before joining the hockey staff as an assistant coach in 2014 and succeeding Matt Sather ’93 as head coach in 2022, O’Hara won two championships as a player under freshly hired Coach Sather. It’s Sather whom O’Hara credits with giving him the opportunity to grow and pushing him to lead.

Freshman year, it was a rush to come to school every day for O’Hara. But he wasn’t doing well academically, and his only inspiration was making good enough grades to play hockey. Then—after 10 years of school—the individual care and attention of one of O’Hara’s math teachers at Prep uncovered the fact that he had dyslexia and attention differences. This was a liberating discovery for O’Hara, who began making significant progress as he learned strategies to overcome his challenges. “I improved with the help of some of the most gracious people I’ve ever met,” says O’Hara. “They lit an academic fire in me because they could see talent—or at least they made me feel like they did. And I appreciated it.”

“The most critical part of the experience at Prep is the commitment to teaching the whole person that’s felt in the halls, the cafeteria, the nurse’s office, the rink, and certainly in the classroom,” O’Hara asserts.

After graduating from Prep, O’Hara earned a B.A. in psychology from Fairfield University in 2007 and set out on a path in neuropsychology research until the economy tanked soon after, and he pivoted to teaching. When a humanities position opened up at Prep in 2021, it wasn’t even a question for O’Hara.

“It felt like going home,” he says. “The true inspiration was that I had the opportunity to give back to a place that gave me so much and to provide the unique experience that I had to future Prep students. My experience with my teachers was exceptional. They were these giants of personality. They were funny and brilliant. When we went into their classrooms, we entered a different world. The opportunity to add to that legacy was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.”

As a Prep teacher, O’Hara had a spectacular experience in JEA learning the Ignatian teaching paradigm, which he believes made him a better teacher and could benefit every adult connected with the school. Now, he’s working on an M.A. in teaching and foundations at Fairfield University.

From the other side of the classroom, O’Hara now sees how school leadership shapes teachers and the school culture. “Prep’s leadership right now is incredibly inspiring,” O’Hara asserts. “It makes me, as an alum, a teacher, and a coach, feel like we’re in good hands. When they need to provide critical feedback, I know they genuinely care for me, the students, and the school. Because of that mutual respect, constructive criticism is taken and implemented. You want to impress leadership who cares. You want to be part of what’s making the institution stronger.”

Our completed team of deans allows us to care for the whole boy—mind, body, and spirit—within our common home with the utmost love, compassion, and commitment.

— Vin O'Hara '01

At a Glance

Academics

25

AP courses offered

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Faculty

15

Faculty to participate in Jesuit Educators Academy

88%

Faculty holding an advanced degree

16%

Faculty (27% of male faculty) are Prep Alumni

2

New faculty added in 2024-2025 academic year

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Students

42

Magis Scholars in Class of 2028

25%

Students of color

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Athletics

82%

Student participation in athletics

328

Multi-sport athletes

100

Head and assistant coaches

598

Athletic games and competitions

25

Students committed to play in college

12

Team captains served as Kairos leaders

2

State Championships in Golf and Lacrosse

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Visual and Performing Arts

9

Performing ensembles

13

HALO Award nominations (by Seven Angels Theatre)

39%

of students participate in the Visual and Performing Arts

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Mission and Ministry

55

Student leaders

53

Adult leaders

26

Student-facing programs

829

Student participants in all programs

164

Participants in Kairos Retreats

39

Participants on Urban Plunge Immersions

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Clubs and Activities

41

Co-curricular clubs offered

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Innovation

43

students (24%) who were admitted to Prep attended an innovation camp or esports camp

2

new innovation clubs created

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Enrollment

$4.1m+

Need-based financial aid provided

32%

Students received need-based financial aid

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Annual Financial Summary