Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School - Student Life

Student Life

Located on more than 45 acres (180,000 m2) of land in the heart of Georgetown, Washington, DC, the Visitation campus offers its students state-of-the art academic, sports, and performing arts facilities. Students enroll in a wide variety of Advanced Placement courses and 99 percent of Visitation students attend college. Students play on a wide variety of athletic teams, including lacrosse, field hockey, soccer, tennis, basketball, track, cross country, swimming and diving, and crew. The Visitation Masqueraders mount musical and theatrical productions each year in the Catharine E. Nolan Center for the Performing Arts. There is also a Dance Ensemble, Choir, Instrumental Ensemble, and Madrigal Singers and the groups have performed at various events around the city, including in the Kennedy Center’s Christmas program.

There are also many clubs and publications at the school. Student publications include the award-winning student newspaper, The Wicket, the Green Gate yearbook, and also a literary magazine produced and edited by students entitled "The Georgetowner." Students also participate in the Think Pink Society, Model United Nations Club, Kaleidoscope Club, Peer Educators Club, and Black Women's Society, among others. Students have the opportunity to serve as representatives of the student body in the Student Government Association, Athletic Association, and on the Honor Board, which is charged with ensuring the integrity and of the Visitation Honor Code.

Each graduate performs at least eighty hours of community service, but many students offer hundreds of hours of their time throughout their four years at Visitation. Community service trips take place domestically and abroad. Recent trips have been to Peru, Camden, New Jersey, the poorest city in America, St. Francis Inn in Philadelphia, and an Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Each year, several Georgetown Visitation students also participate in Vistory, a weeklong program of Salesian sisterhood and community service with students from other Visitation schools around the country. Some students make long-term service commitments through tutoring programs with local public schools, Best Buddies, and Saturday School, a program on the Visitation campus. Students also share their community service experiences with their parents through programs like Together for Others, McKenna's Wagon, and Gleaning of the Fields.

Many students participate in the theatre program on campus as well as at the theatre program at Gonzaga College High School. Two shows are performed each year, on average, on the Nolan stage. Director David Nastal and tech director Daniel Goldsmith have created a 1st class program that continues to reinvent itself. While many of the boys who participate in the shows come from Gonzaga College High School, it is not unusual to find boys from such schools at Bishop O'Connell, St. Anselm's Abbey School, and several others.