St. Stephen's Episcopal School

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St. Stephen's is a coed boarding and day school for students grade 6-12. Our school has a rich history of teaching students of all backgrounds and cultures to live together in peace and promote social justice within our community and beyond. St. Stephen's was the first coeducational Episcopal school in the United States and the first integrated boarding school in the South.

Our remarkably diverse student body comprises 686 students from 29 Texas cities, eight states, and 14 countries, including the Bahamas, Brazil, Cameroon, China, Finland, Jamaica, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, and Thailand. Among the 485 students in the Upper School and 201 in the Middle School, 507 are day students, and 179 are boarding students.

The faculty and academic administration includes 75 full-time and four part-time teachers, 40 of whom are residential faculty. The student-teacher ratio is 8:1, and the average class size is 16. While these figures are impressive, the quality of life is more important. Our graduates say there is something special about St. Stephen is that is difficult to describe. You will come to know that quality and help sustain it as you become involved and make your extraordinary contribution to the community.

St. Stephen's Episcopal School is a caring, diverse, accepting community, inclusive of all faiths and grounded in the Christian tradition, which nurtures moral growth and values every human being's potential and dignity. St. Stephen's welcomes students, faculty, and staff from many religious backgrounds and practices. As an Episcopal school, we fully embrace this identity, as defined by the National Association of Episcopal Schools (NAES).

Our shared purpose is to inspire a lasting love of learning and a spirit of service so that each of our students lives a life of meaning and enriches the world. As an Episcopal school, St. Stephen's embraces five core values as the foundation of our mission: love of learning, balance, diversity, community, and service. St. Stephen's dedicates itself to:

• Creating a dynamic, compelling, and rigorous intellectual environment that encourages active inquiry and fosters a lifelong love of learning
• Offering programs that support active engagement and broad interests balanced with programs that promote wellness and spiritual fulfillment
• Upholding and advancing our founders' bold, progressive vision for a diverse, inclusive, and equitable school community that respects and celebrates the unique individuality and dignity of every human being
• Providing an exceptional educational experience that transcends the classroom and enhances students' knowledge that they are valued members of a unique boarding and day school that celebrates learning and living together in community and
• Inspiring students to serve their immediate community and the global human family as educated and ethical citizens and stewards of the planet we all share.

St. Stephen's provides an engaging academic environment for day and boarding students who are known, supported, and celebrated for their talents and interests. It's a place full of people who want to make a difference in the world.

At St. Stephen's, our dedicated faculty and staff are tenacious and constant in their commitment to providing an academically challenging experience for our students within the context of a balanced program in academics, athletics, and the arts. Our mission, vision, and core values are rooted in progressive yet resolute principles — provide rigorous academics, build a diverse student body, develop creative thinkers, support social justice, shape global leaders, nourish the spirit, look beyond ourselves to serve others, and promote equity within our school walls and beyond.

St. Stephen's is a spirit-centered school of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas. Grounded in the Episcopal tradition, we respect and honor all faiths and support students to make their spiritual journeys while reinforcing their moral growth. Our school prayer, which we recite together daily in Chapel, calls upon all of us to see our life as a journey together and empowers us to make a difference in the world "with open minds, open hearts, and open doors."

St. Stephen's supports diversity as an essential component of a quality education that encourages respect for and empowerment of the individual and discourages stereotypes and prejudices. Through our steadfast commitment to diversity, St. Stephen's broadens the educational experience of all students. St. Stephen's further believes that our commitment to diversity is an ongoing process, which will continue to strengthen and enhance our school community.

The school actively seeks students from a variety of backgrounds and all areas of Austin. Our students come from diverse backgrounds, and we support and nurture their differences and work to prepare them for their future contributions to our increasingly diverse world.

In many ways, diversity is the foundation of the curriculum of St. Stephen's. Through readings, classroom discussions, and movies and lessons taught at every grade level, multiple voices and differing backgrounds at SSES are integral to our strong academic program.

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