Jesuit High School Sacramento prides itself on having a brotherhood that is welcoming to new students and enduring for its graduates. 

Ahead of the 2020-2021 school year, Jesuit decided to merge the admissions and alumni departments, arguably the two offices most responsible for maintaining the strength of the brotherhood. 

When combining admissions and alumni into one office, the school gave Mr. Matthew Ramos ’05 the role of director of admissions & alumni relations and hired Mr. Christopher Marshall ’03 to be admissions and alumni relations associate.

In his first two years working at his alma mater, Mr. Ramos served as Director of Admissions. Finding the admissions process very rewarding, Mr. Ramos is grateful for the opportunity to continue working with incoming and potential students in his new role. 

“I love working with the students coming in, getting them excited about Jesuit, and telling the stories and experiences of the current students here and the stories and experiences of the brotherhood and legacy that I experienced,” Mr. Ramos said. “Being a part of alumni relations now is kind of an extension of that same process in connecting, in telling stories.”

New to Jesuit’s staff, Mr. Marshall is excited to be back on campus as the school was a place he felt called to return to ever since he graduated.

“[Jesuit’s] always been a place that I’ve been drawn back to,” Mr. Marshall said. “I’ve been all over the U.S. — I spent several years in Los Angeles, the last five years. I’ve split between Boston and Chicago, but every time I was in town I’d have lunch with a former teacher or a coach. When I moved back to Sacramento in January, I volunteered with the JV soccer team. I came back to coach summer camps. I was always looking for a reason to come back to campus so when the opportunity presented itself to be here full time… I jumped at it.” 

While the pair of staff members work in both admissions and alumni relations, Mr. Marshall is slightly more involved in alumni relations whereas Mr. Ramos handles more of the admissions process.  

“Matt and I are tackling both admissions and alumni,” Mr. Marshall said. “I lean a little further toward the alumni and Matt takes the lead on a lot of the admissions stuff. I think the real priority for me is making sure the alumni community is connected to each other but also connected to the students who are here on campus. The students coming in and the students leaving are inherently connected, and I think making sure that the connection goes all the way through from the guys coming through the door on day one to the guys who came through the door on day one in 1963.” 

According to Jesuit President Father John McGarry S.J., Mr. Ramos and Mr. Marshall have already made a positive impact on the school. 

“They both are very energetic and creative,” Fr. McGarry said. “They’ve been working together really well — coming up with some good new ideas, a lot of creative video projects, and engaging alumni that we haven’t been able to engage in a long time.” 

Like most institutions across the country, Jesuit has operated much differently this year due to the pandemic. Because of this, Mr. Ramos and Mr. Marshall have had to make a number of adjustments, especially regarding the planning of school events, to meet COVID-19 guidelines and keep everyone safe. 

One major planning change was to the school’s largest admissions event of the year, Open House. While Open House has long been an opportunity for prospective students to have a chance to explore the campus and see what Jesuit has to offer, Mr. Ramos knew a traditional Open House wasn’t possible under current circumstances. 

Aware of the importance of Open House, Mr. Ramos was determined to still give potential students the chance to see what Jesuit is all about. 

“I [had] to think, ‘how can I have a personal experience and a touchpoint with these families that are excited about Jesuit and making this big decision of choosing a high school without opening up the entire campus?’” Mr. Ramos said. “We came up with the drive-thru event that was an awesome success, the feedback was fantastic from the families that came through. It was really great to offer a little glimpse [of] what our school is.”

Fr. McGarry was proud of the event’s outcome and was impressed by the cleverness that Mr. Ramos displayed when brainstorming and planning it out. 

“It was very successful and the whole thing was [Mr. Ramos’] idea,” Fr. McGarry said. “It was creative as drive-thru events have been one way that we’ve been connecting with people. He had various stations [that were] welcoming and had information about activities, some giveaways, and good information about the school and the admissions program. The feedback I got from the parents and the students who came to that admissions event was very positive. They felt welcomed by the school and excited that we were doing that in an atmosphere where really no other school had any kind of in-person admissions event.” 

Both being former students who are passionate about Jesuit after experiencing the school’s impact firsthand, Mr. Ramos and Mr. Marshall seem to be the perfect duo to handle admissions, alumni relations, and to keep the brotherhood strong.