GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY NOTABLE ALUMNI PROFESSIONAL

The first acknowledged head of an American university of African descent, Healy is credited with reforming the undergraduate curriculum, lengthening the medical and law programs, and creating the Alumni Association.Īfter the founding of the Law Department in 1870, Healy and his successors sought to bind the professional schools into a university, and focus on higher education. Įnrollment did not recover from the war until the presidency of the Patrick Francis Healy (1873–1881). Subsequently, the school adopted blue and gray as its official colors. Īt its founding in 1876, the Georgetown College Boat Club, the school's rowing team, adopted blue, used for Union uniforms, and gray, used for Confederate uniforms, as its colors to signify the peaceful unity among students. Only seven students graduated in 1869, down from over 300 in the prior decade. Due to the number of lives lost, enrollment levels remained low until well after the war was over. By the time of President Abraham Lincoln's May 1861 visit to campus, 1,400 troops were stationed in temporary quarters there. Civil War greatly affected Georgetown as 1,141 students and alumni enlisted and the Union Army commandeered university buildings.

Union soldiers across the Potomac River from Georgetown University Instruction at the school began on Novemwith future Congressman William Gaston as its first student. FoundingĬarroll orchestrated the early development of a new university, and on Januobtained the property on Dahlgren Quadrangle was built. This was discovered in preparation for the centennial celebration in 1889, at which point rather than correct the annual, the date of Georgetown's 'foundation' was fixed to the date. In that year a copy-edit in the college catalog began mis-labeling the construction as beginning in 1789. Until 1851, the school used 1788, the start of construction on the Old South building, as its founding date. The founding of Georgetown University took place on two main dates, 16. Further up are the five seals, which mark the three prior incarnations of Jesuit schools in Maryland, the year John Carrol attended the Bohemia Manor school, and the present school at Georgetown Heights Carroll saw the need for education among America's Catholic citizens and accordingly sought to establish a university to meet this need.Ībove the door of White-Gravenor Hall are the two dates. įollowing the revolution, Pope Pius VI appointed John Carroll, a Maryland Jesuit, as the first head of the Catholic Church in America, although the suppression of the Jesuit order was still in effect. It was not until after the American Revolution in 1776 that long-term plans to establish a permanent Catholic institution for education in America were realized. During the greater part of the Maryland colonial period, Jesuits continued to conduct Catholic schools clandestinely. However, the 1646 defeat of the Royalists in the English Civil War led to stringent laws against Catholic education and the extradition of known Jesuits from the colony. Jesuit settlers from England founded the Province of Maryland in 1634. President Bill Clinton, served in various levels of government in the United States and abroad. Georgetown's most notable alumni, such as former U.S. The Georgetown athletics teams are nicknamed 'the Hoyas,' made famous by their men's basketball team, which leads the Big East Conference with seven tournament championships. Campus groups include the nation's oldest student dramatic society and the largest student corporation. The student body is noted for its pluralism and political activism, as well as its sizable international contingent. Academically, Georgetown is divided into four undergraduate schools and four graduate schools, with nationally recognized programs and faculty in international relations, law, and medicine. The main campus is known for Healy Hall, designated a National Historic Landmark.

Georgetown's three urban campuses feature traditional collegiate architecture and layout, but prize their green spaces and environmental commitment. Its religious heritage is defining for Georgetown's identity, but has at times been controversial. Georgetown is both the oldest Roman Catholic and oldest Jesuit university in the United States. Civil War under the leadership of university president Patrick Francis Healy. While the school struggled financially in its early years, Georgetown expanded into a branched university after the U.S. Father John Carroll founded the school in 1789, though its roots extend back to 1634.

Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university, located in Washington, DC's Georgetown neighborhood.

Georgetown university notable alumni