About Us
Bishop O'Dowd High School is an engaging and diverse community focused on preparing 1185 talented young men and women for college through integrated academic, campus ministry, and co-curricular programs. The faculty and staff of 127 men and women, and 75+ part-time coaches and moderators prepare students to lead extraordinary lives. For three generations O’Dowd has been integral to the health and vitality of the Bay Area and beyond. Our more than 13,000 graduates have added far more value to our society than their numbers would have predicted.
Our greatest achievement has been the successful cultivation of a diversity of student talents. These include intellectual, innovative, moral, leadership, and emotional strengths, and now global and digital competencies to sustain the fastest changing era in human history.
We are one of the most desirable and unique high schools in America because we offer so much for so many in three major areas:
1. Academics: Students learn in an intellectually stimulating and technology-rich environment with excellent and caring teachers who educate all kinds of minds. The rigorous college preparatory curriculum and engaging Advanced Placement, Honors, and elective programs challenge and motivate.
2. Campus Ministry: Our retreats, which include Kairos and retreats focused on life and career choices, help students grow spiritually and emotionally. Our four-year service-learning program, Campus Ministry student teams, liturgies, and immersions in the U.S. and abroad provide priceless opportunities for personal and spiritual growth and leadership.
3. Co-Curricular: We nurture students personally, physically, emotionally, and socially as they participate in 16 sports on 55 athletic teams, through award winning performing and visual arts, multiple student leadership opportunities, 50 clubs, and award-winning forensics, and publications.
Over 99 percent of Bishop O'Dowd graduates enroll in colleges and universities across the nation and fulfill roles of leadership and service in the Bay Area and worldwide.
This year Bishop O'Dowd High School will complete the first phase of the Renaissance Campaign to refurbish and upgrade all academic facilities, and build the endowment. Our goal is to graduate even more exemplary citizens who will transform society with their values, intelligence, skills, and leadership as they seek to find God in all things.