The House System is based on similar programs and physical “houses” at top colleges and universities like Yale, Harvard, and Cal Tech. They are part fraternity/sorority, part mini-college, and part Harry Potter. The purpose is to integrate students in an already small school into smaller cohesive groups to promote cooperation, discipline, and school service. The by-product is competition, cooperation, and fun.

The primary purpose of this program is to encourage students to become responsible members of communities.

Each student is sorted into one of the four Houses. The Houses are named after distinguished American Journalists who made a significant contribution to both their profession and society as a whole.

Clemens House

Named after Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain, who was an American author and humorist. He is noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (called “the Great American Novel) and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Head of House: Davy Mauermann

House Fellows: Glenda Hurtado,

House Prefects:

Hersey House

Named after John Hersey, a Pulitzer Prize-winning American writer and journalist. Hersey’s account of the aftermath of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, was adjudged the finest piece of journalism of the 20th century by a 36-member panel under the aegis of New York University’s journalism department.

Head of House: Leslie Hicks

House Fellows:

House Prefects:

Higgins House

Named after Marguerite Higgins, an American reporter and war correspondent. Higgins covered World War II, the Korean War, and the war in Vietnam, and in the process advanced the cause of equal access for female war correspondents.

Head of House: Dan Cramer

House Fellows: Mark Middlebrook

House Prefects:

Salazar House

Named after Rubén Salazar, a Mexican-American journalist killed during the National Chicano Moratorium March against the Vietnam War on August 29, 1970 in East Los Angeles, California.

Head of House: Adriana Chavira

House Fellows:

House Prefects: