John Paul the Great Catholic University (JPCatholic) is a private

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

university in

Escondido, California Escondido is a city in San Diego County, California, United States. Located in the North County region, it was incorporated in 1888, and is one of the oldest cities in San Diego County. It has a population of 151,038 as of the 2020 census. Et ...

. It offers

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degrees and a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

degree.

History

John Paul the Great Catholic University was founded in 2003 under the name "New Catholic University." After the death of

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

in April 2005, the Board of Trustees decided to change the name to honor the late Pope, while retaining the word "Catholic" in the official name to emphasize the priorities of the school. JPCatholic officially opened its doors with its first classes on September 21, 2006, with a temporary campus in Scripps Ranch. The university moved to a permanent campus in Escondido in 2013, holding its first classes there at the start of the Fall 2013 academic quarter.

Campus

JPCatholic is located in downtown Escondido, a city immediately north of

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United Stat ...

and approximately north of downtown San Diego. Classrooms,

sound stage A sound stage (also written soundstage) is a soundproof, large structure, building, or room with large doors and high ceilings, used for the production of theatrical film-making and television productions, usually located on a secured movie or ...

, and chapel are located in a former

Mingei The concept of , variously translated into English as " folk craft", "folk art" or "popular art", was developed from the mid-1920s in Japan by a philosopher and aesthete, Yanagi Sōetsu (1889–1961), together with a group of craftsmen, including ...

art museum on Grand Avenue, the heart of Escondido's historic downtown, while administrative offices are housed in a building across the street. In early 2016, the university purchased a long-vacant furniture store with the intent to renovate the space "to house a huge sound stage, a library and an auditorium." The school has also purchased the campus of the defunct Center City High School to serve as the campus chapel. Students live at the latitude33 apartment complex approximately away from the classrooms.

Academics

JPCatholic operates on a non-traditional year-round schedule, with three 10-week quarters per academic year and four quarters per calendar year. Students graduate in three years, beginning the program at the start of a fall quarter and graduating at the end of their third summer quarter. Consequently, there are never more than three "academic classes" of students on campus at any given time.

Undergraduate degrees

JPCatholic currently offers two Bachelor of Science degrees, one in Business and one in Communications Media, along with a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities. The Communications Media degree program can be paired with an emphasis, such as film production and directing, graphic design, animation, or screenwriting. Undergraduate students also take

core curriculum In education, a curriculum (; : curricula or curriculums) is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view ...

classes in philosophy, literature,

business mathematics Business mathematics are mathematics used by commercial enterprises to record and manage business operations. Commercial organizations use mathematics in accounting, inventory management, marketing, sales forecasting, and financial analysis. J. Ol ...

, and humanities, with a heavy emphasis on Scripture and Catholic theology. Over 75% of students major in Communications Media with one of the various emphases.

Senior Business Plan

JPCatholic is noted for its focus on business entrepreneurship, and offers an educational track and resource hub for entrepreneurial students, called the Business Launchpad. Seniors business students work with business-experienced faculty to develop viable business plans, and use University resources to launch a company.

Rankings

''U.S. News & World Report'' 2020 ranks the school as #16 (out of 109 schools listed) in its "Regional Colleges West" category, these being "colleges which focus on undergraduate education that grant fewer than half their degrees in liberal arts disciplines." This category is not to be confused with Regional ''Universities'' West (128 schools), which "offer a full range of undergraduate programs and some master's programs but few doctoral programs", or National Liberal Arts Colleges (223 schools), which "emphasize undergraduate education and award at least half of their degrees in the liberal arts fields of study." The university is ranked among the "Absolute Worst Campuses for

LGBTQ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is ...

Youth" in the US by

Campus Pride Campus Pride is an American national nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization founded by M. Chad Wilson, Sarah E. Holmes and Shane L. Windmeyer in 2001 which serves lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) and ally student leaders and/or campus orga ...

. It was granted an exception to

Title IX Title IX is the most commonly used name for the federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part (Title IX) of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other educat ...

in 2016 which legally allows it to decline LGBT students for religious reasons.

Accreditation

JPCatholic is accredited by the

Western Association of Schools and Colleges The Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) was an organization providing accreditation of public and private universities, colleges, secondary and elementary schools in California and Hawaii, the territories of Guam, American Sam ...

Senior College and University Commission.

References

External links

Official website
{{Coord, 33.120858, -117.082379, display=title Universities and colleges in San Diego County, California Catholic universities and colleges in California Education in Escondido, California Educational institutions established in 2003 2003 establishments in California