Notre Dame High School, San Jose

Notre Dame High School is the oldest private secondary school for young women in California. The school is owned by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, a congregation founded by Saint Julie Billiart in Amiens, France, in 1804. The Sisters came to California in 1851 at the invitation of the Most Reverend Joseph Alemany, O.P., Archbishop of San Francisco, to establish in San Jose, then the state capitol, a college, upper and lower residence schools and a high school for day students on extensive property on Santa Clara Street. The location was chosen at the advice of the Jesuit Fathers who had recently opened a school for boys at nearby Mission Santa Clara. Notre Dame opened on August 4, 1851. "Teach them what they need to know for life" was the guiding force behind St. Julie Billiart when she founded the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in 1804. More than 200 years later, those words still guide the mission of Notre Dame High School San Jose. While "what they need to know for life" has changed a great deal over the last two centuries, Notre Dame High School continues to educate the young women of Silicon Valley for success in that tradition.