The values of Jesuit Education are central to life at St. Louis U. High: students are frequently reminded to be men for others, taught to work toward the Grad at Grad, and trained to be their best selves throughout high school and beyond. To recognize the impact of young SLUH alums trying to live out these ideals, the Advancement Office conceived of the 1540 List to recognize 15 alumni under the age of 40 who have made a difference in their communities. 

The 1540 List takes its title from the year when St. Ignatius and his companions formed the Society of Jesus.

“When we were creating this list, we were really hoping to get a picture of not only what our full alumni community looked like with guys who are under the age of 40, but really just get a sense of the diversity of people that are out in the world both on a on an industry level and a geographic level and the places that they've come from in life,” said Alumni Coordinator Chris Buerke. 

While none of the names on the 1540 list can be made public until the magazine is released, the alumni come from a variety of different fields such as public health, transportation, and engineering. The list includes young alums who range from having just graduated college to being just shy of their fortieth birthday, and live all over the country.

The process for compiling the list began with an email sent out to all alumni inviting them to sponsor any alumnus under the age of 40 doing excellent work in his field. They received over 100 nominations. A selection committee of faculty and staff members sifted through the nominations, aiming to put together a diverse and comprehensive list that covered a variety of alumni interests.

“Our goal for the most part was to find people who really embodied the core values of the grad at grad,” said Buerke. “We were looking for people who are challenging our definitions of excellence. People who are like the Jesuits. This list is kind of an honor of people who are setting the world on fire.”

With such an overwhelming pool of applicants, the task of choosing the 15 proved difficult for the committee.

“All the stories of the 100 people that were nominated were fascinating, and I wish we could be telling we could have the 100-40 list,” said Buerke.

Instead, Advancement hopes to make this a recurring project. There are far more alumni worth spotlighting for their excellent work in their fields, so 1540 lists in the future could help to highlight more stories that aren’t on this first list.

“I would love to see this be an annual list that we're able to create,” said Buerke. “I think the impressive thing about our alumni community is …  more people are challenging those definitions of excellence.”

The goal of this list and subsequent lists is to underscore the many achievements of alumni, inspire alumni to connect with their classmates and hear each other’s stories, and perhaps make an impact on the next generation of SLUH alumni.

“I think no matter what it looks like year after year, this list is just going to continue to be a snapshot of the impressive things that our alumni are doing,” said Buerke. “Hopefully it serves as a model to our current students of different places that they can go and life and the different paths that they can possibly take.”