Founding Principal Kyle Chandler Speaks at St. Xavier High School Commencement

When Xavier Jesuit Academy Principal Kyle Chandler took the stage at St. Xavier High School's Class of 2026 commencement, he came with a message from 63 boys in Bond Hill.

That morning, before heading to the ceremony, Mr. Chandler stood in front of XJA's entire student body at morning meeting and asked a simple question: what do you want me to tell the St. X students about what they mean to you?

One student asked him to mention the warm chocolate chip cookies in the cafeteria. Another asked him to thank Colin and the hockey team for sitting down with XJA boys to tutor on Monday afternoons, and to let them know that the students had, in fact, beaten them in a hockey game on the last day, fair and square. And one student asked Mr. Chandler to carry a message that went a little deeper: "Please let them know how much we appreciate them treating us like real brothers."

It was that spirit, Mr. Chandler told the graduates, that he came to honor.

Video courtesy of St. Xavier High School

XJA and St. Xavier High School have built a partnership grounded in shared Jesuit identity. St. X students have volunteered at XJA on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and weekends. They have sat alongside younger students as tutors and mentors. They have shown up in ways that go beyond formal service hours, including the St. X student who spotted an XJA boy at a doctor's office, called him by name, and offered a warm greeting before what turned out to be that student's first round of allergy shots. A small moment. One that meant everything.

"The true character of a man is known by how he responds when nobody's watching," Mr. Chandler reflected in his remarks. "I love the fact that you guys are so true to who you are and what you do."

That is the throughline of his address: that what the St. X community offers XJA is not a program or a partnership on paper, but something more human. Young men who see the dignity in every student they meet, who give without being asked, and who model, day in and day out, what it means to be men for others.

Mr. Chandler also acknowledged the teachers, staff, and faculty of St. Xavier who have welcomed XJA families and brought students to XJA's school. He described walking through St. X's hallways and seeing what he called a "ring of honor," a wall of educators who have given their lives to Jesuit education, as an answer to a prayer he had prayed that morning for the graduates.

"Don't just listen to their words," he told the Class of 2026. "Pay attention to their actions. They fully embody what it means to be men and women for others, to God's greater glory."

To the Class of 2026, and to the St. Xavier community: XJA is grateful. And our students are watching, and hoping, and dreaming of one day filling those seats themselves.