Alumni Spotlight: Steve Noga

Dec 1, 2018

NEW YORK CITY - It can be said that Steve Noga has helped bring a piece of Xavier University to New York City.

Except it's in the form of Xavier High School, which sits on a quiet street in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. With six floors and a façade of concrete columns, the school flies a similar blue flag. But the similarities don't end there.

Noga, a 1999 Honors Bachelor of Arts and Classics graduate, is director of admissions and financial aid for the all-boys, college-prep Jesuit, Catholic high school. Noga leads a team responsible for all aspects of admissions, including event planning and marketing. He does not hide his love for his alma mater, and he conveys that love for Xavier University to all of the high school's 1,075 students.

"If you were in my class, it was all XU," says Noga, former chair of the Religion Department for the high school and a teacher for 14 years. "I have such fond memories of Xavier."

Those fond memories, he says, include finding leadership and service opportunities that helped confirm his desire to become a teacher and administrator.

"The programs were profound," he says. "I was taught to think critically and express myself more thoughtfully. I found my home at Xavier."

He is helping to make sure Xavier High School relays that same passion and transformative experience to its students. In particular, he credited the Dorothy Day Center for Faith and Justice, as well as his participation in the United Way Summer Service Internship, as watershed moments for him while at the University. Essentially, Xavier helped confirm who he wanted to be.

He wants the high school to do the same.

"We say this school isn't just about the formation of the person, it's about the transformation of your son. That's our goal," he says. "I'm very much at home in this place. There's a tug within me, and I love it here."