Matthew Stoessel, president, Central Catholic High School. (Jim Harris/PBT)
By Riley Dunn, Pittsburgh Business Times
Matthew Stoessel first walked through the doors of Central Catholic High School as a seventh grader trying to figure out his future. All six of his older siblings had attended Upper St. Clair High School, and Stoessel initially believed that he would, too. However, upon visiting Central Catholic while in middle school, he decided to give the private, all-boys school a try. Ever since graduating with the class of 1995, Stoessel has never fully left Central Catholic behind. Prior to serving as the school’s president — a position that he stepped into in 2023 — Stoessel acted as the executive director of advancement beginning in 2017. He is a steward of Central Catholic’s mission statement, which is to inspire young boys to become men of faith, scholarship and service. With a son now graduated from Central Catholic and another still in school, Stoessel is grateful for the memories and connections he has forged with the Central Catholic community over the years.
How did going to school at Central Catholic as a student influence your presidency?
I graduated in 1995 from Central Catholic, and ever since — even after college and grad school — I’ve always stayed involved with the school. In the spring of 2023, the school made the decision to create the role of president. We hadn’t had a president in about a dozen years or so. I was officially appointed in November of 2023. I told the board at the time that it would definitely be the highest professional honor to have the opportunity to serve as president of the school. It is a big deal, and the weight of that is not lost on me.
Central Catholic is an all-boys school. How does that affect student experience?
We’re the last all-boys school in western PA. If you go to the eastern half of the state, there’s a lot more single-sex all-boys or all-girls schools. It’s a unique experience, just being all-boys. I think there’s an opportunity in single-sex education that just doesn’t exist in co-ed. If you’re at an all-girls school, all girls are in leadership positions. At an all-boys school, the same thing (all boys are in leadership positions). It’s an opportunity and an experience that I think is extraordinary, unique and special.
Are there any memories from your time at Central Catholic that are particularly special to you?
The class of 1995 was a neat group of guys, and I remember never wanting to miss a day. I came from the suburbs where it’s a bit of a bubble. At Central Catholic, you come to a school where you know boys from all over western PA and not everybody’s from the same tax bracket. But you put your shirt and tie on every day and nobody cares necessarily what you have or don’t have. The whole idea and sense of brotherhood means a lot to us. I think having that experience when you’re 14-18 years old is extremely formative. And it’s not just what happens in the classroom, but we’re right in Oakland, between Carnegie Mellon (University), the museums and Pitt. I tried to really work hard every minute of my time over my four years.
Looking back at this past school year, if you had one word to describe it, what would that be?
“Blessed” would probably be a good word, especially for a Catholic school. It really is a blessing for me to get to do what I do every day. My family likes to tease me because they say that I like to be at Central Catholic more than anywhere else. I also have two boys in the building. I have one who just graduated, and I have one that’ll be a junior next year. So to be here, to have a son here and to get to hand him his diploma was pretty cool. I’m definitely the first president that’s ever gotten to do that.
What are your son’s next steps?
He’s going to go to Seton Hall University. That’s where my wife and I both went, and he’s really excited about it. We have family and friends all still in the New Jersey area. That’s the only place he wanted to go, so he’s looking forward to it.
How do you promote Central Catholic in the community?
We always try to get people to come to campus to see it because it’s in such a neat location. We’re in the center of the economic engine of western Pennsylvania. Eds and meds are all here. I think we compete against the large public school districts. We like to say that we offer a very unique experience. The expectations when you come here as a student are very high. We expect a lot of our guys when they’re here to wear a shirt and tie every day. We talk a lot about the little things that matter. And if you can master the little things at this point in your life, we know that we’re preparing you for the big things that come. And we’re fortunate to still have Christian Brothers in the community and on campus. Their presence is tremendous.
Is there anything else the community should know?
Central Catholic is a very special place. It’s more than high school to us. There’s a great Mark Twain quote: “When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.” I think in this day and age, four years of high school are so important for young men. The world is an ever-changing and challenging environment. We try to make sure that when (they’re) going through their four years, both academically and from a faith and a formational standpoint, that they have a really good sense of who they are. We have probably almost 25,000 alumni over the course of almost 100 years, and according to our records, about 75% of them are still in the Pittsburgh area. When you look around, whether it’s priests in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, Christian Brothers here at the school, CEOs, executives, lawyers, judges, police, firefighters, EMS — there’s a lot of us that are here. We coach them as best we can at Central Catholic for them to leave. When you come here, you enter to learn, and you leave to serve.
ABOUT MATTHEW STOESSEL:
Title: President, Central Catholic High School
Education: B.S., education; M.A., strategic communication, Seton Hall University
First job: Mowing lawns and detailing cars in the South Hills
Family: Wife, Clarinda; daughter, Victoria; sons, William and John
Hobbies: Spending time with family, travel, golf
Causes: On boards of St. Thomas More Manor and St. John Baptist de La Salle Foundation
Day in the Life:
6:00 a.m.: I wake up and wake my two sons up for school around 6:15. We leave for school at 7:00 a.m.
7:30 a.m.: We arrive at school. I get my first cup of coffee or a Diet Coke to start the day.
12 p.m.: I usually eat lunch around midday and typically get a sandwich from the deli in the school’s Dining Hall.
4:30 p.m.: Depending on the schedule for the day and meetings, I typically try to leave unless my son(s) have after school activities/practice or if the students have a game or performance. When I do get home, we try and eat dinner as a family, and I just try to relax at home.
10 p.m.: I usually start heading to bed.
Riley Dunn is a student at the University of Iowa and one of 10 Pittsburgh Media Partnership summer interns.
Pittsburgh Media Partnership 