Author: St. Mary's Academy (page 4 of 7)

Clubs and Organizations 2017-18

St. Mary’s Academy is proud to offer many options for our students in the form of clubs and organizations.  We recently held a club fair and you can see how excited our students are about these clubs that are almost entirely student driven. Their interests run the gamut and there’s something everyone can join to enrich their experience here at SMA.

NAHS inspires and recognizes those students who have shown outstanding ability in art. Students must have 1 semester of a visual arts class with a grade of B+ or higher as well as a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher to apply.

National Art Honor Society

NAHS inspires and recognizes those students who have shown outstanding ability in art. Students must have one semester of a visual arts class with a grade of B+ or higher as well as a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher to apply.

California Scholarship Federation and National Honor Society

The National Honor Society (NHS) recognizes students who have demonstrated excellence in the areas of scholarship, service, leadership, and character. The organization has been committed to four main goals since its inception: to create enthusiasm for scholarship; to stimulate a desire to render service; to promote leadership; and to develop character in the students of secondary schools. These are the criteria used to select members, which is done by a faculty committee. Members of CSF and NHS at SMA join forces to support an academic culture and to provide academic support to their peers through mentoring and tutoring.

The mission of the California Scholarship Federation (CSF) is to recognize and encourage academic achievement and community service among middle and high school students in California. Members qualify by meeting eligibility requirements based on their grades each semester. Members of CSF and NHS at SMA join forces to support an academic culture and to provide academic support to their peers through mentoring and tutoring.

Continue reading

Arts Program Updates

National Arts in Education Week was the second week in September so we thought we’d do an update of what’s new this year and in store for our Arts Career Path Program.

Remember that cool Duck Truck dance residency we did last year through a partnership through Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre?  Well it was such a success that we decided to build an after school program with them.  We now offer an after school dance class that students take three times a week for a long block class.  They are earning class credit just as if they were taking a class during regular school hours and it can count as their VPA or PE required credits.  It’s going great so far.  Our students have already gone on a field trip to see a performance by Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre at Culver City Hall which was part of Culver City’s Centennial celebration.

Continue reading

Welcome Onward Scholars Program

St. Mary’s Academy is excited to announce that, through the generosity of The John H. and Cynthia Lee Smet Foundation, 12 Belles from the Class of 2022 will make up Cohort I of Onward Scholars at SMA! 

The mission of the Onward Scholars Program is to promote academic excellence, foster an environment conducive to genuine peer support, expose students to leadership opportunities that instill a love of service, and empower goal-driven young women by providing resources that build skills for their path to higher education and lives of purpose.

Belles accepted into the program will receive a four-year scholarship to fund 75% of their tuition. Scholars will meet with the Program Director, Mrs. Rice, on a regular basis to receive support pursuing academic and personal goals through mentoring, access to college workshops, life skills education, and community service opportunities. 
In addition to the scholarship, each Scholar has access to a maximum of a $2,000 stipend over the four years from the Smet Foundation that the Program Director administers to offset the cost of activities or programs in line with the mission of Onward Scholars (e.g., summer college programs, test prep). 

To qualify to be an Onward Scholar, an applicant must be among the top students in her graduating class (with the target minimum cumulative GPA being a 3.5 during her middle school tenure) and have demonstrated leadership in her school and/or community.

To learn more about the Onward Scholars program at SMA, please go to admissions section of www.smabelles.org/ 
or contact:

Mrs. Michele Rice, Program Director

Onward Scholars at St. Mary’s Academy

SaveSave

Busy Belles Summer 2017

As always our Belles were busy, busy, busy this past summer .  Check out some of the exciting and enriching things they were up to:

Jailen Hewitt, Gold Tie ’18

Jailen volunteers with Kaiser Permanente West LA every Saturday working in the Family Child Center. She did some volunteer work at the Junior Blind Center doing data entry.  She also volunteered at the St. Joseph’s Center in Venice as a social work intern helping feed the needy and also helping out in child care.  She went on 2 college tours, EST BLACK COLLEGE TOUR, where she visited Bennett, Clark Atlanta, Howard, Spelman, Norfolk, Hampton & North Carolina AT&T, and also visited a few landmarks.  Her second college tour was in northern California with the UCLA Richard Riordan Business Program to UC Berkeley and Stanford  were she also got to tour Google & Survey Monkey.  Wow, what a jam packed summer!

Jessica Laar, Gold Tie ’18

Jessica worked a six week paid internship at Kaiser Permanente  in West Los Angeles, CA. The program is called Kaiser Permanente L.A.U.N.C.H. High School Summer Youth Employment Program.  L.A.U.N.C.H. is short for for Learn About Unlimited New Careers in Healthcare.

Jessica also participated in the C.S.J. Leadership Conference at Mt. St. Mary’s University, Doheny Campus in Los Angeles, CA in June.

Continue reading

Belles and Books

On Wednesday, August 30th, we welcomed a group of alumnae back to St. Mary’s Academy for our fourth annual Belles and Books event! We tasked both students and alumnae to complete the same summer reading: Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell. In his book, Gladwell attempts to reveal the many factors at work that contribute to a person’s success and analyze patterns using examples from various fields, such as professional sports, tech, and music. These people who achieve extraordinary things he calls outliers.

Alumnae circulated through our English classes throughout the day and held lively discussions not only about the book and the author, but also about how they define success, what you can take away from well-known success stories, and whether they believe themselves to be outliers. This gave students an additional chance to hear and explore new perspectives on the book—and to get to spend some quality time getting to know our fantastic alums! Thank you so much to the alumnae who shared their time and their thoughts (as well as life anecdotes and advice!) with our Belles! 

Continue reading

SMART Camp

Over the summer, St. Mary’s Academy hosted two sessions of enrichment camps for middle school students we dubbed SMART Camp.  These two-week sessions were comprised of morning and afternoon workshops that incorporated science, math, art and engineering/ technology also known in the education world as STEAM.

The morning portion of the first session of SMART Camp focused on Recycled Science and utilized recycled materials from  Trash for Teaching.  Our students learned about various types of energy sources and the importance of finding renewable alternatives to fossil fuels. Students used iPads to do research on energy sources, created comic strips about their selected topics, and built functioning windmills that could raise an object.

Continue reading

A Welcome from our New Principal

Dear family and friends of St. Mary’s Academy,

I am excited to welcome you all to a new year! To some, this will be your first day of your first year at St. Mary’s Academy. To others, this will be the first day of your last year. And to all those in between, this will be another blessed year starting the first day at SMA. However way you approach these first days of school, know that you are blessed with opportunities to grow in all the areas you’ve promised yourself to work on, uncover talents you never knew you could do, and carry out the best version of yourself as God has created you to be. I, too, will soon be starting my first day of two important roles in my life: my first day as a new mother and my first day with all of you as your new Principal. Though I will need some time to grow in my new role in motherhood before beginning my first day as Principal, know that I will pray for all of you often and will be there in spirit, cheering you on as you live, love, learn, and serve at this wonderful school. Dr. Nah will do an amazing job as the Acting Principal during my absence and I have complete faith and trust in our talented group of faculty and staff who will be there constantly to guide you in the right direction with the mission of the school at the forefront of their hearts. I wish you all the best first day and look forward to my first day with all of you.

-Mrs. Mary Rose Batungbacal

Note- Baby Noah is here! He was born on Friday, August 18th. Everyone is doing well.

A Thank You from the Principal

“Hearing the laughter of students in the hallways, the sounds of brains turning and students learning in classrooms, the squeals of excitement during college acceptance season, the warm and welcoming smiles of all I have come to know and the sounds of prayer and faith whether in organically created student-led study groups or as one school community during mass, will be the small pieces of heaven, the pieces of St. Mary’s Academy, that I will forever cherish. It has been my pleasure, honor and joy to serve as principal of St. Mary’s Academy.

I will hold close to my heart the relationships and friendships I have gained during my time here. I am so proud of our faculty, staff, administration, Board, alumnae, friends, families and students for always working together for the betterment of our students and our world community. I am proud to have been a part of a school where students not only grow, but thrive in a comfortable and encouraging learning environment, make lifelong friendships, and receive academic and spiritual nourishment.

It has been a true gift to have come to know the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. These women of God, my mentors-my friends, who have guided me through this journey, provided me with wisdom and watered the seeds of gentleness, peace and joy that I will take with me not only in my newly appointed position as an Assistant Superintendent in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, but wherever I go.

I look forward to the future and seeing how St. Mary’s Academy will continue to flourish and continue its mission of educating young women of distinction who are committed to lifelong learning and service to the “dear neighbor” with the new principal, Mrs. Mary Rose Batungbacal, a special person who has  successfully served the St. Mary’s Academy community for many years.

Remember, to always be joyful, pray always and give thanks in all things-Thessalonians 5:16-18”

-Nancy Portillo

College Acceptances List 2017

As our Green Ties of 2017 prepare for the next phase of their education, we want to congratulate them for all of their academic achievements, community involvements and athletic talents they shared with our SMA community.

100% of our graduates will be attending college this fall! Below is a list of college acceptances and a slideshow of all of our graduating students and where they will be attending college next year.

 

Academic Awards- Seniors

On Wednesday, May 17th, 2017 our annual Academic Awards Ceremony was held on campus to recognize the academic achievements of our Belles.  This year we acknowledged seniors with a special senior award for excellence in a particular Academic area.  Below are those awards. Continue reading

Older posts Newer posts

© 2024 Belles Blog

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑

Subscribe By Email

Get every new post delivered right to your inbox.

This form is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Skip to toolbar