St. Mary's Academy has been making Black girls' dreams come true for decades. You know a number of their graduates.
But maybe you didn't know that Maryites include Dooky Chase's Leah Chase (Class of 1939); U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Dana Douglas and state Rep. Candace Newell (both Class of 1993); Criminal Court Judge Tracey Flemings-Davillier (Class of 1987); former Interim NOPD Chief Michelle Woodfork (Class of 1988); and organizational consultant Toya Barnes-Teamer, CEO of Teamer Strategies Group (Class of 1982).
St. Mary's reputation for excellence is grounded in the understanding that there will be "No Excellence Without Hard Labor." Students and alumni have made local news for years, but things really got hot in recent months.
St. Mary's Academy President and Interim Principal Pamela Rogers is interviewed by CBS reporter Bill Whittaker for a 60 Minutes segment that aired on Sunday, May 5, 2024.
Emeka Dibia — better known as "Mecca Notes," lead singer of the Brassaholics — became communications director, teacher and choir director in 2021. St. Mary's has been featured in The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. NBC's "The Today Show" aired a segment. So did ABC News Go and NBC's kid-focused news program.
Last year, Calcea Johnson and Ne’Kiya Jackson presented at a professional conference to prove they could use trigonometry to prove the Pythagorean theorem, a feat that had been considered unsolvable for 2,000 years. The school, Johnson and Jackson were featured on CBS' "60 Minutes" on Sunday night.
St. Mary's has gone national on several fronts. The all-girls marching band made national news. The school choir performed in the Gospel Tent at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival for the first time.
The St. Mary's Academy stands outside of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival's Gospel Tent, where the group performed for the first time on Friday, April 26, 2024.
For generations, St. Mary's has worked quietly, heads down, responding to those who reached out and encouraging students to excel.
"We've never been a school to blow our own horn," said SMA Alumni Director Connie Fitch, Class of 1969. "A lot of alumni have said that we need to do that. ... Now other people are blowing our horn."
President and Interim Principal Pamela Rogers has worked at St. Mary's for 19 years. She's a St. Mary's mom; her daughter graduated in 2012, the year she became assistant principal.
Rogers moved into the principal role two years ago. She told me Monday afternoon that she's never seen anything like the number of calls, texts and emails from alumni and people excited about the "60 Minutes" segment. More than 6 million watched.
"When the segment came on, I had my computer and my phone on and it just went crazy," she said.
St. Mary's has succeeded beyond news coverage, too.
The school had graduating classes with 100% college acceptance the last two years. Among the 40 seniors graduating this month, some have full-ride scholarships to Loyola University, Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss.; Kansas State University; Pace University and Mary Baldwin University in Virginia.
A St. Mary's Academy alumnae expresses excitement, and confidence, in a SMA text group on Monday, May 6, 2024.
The school's enrollment hovered around 800 in the 1980s when the institution had grades 7-12. Enrollment today is 615 with K-12 classes.
Nicole Barnes is from a St. Mary's family. Her grandmother graduated in 1940. Her mother graduated in 1965. She graduated in 1986. She's a proud Maryite, and she's boasting about her school this week.
But it's bittersweet. "I remember the enrollment when I was there," said Barnes, executive director of Jericho Road Episcopal Housing Initiative. "Still, I knew we were a great school and we're still a great school. I graduated from St. Mary's with all the confidence in the world."
The publicity is nice. Rogers, Fitch, the staff and alumni love it. But they know the real deal.
"We're trying to operate a well-oiled machine without the oil," explained Rogers.
St. Mary's is not an archdiocesan school, so it has to sustain itself financially. It was founded in 1867 by the Sisters of the Holy Family, an order of African American nuns in New Orleans by Mother Henriette DeLille, now a candidate for sainthood in the Catholic Church.
The school's history is rich, but it's endowment is ... not.
Sunday night's CBS 60 Minutes segment about St. Mary's Academy and the two young ladies who figured out a way to solve a mathematics problem that had not been solved in 2,000 years prompted lots of calls, emails and texts. One SMA alum hopes for more donations in a Monday afternoon text.
When Rogers walked into school leadership, she said, "The sisters didn't really have an endowment. ... We're sorely in need of donations. We have practically zero. We would like it to reach an endowment of about $1 billion."
"We all do a million things," added Rogers. "People who work here work because it's a calling. They're not compensated for their value."
The national publicity and recognition is great for Maryite students and graduates. But publicity doesn't pay the bills, doesn't provide fair compensation to teachers and staff and doesn't provide for St. Mary's future.
If you haven't seen the "60 Minutes" segment or any other news coverage of St. Mary's, you should. Then, consider donating.
