St. Agnes Academy (Grades 9-12)
St. Agnes Academy is dedicated to providing a demanding college preparatory education to young women with a wide range of intellectual abilities. In a faith-centered environment, St. Agnes strives to develop and cultivate in each student intellectual competence and curiosity, responsibility, leadership, commitment to others through service, and action on behalf of social justice.
Sister Jane Meyer, O.P., Head of School
9000 Bellaire Blvd., 77036
(713) 219-5400
Hours: 8:00 AM – 3:00 PM
Uniforms required
School Mascot: Tiger
School Publication: Tiger Tracks, parent newsletter; Veritas, community magazine
School Colors: Black/gold
SPOTLIGHT ON: ST. AGNES ACADEMY (as published in the September 2007 SCAN)
Recently, I had the pleasure of visiting St. Agnes Academy for the first time. The school was founded in 1906 and has been located on Bellaire just west of Gessner since 1963. Currently 840 students attend this all-girls schools. Although St. Agnes is a Catholic school, its students come from all faiths and backgrounds – students represent 24 countries.
Sister Jane Meyer, Head of School, shared that the school’s mission is to develop leaders who act with integrity and compassion, with an emphasis on social justice and community service. They believe in this mission so strongly that each student must complete 100 hours of social justice focused community service (some students even serve in foreign countries). The goal is to encourage a passion to help others, and many do continue to serve in the places they began serving as students.
The greatest strength of the school is the strong faculty and staff: many are graduates from the school, and many have been with the school for at least 25 years (even Sister Meyer is an alum). They encourage their girls to find joy and love of learning, develop independent and critical thinking skills, to consider all sides of an issue and ask the tough questions. With small class sizes, students receive individualized attention. At St. Agnes, it is cool to be a good student, and even otherwise shy students learn to stand out. Here, lifelong friendships are developed.
A St. Agnes student is encouraged to be all she can be academically and socially. In addition to the AP/Honors courses and one of the best all girls engineering teams in the state, they also have many clubs, organizations and sports. Each of their 11 sports teams has won a championship at some time. They have a strong fine arts program that will become even stronger, thanks to the opening of a brand new building on campus. They have 18 National Merit Scholars, a strong choral group, even a group that performs at the Texas Renaissance Festival.
Their laptop and web-based programs make St. Agnes one of the leading schools nationwide in technology. Sister Meyer noted that representatives of schools all over the United States come to see this “model school” of technology in action. Technology goes beyond the classroom, though; parents receive electronic weekly newsletters and can check student report cards and attendance online.
Megan Clark, Director of Communications, gave me the full tour and I was impressed. The new building is beautiful and the support of active parents is evident (the Dad’s Club did a wonderful job in the courtyard). I found St. Agnes to have an amazing combination warmth and strength, as well as history and modernity. For more information about St. Agnes, visit them on the web at www.st-agnes.org.