Within these walls

I learned so much at St. Mary’s Academy from 1965-1969 and not all of my knowledge came from books. St. Mary’s Academy opened in Sep 1885 as a co-ed day and boarding school. In Feb 1957, the boys moved to the newly opened all boys Ryken High School, a few miles away. Due to declining enrollments at both schools, in 1981, they combined to form St. Mary’s Ryken High School and the Academy became part of the regional community college. It is no longer a boarding school. My four younger sisters graduated from the Academy also. We saw the gradual decline of nuns and watched tuitions rise. My parents paid $60/year for me to attend. My graduating class had 64 students, some of whom were foreign ambassador’s daughters who boarded since we are only a bit more than an hour south of Washington DC. My three children and oldest grandchild attended St. Mary’s Ryken but tuition is now around $17,200 per student which is unaffordable when saving for multiple children’s college education. Maryland ranks near the top for quality public education so the grands won’t suffer academically but I’d have preferred they continued their Catholic religion education. I chose this picture today because I was thinking of everything our young folks are missing due to COVID. I have so many happy memories from high school that they will miss.