Shawn Leight, Board of Trustees Chair, recently shared that the Board is delighted to extend Mr. Tim Horner’s contract as Head of School through June 2028. “We have tremendous momentum and Mr. Horner will provide the leadership that is needed for us to follow through with these initiatives as we continue to improve our school.”
This week, Mr. Horner reflects as 46th Head of School at the Academy.
We have been celebrating Catholic Schools Week with the Academy community. We honor our heritage as the first Sacred Heart school in this country, founded by St. Philippine Duchesne in 1818 and continue to live our mission, shared by the 25 Network of Sacred Heart schools in the U.S. and Canada and guided by the Goals and Criteria.
Goal 1 of Sacred Heart Education: a personal and active faith in God
The week began celebrating students, followed by celebrating vocations on Tuesday and recognizing the Religious of the Sacred Heart. Wednesday we celebrated the nation and today we celebrate faculty and staff, which included a Taco Bar lunch provided by the Hospitality Committee.
Join us for Summer Camps at the Academy! From five weeks of themed-fun for little ones to St. Louis Ambush Soccer Camp to Camp Invention and Showtime! Presents, there’s something for everyone. All are welcome!
For more information and to sign up, click here.
The gift of a Sacred Heart education is frequently cited by alumni as the best gift their parents have given them. This week, Berkeley Rebman ’17 reflects on her Academy experience. This June, she will graduate from the University of Denver with a BSBA degree in Business Information & Analytics with minors in French & Francophone Studies and Leadership Studies. This summer, Berkeley will be moving to Boston for her job as a commercial strategy associate for Wayfair.
How does one describe a gift of nine years of compassion, empathy, and advocacy? It is impossible. In fact, it is not only a gift of nine years, rather a lifetime and something that can be drawn upon years after graduation.
The gift of a Sacred Heart education is the most valuable gift I have ever received, and I thank my parents every day for the sacrifices they made to give me that opportunity. From my nine years at the Academy, I fondly remember the many traditions including Congé and Silver Tea, but more importantly, I remember the lessons I learned and continue to carry with me today.
In this week’s From the Heart, Theology and History teacher Miss Mary Furay shares the history and significance of the Jubilee Year. Three students also offer inspiring reflections on what the word “hope” means to them.
Jubilee Years hold deep religious significance for Catholics, celebrating joy and pardon every 25 years, and are rooted in the ancient Jewish tradition described in Leviticus 25, where debts were forgiven, and servants freed. The 2025 Jubilee began on Christmas Eve with Pope Francis making the 500-year-old traditional gesture: opening the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica to symbolize a passage from sin to grace. When Pope Francis announced the Jubilee Year, he stated, “We must fan the flame of hope that has been given us and help everyone to gain new strength and certainty by looking to the future with an open spirit, a trusting heart and far-sighted vision. The forthcoming Jubilee can contribute greatly to restoring a climate of hope and trust as a prelude to the renewal and rebirth that we so urgently desire…”
“The Academy of the Sacred Heart truly does feel like home. The small class sizes, the love from the teachers can be felt throughout the entire school,” says Chelsea Haynes, Fox 2 News.
We are grateful to Ms. Haynes for spending time meeting students, learning about our history and discovering more about our academic program! To watch her School Spotlight segment, click here.
Happy New Year! I hope you are enjoying the start of 2025 with all these snowy days!
We have an exciting event coming up here at the Academy! Mark your calendar for our Open House: Be Part of the Heart on Sunday, February 2 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.! Experience the Academy with classroom activities for all grade levels and ages as well as interacting with our Encore teachers. This includes Computer, Music, Art, P.E., and Language classes! This is an opportunity to see the learning we offer and meet our teachers, along with engage in our community as current families will join in the fun, too! Check out all the fun activities and register here!
Relationships built through the years with classmates, and later alumni, are a significant gift of Sacred Heart education. But parents are also beneficiaries of this gift as they become friends with each other after time spent from birthday parties to basketball courts, volunteering or participating in distinctive Academy traditions.
This week, Charla Niccoli Dziedzic ’75 reflects on decades-long friendships that began when her own children started at the Academy and have flourished ever since, including celebrating New Years Eve together in a long-standing tradition.
A group of alumni parents has been gathering for many years on New Year’s Eve. This is what a quarter century of Sacred Heart alumni parent friendship looks like. As we were reminiscing that evening on our group’s longevity, the common thought was “Who knew?”
When I graduated from the Academy of the Sacred Heart (1975, Eighth Class), I knew I would remain friends with many of my classmates forever. But what I didn’t know, when my children, Rose ’04 and Drew ’07, started at ASH was that my fellow parents would become my lifetime friends also.
December at the Academy has been full of holiday cheer! We had our Silver Tea performances last week and it brought me joy watching our students shine as they sang and dance! These Christmas programs are a long-standing tradition for which students practice diligently and present it as a loving gift to their parents.
Last night I went to our Alumni Christmas Basket Gathering, an alumni event that happens the evening before Christmas Basket Mass, another favorite Academy tradition. Families and alumni prepare baskets of food for those in need and these are gathered during Mass before our students go on holiday break. Baskets are then distributed to multiple agencies to ensure that families have enough for a holiday meal. This example of Goal 3 of Sacred Heart education — a social awareness which impels to action — is one of the most special experiences for our students and for our community. It was fun to be with fellow alumni last night to prepare over 80 baskets and then to celebrate with our entire Academy community at Christmas Basket Mass today where we collected over 300 baskets. I particularly loved seeing the students, parents, staff, faculty, and alumni take the baskets out of the gym and load them up into cars. It is a moment where you realize the value of community here at the Academy (another Sacred Heart goal) as well as realizing it is larger than us. We are all working together as a community to make an impact on our greater community. It makes me feel grateful and recognize how much I love this time of year. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy 2025!
This week, Jillian Alexander ’18, reflects on the gift of her Sacred Heart education. Jillian began in Pre-Primary and went on to Incarnate Word Academy and is now a junior at the University of Arkansas studying Marketing. Her classmates are very close and she counts those friendships — her Academy sisters and brothers — as a true gift.
The Academy has given me so much! I am very grateful for my Sacred Heart education. It has taught me amazing communication skills as well as organizational skills. Balancing a full-time job as well as being a full-time undergraduate student has pushed me to put my organizational skills to the test!
The Academy also gave me a strong faith foundation. I am able to go day to day feeling confident in who I am and in my faith because of what the Academy has taught me.
Coming to college I feel as though the manners, faith, education and habits that the Academy instilled in me help me stand out tremendously from the majority of the student population. I am forever thankful that my parents chose to send me to the Academy!
This week Mr. Horner shares highlights from last week’s visit with Mary Menacho, Executive Director of Independent Schools Association of the Central States (ISACS) as well as the benefits of becoming a full member of ISACS. In addition, Shawn Leight, Board of Trustees Chair, and Mary share their insights about the visit.
The school’s Strategic Plan, Embracing our Rich Heritage, Creating our Bold Future, envisions our school becoming a full member of ISACS. As a current provisional member, we are progressing toward full membership.
This past week, we were fortunate to host Mary Menacho for two days. She spent time touring our school, visiting classrooms and learning about our history and mission. In addition, Mary met with the Marketing and Enrollment Committee as well as the Board of Trustees during their retreat last Saturday.
