As a Catholic school in the Dominican Tradition, we at Mount St. Dominic Academy claim our place in the third century of our life. As we have done since 1892, we continue to empower young women to become leaders in all areas of life that they might pursue. This year we celebrate an array of achievements: our re-accreditation by the Middle States Association, the completion of our Athletic Facility, ten recent graduates named as AP Scholars, two of them with Honors; the scholarship money awarded to the 88 members of our graduating class, which totaled nearly $8.9 million; and of course, that fact that this year, as in every year for nearly two decades, 100% of our seniors were accepted into and enrolled in four-year colleges or universities. The list of accomplishments could go on and on.

Our Middle States re-accreditation is particularly significant. The Mount has been continuously accredited by the Middle States Association since 1934 and we take great pride in this notable recognition. The rigorous Middle States accreditation process compels us to take stock of ourselves and set a course for our future, ensuring that we are always striving for growth.

This year, we once again successfully attained or surpassed the goals that we set with Middle States seven years ago. The first goal was to increase the number of students taking AP and Honors courses. We are proud to report that during the 2007-2008 school year, 60 % of students were enrolled in one of 23 Honors and 8 AP courses - a great increase over the 25% enrolled in 2001. Second, we set the objective of ensuring our student's proficiency as users of technology. Now, by the end of sophomore year after taking two years of required courses, students are proficient in all basic software programs including Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Access as well as the elements of desktop publishing. Our third goal was to improve our Siena Service Community program, a program that involves all our students. Today, in addition to completing a set number of community service hours, students are lead through a reflection process and channel those reflections into a written paper to deepen their understanding of what it means to commit to the betterment of the global community.

Moving forward, we have set a new series of goals for the years to come. These are aimed at further developing our students' skills in areas that are increasingly important to success in college. Specifically, we will work to further develop our students' writing proficiencies, enabling them to produce more powerful essays and research papers. Additionally, we plan to advance our junior and senior students beyond a mere proficiency in computer skills to a more thorough understanding of how these skills can be applied to a variety of everyday assignments.

Exciting things are happening every day at Mount St. Dominic Academy and there is much, much more in store for our students than ever before. I invite you to come into our lives - to get to know us.

Sincerely,

Sister Frances Sullivan, O.P.
Head of School