Organization
Founded in 1931, St. Mary’s High School is an all-boys, Marianist high school that serves as an anchor in the Dutchtown Neighborhood of South St. Louis City and provides high-quality, high school education to young men from underserved and low-income communities. In 2022, the Archdiocese of St. Louis announced that it would close and remove funding for St. Mary’s Catholic High School at the end of the 2022-2023 school year as a part of their strategic consolidation plan. School officials were passionate about the work and the students being impacted and chose to establish the school independently of the Archdiocese and rename themselves as St. Mary’s South Side Catholic High School. St. Mary’s is addressing the root cause of poverty and increasing equity in education, literacy, and economic justice by providing exceptional education in an under-resourced community. In 2023, they began offering the city’s first school pre-apprenticeship trades program, creating job readiness and a pathway to financial independence.
Partnership #1 (2021)
St. Mary’s School is serving an increasingly geographically and economically diverse student population, with a particular increase in students coming from North County because of the recent closure of Trinity High School. St. Mary’s students have also faced significant financial hardship as a result of the pandemic, with 91% of students qualifying for tuition assistance by the end of the 20/21 school year, reflecting an increase from just 48% at the beginning of the year. In order to make St. Mary’s accessible regardless of a family’s ability to pay, the Brown Sisters Foundation issued a challenge grant to attract new and increased donors to support additional scholarships for low-income students.
Partnership #2 (2023)
With the recent separation from the Archdiocese and the re-establishment of the school as St. Mary’s South Side Catholic High School, they sought funding for their student scholarship assistance program, a program which breaks down the barriers to high quality education, especially for youth living in under-resourced areas. Enrollment increased by 15 percent for the upcoming school year, and 90 percent of their students receive scholarships, showing an increased need for tuition support. The Brown Sisters Foundation issued a challenge grant that would enable them to grow their base of scholarship supporters, increase sustainability, and continue to support students from underserved communities.