Message from the Principal
At Mother of Mercy we focus on developing your individual excellence as a student. How do we accomplish that?
We introduce you to the story of an extraordinary woman who embodies individual excellence -- Catherine McAuley, the founder of the Sisters of Mercy. Inspired by deep faith, Catherine developed her talents as well as she could so that she could help the desperately poor people she saw around her every day. Catherine became an innovative leader at the beginning of the 19th century, a time when it took great courage for a woman to step into leadership. We’ll persistently ask you, “What kind of leader – what kind of modern Catherine -- has God made you? What special talents do you need to develop so that you will find innovative ways to serve others and advance peace and hope?”
Our academic program is designed to help you explore answers to these questions. As a freshman you’ll find that you’ll form good relationships with your teachers and strong friendships with your classmates. You’ll experience that Mercy is a safe place, a place where you can feel good about being yourself, a place that helps you find out more about your talents. Later you’ll find that the school gradually helps you to take risks to extend yourself into new experiences. Go onstage to sing or act. Experience a lab science. Anchor the morning announcements on Bobcat TV. Choose from among the array of AP and dual-credit courses to take courses for college credit at Mercy.
After you’ve gained more and more self-confidence within the school building, we encourage you to extend yourself into the wider world. As a freshman you’ll travel to Northside to mentor your buddy student at St. Boniface elementary school. You’ll learn the best ways to connect with the world of learning resources available on your iPad. Later, you’ll have opportunities to move farther out into the world through Women Inspired hospital internships, service experiences downtown, and mission trips in Texas and Jamaica.
Teachers help you grow in self-discipline through traditional homework, quizzes, and tests. They also give you opportunities to learn your way through challenges such as setting up your own science experiment to test your own hypothesis, or by choosing whether your response to an assignment will take the form of an iMovie, a booklet, or a poster. Mercy’s collegiate block schedule, with most classes meeting for 85 minutes on alternating days, prepares you for how courses meet in college. The long block enables you and your teachers to dig deep into course topics. The alternating schedule means that you can focus on just half of your courses each day … and that homework for just half of your courses will be due tomorrow.
Our commitment to your individual excellence focuses us on giving you academic experiences that help you become the best person that God made you to be, and gaining the skills and confidence for the good work that God depends on you to do.
Dave Mueller
Principal