Merion Mercy Academy is a female Catholic, college preparatory school, teaching grades 9 through 12, sponsored by the

Sisters of Mercy The Sisters of Mercy is a religious institute of Catholic women founded in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland, by Catherine McAuley. As of 2019, the institute had about 6200 sisters worldwide, organized into a number of independent congregations. They a ...

located in

Merion, Pennsylvania Merion Station, also known as Merion, is an unincorporated community in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It borders Philadelphia to its west and is one of the communities that make up the Philadelphia Main Line. Merion Station is part of Lower M ...

, just outside

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

. It is an independent school located in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and was previously known as the "Mater Misericordiae Academy" prior to 1968.

History

Significant changes have taken place from 1987 to the present. Recent events include the merger of the lower school with Waldron Academy for Boys next door in 1987, thereby giving the entire Merion Mercy building, built in 1954, to the education of high school girls. The new grade school was named

Waldron Mercy Academy Waldron Mercy Academy is a K- 8 Catholic private elementary school, sponsored by thSisters of Mercyand located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia, located in Merion Station, Pennsylvania, USA. The school is accredited by the Mi ...

. Academically, the school earned a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence Award in 1996 as recognition from the

United States Department of Education The United States Department of Education is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government. It began operating on May 4, 1980, having been created after the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was split into the Departmen ...

. A addition to the MMA building in 2003 added a new

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

, administrative offices, classrooms and meeting rooms, new athletic facilities, and a study center for students. Some other significant renovations took place in the summer of 2004. The school's principal since 2007 is Sister Barbara Buckley, who is also an alumna. Recently, Merion-Mercy won the 92.5 WXTU radio station contest in each of two consecutive years. On December 19, 2007, country artist Kellie Pickler performed for the student body, and on December 2, 2008, Dancing with the Stars' winner Julianna Hough performed on the school's stage.

Athletics

Merion Mercy joined the

Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, Inc., also known by its acronymn PIAA, is one of the governing bodies of high school and middle school athletics for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in the United States. The PIAA's main ...

( PIAA) in 1994 for scholastic athletic competition. The very next year the

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

team won the state PIAA Class AA championship. Continuing their success, the

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

team won the PIAA state championship in 1998 and in 2001, and the

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

team won the PIAA state championship in 2001 and 2003. The volleyball team earned back-to-back-to-back-to-back state championships in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. The crew team won the Groton Cup at the Henley Regatta in 2011 and both the Freshmen 8 and Varsity 4 won Stotesbury in 2012. The building houses the Patricia Waldron Fitness Center.

Notable alumnae

* Patricia McGuire, president,

Trinity Washington University Trinity Washington University is a private Catholic university in Washington, D.C. Trinity is a comprehensive university with five schools; the undergraduate College of Arts & Sciences maintains its original mission as a liberal arts women's ...

*Alyse Wojciechowski (Alyse Alan Louis) currently stars on Broadway's "Mamma Mia" as bride-to-be Sophie Sheridan * Gianna Yanelli, on Broadway in '' Mean Girls the Musical'' * Patricia Carbine, co-founder, editor, and publisher,

Ms. (magazine) ''Ms.'' is an American feminist magazine co-founded in 1971 by journalist and social/political activist Gloria Steinem. It was the first national American feminist magazine. The original editors were Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Mary Thom, Patricia Ca ...

Notes and references

External links

The Merion Mercy Academy@ Private School ReviewSearch Committee Posting
{{authority control Catholic secondary schools in Pennsylvania Girls' schools in Pennsylvania Educational institutions established in 1884 Schools in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Sisters of Mercy schools 1884 establishments in Pennsylvania