As Oregon’s only three time recipient of the U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon Schools Program Awards, St. Mary’s Academy is proud of the wonderful educational opportunity it offers the high school girls who roam its halls. But St. Mary’s also takes great pride in its students once they go out into the world and continue to successfully represent the spirit and mission of the great institution. To recognize the outstanding achievements of these alumnae, the school will hold its fourth annual St. Mary's Academy Awards on Saturday, April 29, 2006 at 5:00 p.m., at the St. Mary's Academy Clark Family Auditorium, 1615 S.W. Fifth Ave., Portland, Oregon.

This year’s awards event will highlight the accomplishments of four outstanding alumnae who exemplify the spirit and mission of the school. The 2006 honorees are: Evelyn (Wojcik) Dieringer ’45 for Embodiment of the SMA Mission; Malia (Haley) Wasson ’77 for Woman of Career Achievement; M.J. (Mary Jo) Anderson ’71 for Theatre, Music, or Art Achievement; and Kristy Hataya Poonyagariyagorn ’97 as Outstanding Contemporary Alumna.

Evelyn (Wojcik) Dieringer ’45
Embodiment of the SMA Mission
Evelyn Dieringer may not be on a list of the nation’s top 100 most successful career women and she hasn’t published a bestseller. But she is exactly what her nominator calls her: “An ordinary saint among us”. Evelyn married and achieved the extraordinary task of bringing up twelve children with love and faith. Many organizations have been the fortunate beneficiaries of the generous spirit of this great woman. She has been a tireless volunteer for St. Mary’s Academy, Holy Family Parish, Sisters of the Holy Names, Birthright, and Jesuit High School, to name a few, and she is a remarkable woman of strength and faith.

Malia (Haley) Wasson ’77
Woman of Career Achievement
As the market president for US Bank in Portland and southwest Washington, this 24-year veteran of banking is the first female president of a major bank in Oregon. Formerly she led commercial banking for US Bank in Oregon and southwest Washington where her team of 80 bankers oversaw the total banking relationships of businesses with annual sales of $5 million to $250 million.

M.J. (Mary Jo) Anderson ’71
Theatre, Music, Art Achievement
M.J. Anderson is a successful sculptor who selects her marble from the quarries of Carrara, Italy. She brings commission works to fruition in her studios in Carrara and on the Oregon Coast. Her art can be seen in galleries in Portland and Seattle and her work has been commissioned by Seattle University, St. James Cathedral in Seattle, and the Regional Children’s Center in Troutdale, Oregon, among others.

Hataya (Kristy) Poonyagariyagorn ’97
Outstanding Contemporary Alumna
It has only been nine years since Kristy Poonyagariyagorn graduated from St. Mary’s Academy. But in that short time she has made important accomplishments in each of the many endeavors she has embarked upon. Kristy earned her undergraduate degree from Brown University, then entered the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She has participated in several science and medical programs, including research in ECG Analysis & Cardiology at OHSU, and a Cardiiology/Pulmnomology externship and neurosurgery preceptorship/externship at Providence Hospital. In the summers of 1999 and 2001 she earned a National Science Foundation Fellowship to conduct research studies at OHSU. Upon graduation she was awarded the Morris L. Povar Prize for this work and the Emery Fellowship (awarded to only 2 students). She is currently a first-year resident at the Cleveland Clinic.

Outside her medical education she has a love of the arts. She has studied, performed, and taught piano, Thai dance, and ballroom dancing. She also has taught the MCAT (Medical College Admissions Test) and tutored first-year medical students. Her service work includes working as the American Medical Association’s membership recruiter for Albert Einstein and the Health Outreach Clinic, a health clinic in the Bronx for the uninsured.

In a lighthearted nod to the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Awards, the St. Mary’s ceremony will open with a red carpet entrance for guests with student journalists snapping their pictures. Teri Mariani ’70, recipient of the 2004 Outstanding Athletic Achievement award, will deliver the keynote address. St. Mary's music students and alumnae will provide entertainment and a hors d'oeuvres and dessert reception will follow the ceremony.

The public is welcome to join alumnae, Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, teachers, students, and friends of St. Mary's Academy for this prestigious event. Event tickets are $15 at the door, $10 in advance, and $5 for Holy Names Sisters and current St. Mary's students. For tickets and information, e-mail St. Mary's Alumnae Office [alumna@stmaryspdx.org], or call (503) 721-7710.

Founded in 1859 by the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, St. Mary’s Academy of Portland, is Oregon’s oldest continuously operating secondary school and one of 716 all-female schools in the country. The student body represents a diverse background of young women from over 30 urban, suburban, and rural communities in Oregon and Southwest Washington. St. Mary’s Academy is distinguished by its development of the whole person, and is the only school in the state to receive three U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon Schools awards.