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For the past several years, St. Mary’s Academy has included a unique, student-initiated program to encourage its students to become intimately aware of the issues poverty presents to the world. Called Poverty Awareness Day, this program is an entirely student-organized day that attempts to raise the awareness in the St. Mary’s community about poverty and injustice through education.
 Each year a special focus is chosen by the student leaders and then curriculum is designed, which includes simulations, small discussion groups, and action response activities to better understand poverty-related issues. The goal of this day is not only to educate, but also to provide ways students can become part of the solution.
“I have worked with teenagers for almost ten years; I know that the student committee who plans this is extraordinary,” says Carrie Swetonic, St. Mary’s Academy Service Coordinator. “Every year it amazes me what they manage to coordinate on their own – speakers, funding, curriculum, and the organization of relevant activities according to the theme.”
This year’s Poverty Awareness Day will be held Wednesday, April 11, 2007 and the theme is Debt Awareness. The day’s focus will be three-fold:
- Personal debt and payday loans
- Debt of impoverished nations and the notion of debt forgiveness
- Indentured labor
Almost 20% of the student body is interested in being on the committee which will execute this day. Students volunteer their time outside of regular class time to make this day happen. “Because it is essential that all our students understand the issues of poverty and their responsibility to this plight, we cancel all regular classes and spend the entire day struggling with poverty’s complexities. It is time well spent,” says Patricia Barr, St. Mary’s Academy principal.
Another, regularly organized event by the Poverty Awareness Day committee is the annual Sister Shawn Marie Barry Drive. Sister Shawn was a beloved counselor and friend at St. Mary’s Academy. She was well-known for her work with Portland’s poor and homeless community and was often seen downtown handing out gloves and scarves to people on the streets in the winter. In honor of this St. Mary’s legacy, the school gathers items for the poor. Last year, new and unused hygiene products were collected to donate to Northwest Medical Teams to be given to victims of genocide in Africa and in our community.
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.
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