School News

For more than 40 years, the St. Mary's Academy community has come together for the Christmas Families program — a service drive that partners TAs (SMA's homerooms) with families in need to support their Christmas needs. The project brings the themes of the Advent season to life: Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love, and aligns with SMA's Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary core value of service to the marginalized, to women, and to children. In 2025, Christmas Families Program served 137 individuals across 31 families in the Greater Portland Area.

Each fall, St. Mary's Academy celebrates Día De Los Muertos by placing an altar known as an Ofrenda (Spanish for "offering") in the front hall, a decades-long tradition nurtured by Latino Student Union and started by Spanish teacher Dena Stock-Marquez.

The SMA music and theatre standout's debut album Moving On, which she playfully dubs acoustic sad girl indie pop, is streaming on Spotify and Apple Music. She reflected on what went into writing, sharing her songs.

Luciana “Luca” Lenth ’19 won the Portland Marathon in October with a breakthrough 2:53:20 finish. SMA caught up with Lenth, who reflected on the joy of winning, the journey to get there, and impact of her time running in the Blues cross country program.

Grace R. ’26 is a senior at St. Mary’s Academy, a member of Senior Student Council, and a captain on the cross country team. In the final week of her SMA cross country career, she penned a reflection of how her four years in the program shaped her, under the prompt of writing a letter to your sport. 

For the 2025-26 school year, Gorman has started a new faith-centered student leadership group for Catholic students with a focus on living the mission and charism of the Sisters.

Brunkow '79 was one of three scientists awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for groundbreaking research on the immune system.