St. Mary's Academy and College, Kansas - Keeping Catholic Education Alive.

smac.edu - "Catholic education brings the youth into contact with the truth, so that their souls might be set aflame." It is for this purpose that St. Mary's Academy and College exists. In this video, discover the uniqueness of St. Mary's Academy and College while we take you into the classrooms and lecture halls of this institution of learning.

For over 4 decades, St. Mary's Academy and College (SMAC) has built and refined a liberal arts education and formation for students desiring a true Catholic education.

-- Copy of video transcript --

The Greek philosopher Socrates once said “Education is not the filling of a vessel but the kindling of a flame.”

No one has known better than the Catholic Church the truth of these words. Catholic education brings the youth into contact with the Truth so that their souls might be set aflame.

It teaches them to seek after and find the Truth in every domain of life, so that they think rightly, judge rightly, and love rightly.

Founded in 1978, St. Mary's Academy and College is an institution of learning whose ideal and goal is to give students this true Catholic education.

St. Mary's Academy and College exists because we take to heart the command of Our Lord to be a light in the world. “I am the light of the world,” He said, “you are the light of the world.” Only the man who achieves a certain excellence, not just an excellence in his technical abilities, but an excellence of character, an excellence of soul; only that man will be looked up to, will be respected, will be able to make a difference in our world.

St. Mary's Academy leads students through their most formative years, giving them a solid foundation, which will be with them for the rest of their life.

The curriculum of the Academy is designed around a strong language-arts program. The Academy seeks to develop the whole man - that’s physical attributes, mental attributes, moral attributes, and spiritual attributes. We are less interested in memorization of data and of discrete facts; we are more interested in developing in the student the ability to find those facts, to process those facts, to know the meaning of those facts and how they fit into the whole. So, in other words, we are interested in developing human beings.

From kindergarten through twelfth grade, this program is completed by courses in history, science, and mathematics. All of these disciplines build upon one another, and find their true meaning in the soul of the program, which is religion. It is through Religion that students go deeper and seek to understand the reality and purpose of life. Music, physical education, and extracurricular activities, such as drama, and sports, complete the curriculum, giving students a rounded and full formation in all aspects of their lives.

St. Mary’s Academy stands for an integrated curriculum; it stands for an integrated way of presenting knowledge to the young people. What is the goal? What does it move towards? Instruction in the good, the true, and the beautiful.

Fr. Edward Leen says that Christian education is a training in right evaluations; it’s a question of forming a Christian mind to see as God sees, that’s the Catholic worldview. But also to love as God loves, that’s the Catholic heart.

St. Mary's College, located on the same campus as the Academy, is a two-year liberal arts college, granting an Associates Degree.

The College aims to take students deeper, putting them in intimate contact with the Truth, so that they might not only know the Truth, but also learn to love the Truth.

The motto of St. Mary's College is Restore All Things in Christ, Instaurare Omnia in Christo. We want students not only to understand the motto, but we want them to live it. This starts with making Christ the center of the individual mind, body, soul, intellect, will, action.

The curriculum at the College is designed with this goal in mind, and involves an integrated and purposeful approach to the liberal arts.

We want the St. Mary’s College experience to result in the formation of an entire individual - mind, body, soul. The students undergo a fairly intense process over the course of two years. The core of the curriculum follows through the two years with Philosophy, Theology, Latin, English, Literature and Composition, and History.

By the formation which the College gives, graduates are prepared to enter the world, not just equipped for a particular skill or trade, but ready to undertake the tasks that God sends their way.

We want our students after two years to have a heart filled with love of God and a mind capable of searching Him in all things, everything they do, whatever they choose to do.

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