St. Mary's Ryken High School
Encyclopedia
St. Mary's Ryken, located on an 87 acres (352,076.8 m²) campus on Breton Bay, is a coeducational, secondary school sponsored by the Xaverian Brothers
.
The campus has a 1,000-seat sports stadium with a turf field and six-lane track and six buildings: Paschal Hall; Rupert Hall; Romuald Hall; Xavier Hall; Alumni Hall (cafeteria); and Lambert Hall (business office).
The SMR STEM 100 program is in cooperation with the Patuxent River Naval Air Station Educational Partnership Program and the Office of Naval Research.
Approximately 99% of each graduating class pursues a higher education at a college, university or military service academy. In the Class of 2011, students received almost $12.8 million in scholarship offers.
SMR is accredited by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington
, the Maryland State Board of Education, and the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. St. Mary's Ryken provides education for almost 700 students in grades 9-12 and is the only Catholic high school affiliated with the Archdiocese of Washington in the three Southern Maryland
counties. Students come from St. Mary's, Calvert
, Charles
and southern Prince George's
counties.
The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth opened St. Mary's Academy (SMA) in 1885 on the grounds of the property known as Rose Hill in Leonardtown. Mrs. Richard H. Miles bequeathed the property to Father Charles Jenkins, S.J., with the intent that it be used by "a religious order to conduct a Catholic school." SMA grew rapidly as a coeducational boarding school and accepted students from kindergarten through twelfth grade. The burgeoning population of St. Mary's County and Southern Maryland soon rendered the academy too small and a new school building was erected in 1936. In 1956, the school expanded yet again with a dormitory, convent and chapel. With the opening of the new, all boys Ryken High School, the sisters carried on their selfless dedication as a school for young women.
In 1916, to their good fortune, the Xaverian Brothers purchased over one hundred acres along Breton Bay from Mr. Enoch Abell and opened a camp for boys known as Camp Calvert. Young men flocked from the cities to spend a few weeks of their summer vacations there. The brothers' vision for this property was to eventually build a school and novitiate for boys and, in 1956, their dream became reality with the opening of Ryken High School (RHS). The school, named after Theodore James Ryken, founder of the Xaverian order, served as a juniorate for those with vocations to the Xaverian Brothers as well as a high school for young men.
Eventually, with a diminishing number of boarders and vocational candidates, both SMA and RHS closed their dormitories and operated solely as Catholic high schools. SMA and RHS supported each other through sports programs, theater and music productions, dances, proms and academic instruction. By the late 1970s, both schools experienced declining enrollments and agreed to merge into one coeducational Catholic high school.
In 2009, St. Mary's Ryken embarked on the first significant reshaping of its campus in almost 30 years. Phase 1 of the Strategic Master Plan was put into action with the groundbreaking for the SMR Athletic Complex. In this year, all of Paschal Hall was air conditioned and an annex was added that includes an office for the Athletics Director and a new boys' team and locker room. A 340-space parking lot was built on the grounds of the old student parking lot and the field and track behind Paschal Hall. Construction of the new 1,000-seat stadium with pressbox, artificial turf field and six-lane track was completed in August 2010.
In 2010, a member of the SMR golf team won the individual WCAC golf championship. In 2009, two SMR teams made it to the final championship games in the WCAC: girls softball and boys lacrosse. (The boys lacrosse team won the WCAC conference title in 2007.) The men's basketball team has over 10 players playing college basketball (i.e. John Flowers - WVU NCAA Final Four; Greg Brown - Navy; Gokhan Sirin - Charlotte; Gorkem Sonmez - Radford; Jon Taylor - St. Francis; RJ Buck - North Carolina A&T; etc.) and set 3 school records in the 2009 - 2010 season (WCAC finish, WCAC record, Overall record).
Fall sports: cross country, field hockey, cheerleading, football, sailing, soccer, tennis and volleyball
Winter sports: basketball, cheerleading, ice hockey, swimming and wrestling
Spring sports: baseball, golf, lacrosse, sailing, softball, tennis and track & field
At the 2010 Baltimore/Washington Fiesta-val Band and Orchestra Competition,the SMR Concert Band, Jazz Band and Orchestra all received first place with an excellent rating. In addition, St. Mary's Ryken received the Overall Champion Award, the Overall Grand Champion Award and the Director's Award of Distinction for Notable Contribution to Musical Excellence.
periodically in the gym, and all students are required to take four years of theology classes; however, students do have the option to take Global Bridges, a global awareness class, their junior year, and philosophy in their senior year.
Students frequently take part in mission programs. Their latest trip was to Camden, NJ, where the students helped out at the Romero Center. The students also made a trip to nearby Philadelphia, PA, to participate in some other service projects. At the end of the trip, students had dinner with some of the local members of the church that supports the Romero Center, the main hub of the Camden Mission Trip.
The school colors are blue, green and white, and the official mascot is the knight.
Full-time administrators : 4
Full-time staff : 24
Classes offered : 126
AP Classes offered : 16
The last hour of the day is called "X-hour" (Xaverian hour)and this is when students can participate in one of 55 clubs and/or a study hall.
During X-Hour, students can participate in Mass every Monday or Reconciliation every Tuesday, which is held by the school's Teen Life Catholic Ministry Program. A new Catholic program they are implementing is Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, which will take place every Friday during X-Hour.
Xaverian Brothers
The Xaverian Brothers or Congregation of St. Francis Xavier are a religious order founded by Theodore James Ryken in Bruges, Belgium in 1839 and named after Saint Francis Xavier...
.
The campus has a 1,000-seat sports stadium with a turf field and six-lane track and six buildings: Paschal Hall; Rupert Hall; Romuald Hall; Xavier Hall; Alumni Hall (cafeteria); and Lambert Hall (business office).
The SMR STEM 100 program is in cooperation with the Patuxent River Naval Air Station Educational Partnership Program and the Office of Naval Research.
Approximately 99% of each graduating class pursues a higher education at a college, university or military service academy. In the Class of 2011, students received almost $12.8 million in scholarship offers.
SMR is accredited by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington is a particular church of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. It comprises the District of Columbia and Calvert, Charles, Montgomery, Prince George's and Saint Mary's counties in the state of Maryland....
, the Maryland State Board of Education, and the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. St. Mary's Ryken provides education for almost 700 students in grades 9-12 and is the only Catholic high school affiliated with the Archdiocese of Washington in the three Southern Maryland
Southern Maryland
Southern Maryland in popular usage is composed of the state's southernmost counties on the "Western Shore" of the Chesapeake Bay. This region includes all of Calvert, Charles and St. Mary's counties and sometimes the southern portions of Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties.- History...
counties. Students come from St. Mary's, Calvert
Calvert County, Maryland
Calvert County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland. It occupies the Calvert Peninsula which is bordered on the east by the Chesapeake Bay and on the west by the Patuxent River. Calvert County is part of the Southern Maryland region. Calvert County's residents are among the highest...
, Charles
Charles County, Maryland
Charles County is a county in the south central portion of the U.S. state of Maryland.As of 2010, the population was 146,551. Its county seat is La Plata. This county was named for Charles Calvert , third Baron Baltimore....
and southern Prince George's
Prince George's County, Maryland
Prince George's County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland, immediately north, east, and south of Washington, DC. As of 2010, it has a population of 863,420 and is the wealthiest African-American majority county in the nation....
counties.
History
St. Mary's Ryken was established in 1981 and traces its roots in Catholic education to St. Mary's Academy (est. 1885) and Ryken High School (est. 1956).The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth opened St. Mary's Academy (SMA) in 1885 on the grounds of the property known as Rose Hill in Leonardtown. Mrs. Richard H. Miles bequeathed the property to Father Charles Jenkins, S.J., with the intent that it be used by "a religious order to conduct a Catholic school." SMA grew rapidly as a coeducational boarding school and accepted students from kindergarten through twelfth grade. The burgeoning population of St. Mary's County and Southern Maryland soon rendered the academy too small and a new school building was erected in 1936. In 1956, the school expanded yet again with a dormitory, convent and chapel. With the opening of the new, all boys Ryken High School, the sisters carried on their selfless dedication as a school for young women.
In 1916, to their good fortune, the Xaverian Brothers purchased over one hundred acres along Breton Bay from Mr. Enoch Abell and opened a camp for boys known as Camp Calvert. Young men flocked from the cities to spend a few weeks of their summer vacations there. The brothers' vision for this property was to eventually build a school and novitiate for boys and, in 1956, their dream became reality with the opening of Ryken High School (RHS). The school, named after Theodore James Ryken, founder of the Xaverian order, served as a juniorate for those with vocations to the Xaverian Brothers as well as a high school for young men.
Eventually, with a diminishing number of boarders and vocational candidates, both SMA and RHS closed their dormitories and operated solely as Catholic high schools. SMA and RHS supported each other through sports programs, theater and music productions, dances, proms and academic instruction. By the late 1970s, both schools experienced declining enrollments and agreed to merge into one coeducational Catholic high school.
In 2009, St. Mary's Ryken embarked on the first significant reshaping of its campus in almost 30 years. Phase 1 of the Strategic Master Plan was put into action with the groundbreaking for the SMR Athletic Complex. In this year, all of Paschal Hall was air conditioned and an annex was added that includes an office for the Athletics Director and a new boys' team and locker room. A 340-space parking lot was built on the grounds of the old student parking lot and the field and track behind Paschal Hall. Construction of the new 1,000-seat stadium with pressbox, artificial turf field and six-lane track was completed in August 2010.
Clubs
In 2011, the Mock Trial team won the 7th Circuit Championship for the fourth, consecutive year.Sports
St. Mary's Ryken is a member of the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC). It is one of the most competitive conferences in the country, with many of the teams nationally ranked. The student athletes in this conference are some of the most heavily recruited by NCAA Division I colleges and universities.In 2010, a member of the SMR golf team won the individual WCAC golf championship. In 2009, two SMR teams made it to the final championship games in the WCAC: girls softball and boys lacrosse. (The boys lacrosse team won the WCAC conference title in 2007.) The men's basketball team has over 10 players playing college basketball (i.e. John Flowers - WVU NCAA Final Four; Greg Brown - Navy; Gokhan Sirin - Charlotte; Gorkem Sonmez - Radford; Jon Taylor - St. Francis; RJ Buck - North Carolina A&T; etc.) and set 3 school records in the 2009 - 2010 season (WCAC finish, WCAC record, Overall record).
Fall sports: cross country, field hockey, cheerleading, football, sailing, soccer, tennis and volleyball
Winter sports: basketball, cheerleading, ice hockey, swimming and wrestling
Spring sports: baseball, golf, lacrosse, sailing, softball, tennis and track & field
Fine arts
The fine arts are an important part of the St. Mary's Ryken student body. Concert band, orchestra, jazz band, Shakespearean drama, drama, dance, chorus, photography, art appreciation, pre-architecture, pottery, sculpture, photography and studio art are the main fine art classes and clubs. Each has at least one concert, rehearsal or showcase during the school year with all disciplines participating in the annual Fine Arts Festival.At the 2010 Baltimore/Washington Fiesta-val Band and Orchestra Competition,the SMR Concert Band, Jazz Band and Orchestra all received first place with an excellent rating. In addition, St. Mary's Ryken received the Overall Champion Award, the Overall Grand Champion Award and the Director's Award of Distinction for Notable Contribution to Musical Excellence.
Spirituality
St. Mary's Ryken is a Catholic school, but it is open to students of all faiths. The school holds liturgies and MassMass
Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...
periodically in the gym, and all students are required to take four years of theology classes; however, students do have the option to take Global Bridges, a global awareness class, their junior year, and philosophy in their senior year.
Students frequently take part in mission programs. Their latest trip was to Camden, NJ, where the students helped out at the Romero Center. The students also made a trip to nearby Philadelphia, PA, to participate in some other service projects. At the end of the trip, students had dinner with some of the local members of the church that supports the Romero Center, the main hub of the Camden Mission Trip.
Uniform
Boys and girls wear oxford cloth shirts in the winter and polo shirts in the summer. The polo shirt colors are navy blue, white and forest green. Polos with a club or sport logo are also worn. Boys wear khaki dress pants in the winter and khaki shorts in the summer. Girls wear knee-length pleated kilts in khaki, but also have the option to wear pants and shorts. Freshman and sophomore boys wear green and blue SMR ties. The winter uniform includes a blazer for juniors and seniors and a sweater for underclassmen.The school colors are blue, green and white, and the official mascot is the knight.
General information
Full-time faculty : 55Full-time administrators : 4
Full-time staff : 24
Classes offered : 126
AP Classes offered : 16
Education
Students must complete 28 credits in different academic areas and complete 60 hours of community service by the time they graduate. They are required to take four social studies credits, four English, four religion (except in the case of transfer students), three math, three science, three of the same foreign language, one fine arts, one technology, one physical education, and four electives. Courses are taken at the college preparatory, honors or Advanced Placement level.The last hour of the day is called "X-hour" (Xaverian hour)and this is when students can participate in one of 55 clubs and/or a study hall.
During X-Hour, students can participate in Mass every Monday or Reconciliation every Tuesday, which is held by the school's Teen Life Catholic Ministry Program. A new Catholic program they are implementing is Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, which will take place every Friday during X-Hour.
Notable alumni
- John L. Bohanan, Jr.John L. Bohanan, Jr.John L. Bohanan, Jr. is an American politician who represents district 29B in the Maryland House of Delegates. Bohanan is chairman of the House Spending Affordability Committee.-Background:Born in St. Mary's County, Maryland, September 12, 1958...
- Delegate in the Maryland General AssemblyMaryland General AssemblyThe Maryland General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland. It is a bicameral body. The upper chamber, the Maryland State Senate, has 47 representatives and the lower chamber, the Maryland House of Delegates, has 141 representatives... - Alfred GoughAlfred GoughAlfred Gough III is an American screenwriter and producer.-Early life and career:Born in Leonardtown, Maryland, Gough graduated from St. Mary's Ryken High School and The Catholic University of America...
- Prominent film writer and producer - Dustin Harlowe, Entrepreneur, Actor, Model, Producer, currently residing in Beverly Hills, CA