Stella Maris Academy: Forming Saints and Scholars

Описание: Guided by the Blessed Virgin Mary, Seat of Wisdom and Star of the Sea, the mission of Stella Maris Academy is to collaborate with parents in forming students for life on earth as a journey to heaven. By cultivating the love of Wisdom and the capacity to seek truth, goodness, and beauty in all things, the Academy teaches young people to exercise their freedom wisely through a rigorous and integrated Catholic liberal education.

The purpose of Catholic liberal education is to provide a full intellectual, moral and spiritual development so that students can appreciate truth, beauty, and goodness. A classical education understands all knowledge as integrated through the Logos, Jesus Christ, through whom one grasps the rational order of creation. While classical education embraces all of the liberal arts and sciences, it understands theology as an integrating principle and faith as animating our love of learning. While classical education differs from the more “pragmatic” approaches, which focus on college and career readiness, it is no less practical.

By focusing upon the development of the memory and imagination, multiple
languages, mathematical intelligence, logical and rhetorical ability, and art and music, students learn to form and ask fundamental questions, read thoughtfully, write eloquently, and articulate clearly. Through a virtues-based curriculum, classically formed students learn to seek the greater good with resiliency, acting with balanced justice and working cooperatively with others.

Located near the beautiful Presidio of San Francisco, Stella Maris Academy is a Catholic classical school that serves students from preschool through eighth grade. It is the first classical Catholic school in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, established in 2021 at the request of Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone.

Located at Star of the Sea Parish, the campus has a long history of Catholic education in the city, providing K-8 education for over 115 years. Stella Maris Academy aims to integrate classical education principles centered on truth, beauty, and goodness within a Catholic framework. This approach is designed to nurture students both academically and spiritually, promoting rigorous critical thinking alongside moral and spiritual formation.

The school offers a robust curriculum that emphasizes liberal arts education,
with subjects such as literature, history, mathematics, and the arts interwoven with Catholic teachings. Stella Maris encourages students to develop a deep understanding of the world through a faith-based lens, aiming to form well-rounded individuals who are both intellectually and morally equipped for life.

The classical education model has shown promising results, with students
achieving high performance on standardized tests while engaging deeply with Catholic traditions.

Stella Maris Academy, opened at the request of Archbishop Cordileone, is known for fostering a strong sense of community among students, families, and staff, making it more than just an educational institution. It is a place where families and faculty work together to support the holistic development of children, grounded in the values of the Catholic faith. An accomplished and involved advisory school board includes senior executives and software engineers at Meta and Google as well as experienced lawyers and educators.

This model of education has been praised for its potential to reinvigorate Catholic education in the region, with hopes for future expansion of classical academies in the Archdiocese. The success of Stella Maris Academy motivated a group of parents to establish a classical Catholic high school (Nativity High School) on the school campus, which began with a ninth grade in 2024 and plans to add a higher grade each year.
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This video debuted at the 2026 Stella Maris Academy Gala, and was directed/created by Gino Caputi of Bel Air Films.