St. Mary's Ryken High School - Leonardtown

Why should you support St. Mary's Ryken on Giving Tuesday?

For nearly 140 years, St. Mary's Ryken has provided an exceptional education rooted in Catholic faith for boys and girls. It's goal is to make the experience affordable for all students who wish to attend. Our school’s rich history of Catholic education dates back to 1889 when the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth opened St. Mary’s Academy for girls. In 1981, it merged with the Xaverian Brothers’ Ryken High School, an all-boys school founded in 1956. With that, St. Mary’s Ryken was born.

Each year, the school works hard to bridge the gap between the price of tuition and what it costs to educate each student to keep tuition costs down. This year, more than $3 million will cover a gap of $5,000 per student. 

In addition, nearly 80% of our student body receives some form of financial aid or scholarships which exceed $2.5 million.

These figures amount to nearly one-third of the school’s operating budget while program and project funding, as well as capital expenditures are often deprioritized.

Donations from the community are instrumental in providing an opportunity to every student who wants to attend St. Mary’s Ryken High School - the only catholic high school of its kind in the Southern Maryland community.

This #GivingTuesday, we ask you to help us to help so many promising students in our community who wish for a Catholic education by supporting the “Giving Catholic” on #GivingTuesday.

This platform also allows you to champion the cause within your community by sharing the need with others who appreciate how important a Catholic education is for so many students.

Beyond it’s strong faith component, St. Mary’s Ryken stands out in so many ways:

Academically as one of just a few schools in the U.S. and Canada to earn the College Board’s highest platinum recognition for outstanding faculty and student performance in the Advanced Placement (AP) Honor Roll.

Athletically competing and earning championship titles in football, softball, tennis, wrestling, and more, the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference is among the most competitive in the United States.

Earning a Platinum Transparency Seal from Candid/Guidestar shows that we are working hard to ensure funders have the most up-to-date information as a nonprofit organization.

We hope you will join us on #GivingTuesday to “Give Catholic” and support our goal of making this exceptional opportunity available to all students.

To learn more about St. Mary’s Ryken High School OR to make a gift directly through our secure website, visit www.smrhs.org.