West Bloomfield Trail, West Bloomfield, Orchard Lake, MI
Orchard Lake St. Mary's Preparatory
Orchard Lake St. Mary's Preparatory, an excellent all-boys college preparatory Catholic high school. St. Mary's was founded in 1885 on Detroit's East Side by Rev. Joseph Dabrowski as a school for Polish-American boys to train for the priesthood. The school moved to the 125 acre campus of the former Michigan Military Academy on the shores of Orchard Lake in 1909 and is still there today. The campus is shared with SS. Cyril and Methodius Seminary and used to also have a college - St. Mary's closed unit it closed several years ago. Today, the campus contains some offices and classrooms for Madonna University of Livonia. The Felician Sisters from Livonia have served the Orchard Lake Schools since 1935. The Polish roots of St. Mary's are still evident in the school's colors (red and white) and mascot (the Eaglet), both elements drawn from the flag of Poland. On the day I took these pictures I had a conversation with one of the sisters who was watering the flowers. She was a very nice person and had a thick polish accent. Students at the high school are required to take two years of foreign language one of which is Latin, three years of mathematics, to name a few.
100 percent of St. Mary's graduates who apply to college are accepted. Recent St. Mary's graduates have been accepted to such schools as Babson College, Bentley College, Boston College, Boston University, Brown University, Catholic University of America, Clark University, College of the Holy Cross, Cornell University, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, Georgetown University, Harvard University, Mass. College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Sciences, Merrimack College, New York University, Northeastern University, Notre Dame University, Penn State University, Providence College, Stonehill College, St. Anselm College, St. Michael's College, Suffolk University, University of Chicago, University of Massachusetts, University of Pennsylvania, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Yale University.
St. Mary's high school has a rich and successful history in athletics with a consistently top-ranked football team. The rowing team is also popular. Current, 61% of all students participate in athletics and 91% of the National Honor Society are student athletes. The over 10,000 alumni have graduated from St. Mary's in its 129 year history come from 46 states, 7 countries and 5 continents.
These are the on campus dorms. The Boarding Program at St. Mary's is available to all students. There are seven-day and five-day boarding students, depending on the individual situation. Students enrolled in the program receive room and board, which includes three daily meals, a room, laundry facilities, and close proximity to all the school's recreational and academic facilities.
