Suzanna Ribblett

Mount de Sales Academy

Mount de Sales Academy, an independent Catholic school sponsored and inspired by the Sisters of Mercy, is a diverse college-preparatory community of learners—students and teachers alike—who are poised to discover, challenged to innovate, and motivated to serve. History Snapshot: February 28, 1876: Mount de Sales Academy was chartered as a junior college for women, a boarding school, with the right to confer degrees under the laws of the state of Georgia. The first graduates received their diplomas in 1882. By this time, the school had three divisions: primary, preparatory, and senior. In 1936 the grade school was discontinued, and the secondary school remained. At mid-century, the campus expanded with the addition of several buildings. MDS became co-ed in 1959. It was the first school to integrate in 1963; that same year, the boarding school closed. The Convent/boarding school building was razed in 1971. A new structure would not take its place until 1990. An impressive athletic complex in west Macon, a performing arts center, and a dedicated middle school building all followed. In 2017, MDS received a historical marker commemorating the Academy's heritage. Catherine McAuley, Sisters of Mercy foundress (Ireland 1831), equipped young women with the power of knowledge and instilled in them the values of Mercy. Some of today's most renowned institutions—colleges, high schools, and hospitals—were established by the Sisters of Mercy. No other secondary school in Middle Georgia can match the breadth and depth of Mount de Sales Academy's history in Macon and, more importantly, the greater story of the Sisters of Mercy. Its history spans post-Civil War Reconstruction, the invention of electricity, the arrival of the first automobiles, two World Wars, the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam, the dawn of space exploration, the assassination of President Kennedy, and 9/11. Mount de Sales Academy continues to be a force in education and a pillar in the community.