Sacred Heart Academy is a young women's college preparatory,

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

Hamden, Connecticut Hamden is a New England town, town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. The town's nickname is "The Land of the Sleeping Giant (Connecticut), Sleeping Giant". The town is part of the South Central Connecticut Planning Region, Connecti ...

, and part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford. It is run by the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, an order of religious sisters founded in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

by Mother Clelia Merloni. The school is located atop Mt. Sacred Heart, which is the U.S. Provincialate of the sisters. Their team mascot is the Shark. Their brother school is Notre Dame High School

West Haven, Connecticut West Haven is a city in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, located on the coast of Long Island Sound. The city is part of the South Central Connecticut Planning Region, Connecticut, South Central Connecticut Planning Region. At the 2 ...

, and their sister school is Cor Jesu Academy in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

History

Sacred Heart Academy was founded on September 9, 1946, by Sr. M. Antonine Signorelli of the Missionary Zelatrices of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, who later became the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Initially located in

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is List ...

, the school was established to provide a Catholic college preparatory education to local young women. The first class contained 17 students, but enrollment numbers rapidly grew. To accommodate increasing popularity, the school was expanded in 1948 with the building of Clelian Hall and in 1957, the school relocated to its current location on Benham Street in

. The school has continued to expand throughout the years, adding classrooms, computer labs, and recreational facilities as needed. Currently, the school sits on the same campus on Benham Street in Hamden and has a student body of about 500 girls, representing 55 different schools from 36 towns across

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

Activities at Sacred Heart

Athletics

Sacred Heart Academy competes as a member of the Southern Connecticut Conference (SCC). Each season, students can choose from a variety of sports teams, including

field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

cross country running Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and soil, earth, pass through woodlands and ope ...

, and

cheerleading Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense Physical exercise, physical activity. It can be performed to motivate s ...

in the fall,

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

and indoor track in the winter, and

lacrosse Lacrosse is a contact team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game w ...

softball Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) ...

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

, and

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

in the spring. All students, regardless of athletic involvement, have access to a gymnasium, fitness center, Olympic-size outdoor track, softball field, and two playing fields.

Fine arts

Students interested in drama, music, or art may be involved in a variety of activities to showcase their talents. Each fall, students audition for a musical production which takes place in November. Recent shows have included Annie (2013), White Christmas (2012), The Wiz (2011), Hairspray (2010), Fiddler on the Roof (2009), Les Misérables (2008), Beauty and the Beast (2007), Annie (2006), Sound of Music (2005), Anything Goes (2004), Guys and Dolls (2003), and West Side Story (2002). Shows performed in 2013 and 2012 took place at the Shubert Theatre in

. Students may also join the Drama Club, which puts on a performance each spring. A variety of music groups meet after school each week. The student orchestra includes a wide variety of string, brass, and woodwind instruments. Members of the orchestra receive course credit. There are also two choirs on campus. The concert choir is open to all students, while the smaller chamber choir requires auditions. Students involved in both the choirs and the orchestra put on several concerts each year. This smaller group traveled to Paris in April 2012, where they performed at Notre Dame Cathedral and Chartres Cathedral. An Art Club meets occasionally after school, and a student art show takes place at least once every year, showcasing the artwork of students in various elective classes.

Science at Sacred Heart

Sacred Heart Academy has received a great deal of media attention for the scientific accomplishments of its students. Each year since 1998, students enrolled in biotechnology classes have worked on advanced research projects and have presented their findings at a national conference. Early projects caught the attention of

Applied Biosystems Applied Biosystems is one of various brands under the Life Technologies brand of Thermo Fisher Scientific corporation. The brand is focused on integrated systems for genetic analysis, which include computerized machines and the consumables used ...

, which led to their donation of an automated DNA sequencer (an ABI Prism 310 Genetic Analyzer) to the school, making Sacred Heart the first high school in the country to have such technology. SHA Science in the News
/ref>
/ref> In 2005, using funding from a three-year grant from the Vernal W. and Florence H. Bates Foundation, a group of students identified genes implicated in

osteoporosis Osteoporosis is a systemic skeletal disorder characterized by low bone mass, micro-architectural deterioration of bone tissue leading to more porous bone, and consequent increase in Bone fracture, fracture risk. It is the most common reason f ...

and sequenced the calcitonin and collagen 1 alpha1 receptor genes in

Bos taurus Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are called ...

. Their findings were presented at a conference in

Hilton Head Island, South Carolina Hilton Head Island, often referred to as simply Hilton Head, is a South Carolina Lowcountry, Lowcountry resort town and barrier island in Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States. It is northeast of Savannah, Georgia (as the crow flies), a ...

, and their sequences were published in

GenBank The GenBank sequence database is an open access, annotated collection of all publicly available nucleotide sequences and their protein translations. It is produced and maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI; a par ...

. Following their successes, another group of students continued their project, submitting additional sequences for the calcitonin and vitamin D receptors in Bos taurus and presenting their findings at the Annual Conference sponsored by

American Society of Human Genetics The American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG), founded in 1948, is a professional membership organization for specialists in human genetics. As of 2009, the organization had approximately 8,000 members. The society's members include researchers, ...

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

. SHAppenings
/ref> Additional groups of students have presented in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

These accomplishments helped make Sacred Heart the recipient of a grant from the John G. Martin Foundation of Farmington for a molecular science research laboratory.

References

External links

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Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford
{{authority control Buildings and structures in Hamden, Connecticut Schools in New Haven County, Connecticut Girls' schools in Connecticut Catholic secondary schools in Connecticut Educational institutions established in 1946 1946 establishments in Connecticut