Our Lady’s Catholic Academy (OLCA) is entering its sixth year this September, and is now providing over 700 students in South Ozone Park with a high-quality education. OLCA has two locations which serve students from nursery (3-year-olds) all the way up to eighth grade.
A big part of its success is the individual attention that each child receives and the strong partnerships built with parents and families. OLCA sees each child as a unique creation of God and holds sacred the trust that parents place in its faculty and staff when they bring their child to the school.
Under the leadership of its board of directors, chaired by Katherine Loughran, and its strong partnership with the parish of St. Teresa-St. Anthony and its pastor, Father Richard Conlon, OLCA continues to strengthen in numbers in the 21st century and has become a cornerstone of faith and learning in the South Ozone Park community.
The school motto at Our Lady’s Catholic Academy is “From many, we are one,” and as such, the school makes every effort to create an inclusive environment for its students and families. In addition to many different languages and religions, OLCA also has 68 different countries of origin represented in its student body. In addition to taking a multicultural approach to the curriculum, students and staff champion Catholic values of social justice and equality. This year, the students organized a special hoodie dress down day which raised over $1,000 for the Trayvon Martin Foundation, and they also raised over $400 for the N.Y.C. Rescue Mission, collected at the height of the winter freeze this January.
OLCA also continues to expand its resources for all students, with over a dozen support staff providing speech, counseling, physical therapy and other services. The academy is also widely known for its non-violence policy, which has created a safe and loving environment where students can learn without the fear of bullying or exclusion.
This year, the school is making a bold step toward technology integration, with every student receiving a Galaxy Tablet for use in all subject areas. OLCA is also expanding on its successful fine arts program, adding third-grade violin lessons to its existing ballroom dancing (grades four, five and eight) and sixth-grade musical playwriting classes.
Registration is ongoing, and there are a limited number of seats available to new students entering in September, 2014.
For more information on Our Lady’s Catholic Academy, visit www.olcacademy.net.
