Since 1927 Mount Alvernia High School has encouraged young women of vision and action. The school is founded on the Judeo-Christian beliefs that there is a God and that life has a purpose, most notably to choose the "good." It is committed to instilling the spiritual and intellectual values that will enable students to discern that good and to make appropriate choices.

As a Catholic community in the Franciscan tradition of service to others, Mount Alvernia's members believe that they are part of one people and one world. This sense of communal belonging and the responsibility inherent in it is among its strongest traditions and is reinforced by an effective community service program which enables each student to experience the universal truth that we need people in our lives who care for us and about whom we care.

Mount Alvernia is a place where students explore the connections in all learning and see that the ideas of the biology lab can be reflected in literature, that mathematics and history do overlap, and that theology and physics share themes such as the search for the ultimate origin of all things. The curriculum is founded on the premise that all subjects are roads to knowledge and that realization of this is essential in shaping students' academic and professional goals.

At each grade level the curriculum is designed and implemented not only to impart the knowledge needed for higher study, but also to form habits of concentration, reflection, and critical thinking. The course of study helps students explore what it will mean to be a woman of the twenty-first century. It helps them separate old stereotypes from new possibilities so that they can bring a woman's way of knowing into the classroom, the office, the home, the laboratory, the hospital, the boardroom, the courtroom, the legislature and work to transform society into a partnership in which both women and men are valued.

1. To provide for the spiritual, intellectual, and technological needs of the students
2. To instill in the students an awareness of their relationship with the Creator, the world, and its inhabitants
3. To offer a strong core curriculum based on traditional disciplines which fosters an interdisciplinary approach to learning
4. To encourage courageous, compassionate, articulate women who believe that life has a purpose, who are able to discern the "good," and who will be an effective force for it in the world