Company Profile
Academy of the Holy Angels
Company Overview
Founded by the School Sisters of Notre Dame in 1879, the Academy of the Holy Angels is the oldest private girls’ school in Bergen County. While AHA is steeped in Catholic tradition, this prestigious high school serves young women from a broad spectrum of cultural and religious backgrounds. Over time, thousands of women have passed through AHA’s portals. Many go on to study at some of the nation’s best universities, earning high-ranking positions in medicine, government, law, education, public service, business, arts, and athletics. The Academy’s current leaders continue to further the SSND mission to provide each student with the tools she needs to reach the fullness of her potential—spiritually, intellectually, socially, and physically, by offering a first-rate education in a nurturing environment where equal importance is placed on academic excellence, character development, moral integrity, and service to others.
Company History
The Academy of the Holy Angels, the oldest private school in Bergen County, was founded in 1879 in Fort Lee, NJ by Sister Mary Nonna Dunphy, a School Sister of Notre Dame, as a boarding and day school for girls that educated students from Kindergarten to 12th Grade. What began in a simple frame house in Fort Lee has grown into a premier college-preparatory school. Originally known as Holy Angels' Collegiate Institute for Young Ladies and Preparatory School for Little Girls, the Institute attracted students from all over the world who came to study language, the arts and Christian Doctrine. The school’s enrollment increased steadily and the facilities were expanded accordingly. The cross-surmounted dome of the Academy, erected in 1910, remained a landmark in Fort Lee until the Academy moved to a new facility in Demarest in 1965.
Although the Academy's campus relocated, their vision, interest in a global curriculum and focus on the empowerment of young women in grades 9 through 12 remains steadfast. For more than 135 years, the Academy has been part of a global network of SSND schools in the United States. The Academy’s vision, global curriculum and empowerment of young women have grown even stronger and is guided by the charism and educational philosophy of the School Sisters of Notre Dame.