Santa Sophia Academy has been an important part of our family for a very long time. I attended SSA…read morefrom Kindergarten through 8th grade, and years later my son did the same. Having experienced the school both as a student and as a parent, I can say that the education we received there went far beyond academics.
One of SSA's greatest strengths is its Catholic formation. It is integrated into the way students are taught to treat others, take responsibility, serve their community, and develop into good people. Those lessons stayed with me long after I left SSA, and I have seen the same values in my son.
We also experienced teachers who genuinely cared about their students and were willing to put in an incredible amount of time and effort to help them succeed. Mrs. Genna is probably the best example I can give. There was a period when my son was unable to attend school, and every day she emailed us his assignments, explained what he needed to do, answered questions, and provided guidance on her own personal time so that he would not fall behind. She did much more than I would have reasonably expected from any teacher.
What makes that even more meaningful is that her support did not end when my son left her classroom. She continued encouraging him for years afterward. I have no doubt that Mrs. Genna, along with many of the teachers he had at SSA, played a significant role in developing the confidence, discipline, independence, and academic foundation that helped him succeed in high school and attend Cornell University.
That is also why some of the negative comments I have read about the school, and particularly about Mrs. Genna, simply do not match our experience. We never saw her show favoritism or disregard students who struggled. We saw a teacher who invested an extraordinary amount of herself to her students. Teachers absolutely have a responsibility to teach, communicate, and support their students, but a child's education cannot rest on the school alone. Parents also need to stay involved, reinforce expectations at home, and take an active role in helping their child succeed.
I have also read suggestions that families may be treated differently because of ethnicity. As a Filipino family that has been part of the SSA community across two generations, that has never been our experience. SSA has always had families from many different backgrounds, and race was simply never an issue for us. I cannot speak for another family's personal experience, but I would be very hesitant to draw broader conclusions about the school or its staff based on race.
No school is perfect, and I am sure every family will have its own perspective. But after attending SSA myself and then trusting the school with my own child for nine years, I can say that Santa Sophia provided both of us with an excellent foundation. It helped us become stronger students, more confident people, and better prepared for what came next both inside and outside the classroom.
I will always be grateful to Santa Sophia Academy and especially to teachers like Mrs. Genna who cared for my son. That kind of commitment is difficult to measure, but years later you can absolutely see the impact.
