Since the junior class of 2011  has been at STA, 16 of their classmates have transferred to other schools. When did they leave, why did they leave and where do they all go now?

Hope Austin

• Left after freshman year
• Now goes to Archbishop O’Hara High School
• “There’s a lot of reasons I couldn’t go back to STA, but the main reason was money…Tuition at O’Hara is way cheaper than at STA, which is good because my brother and I can attend the same school without it taking a huge toll on our family financially.”

Anne Bachofer

• Left after sophomore year
• Now goes to Olathe East High School
• “I’ve lived in Olathe, so [East is] a lot closer [than STA] and I also left for financial reasons mainly. I wish I didn’t have to leave [STA], but money was an issue so there’s nothing really I could do.”

Jordan Brown

• Left after sophomore year
• Now goes to Shawnee Mission East High School
• “I didn’t really have any specific reason for transferring [out of STA], other than the fact that I just wanted a change…[SME] and STA are so different from each other, and of course there are pros and cons that surround each school, so I figured that two years at each [school] would be beneficial.”

Amy Cosgrove

• Left after sophomore year
• Now goes to Shawnee Mission East High School
• “I transferred for the music and theatre program, but also for more opportunities academically.  At STA, I wasn’t able to take the AP and honors classes, but at East I have a choice of what I want to be challenged in…Also the choir and theatre programs are really strong at East.”

Jennie Heule

• Left after first semester sophomore year
• Now goes to Lee’s Summit West High School
• “I mostly left because I wasn’t happy [at STA]…I just didn’t really like the atmosphere of it. And it seemed like everyone else thought it was like a great place to be, but it just didn’t feel that way to me.”

STA, St. Pius and back again

Junior Melody Finn not only left STA , but also transferred back in. Finn left STA after her freshman year for reasons pertaining to STA’s math program.  She went to St. Pius where she took Geometry and Algebra her sophomore year.

“I had to take [those classes] to stay up with every other sophomore,” Finn said. “I was so unhappy to leave STA. It was like a home to me.”

Finn said she was unhappy at Pius and her mom gave her the option to come back to STA in March of her sophomore year.

“I made new friends [at Pius], but I knew that STA was where I belonged,” Finn said. “I wouldn’t want to go anywhere else.”

Hannah Lewis

• Left after first semester freshman year
• Now goes to Pembroke Hill High School
• “I left [STA] because I was new to Kansas City and I was having trouble making new friends. My older brother went to Pembroke so I transferred so I could be close to him.”

Lindsay Macartney

• Left after first semester junior year
• Now goes to Blue Valley Northwest High School
• “I transferred because I felt out of place [at STA]. [STA] is a great school, but it just wasn’t for me. I came from a public middle school and didn’t know anyone freshman year. I had a really difficult time making friends because a lot of girls came in groups depending on the middle school they came from…Most people gave me the impression that I didn’t belong in their ‘group’ and I shouldn’t be talking to them…Sophomore year, I was very unhappy but I thought I needed to give it more time and make more of an effort to get to know people. I gave it a year and things had not changed. I was worried that I would look back on my high school experience and think that they weren’t great years during my life…I knew that I couldn’t keep doing this to myself…I was kind of like a piece to the wrong puzzle. You can’t force it to fit if it doesn’t…”

Liz Powell

• Left after first semester sophomore year
• Now goes to Bishop Miege High School
• “I left STA because it just wasn’t a good fit for me.  My mom’s family went to Miege and I had more ties to Miege than STA.”

Kiersten Schorgl

• Left after first semester sophomore year
• Now goes to a boarding school
• “I left [STA] because I was struggling with ADHD and sleep related issues after a bout of mono. Although I loved STA, it wasn’t a place that was able to accommodate my needs at the time.”

Alexis Snyder

• Left after sophomore year
• Now goes to Paseo Academy of Performing Arts
• “I transferred schools because my mom lost her job and it was just getting too hard for us to pay to go to school [at STA].”

Molly Troutman

• Left after freshman year
• Now goes to Shawnee Mission East High School
• “I left because I love love love art and SME had jewelry classes, sewing 1-4, watercolor and a ton of other options. I have been hoping to go into an art related career…I loved having the opportunity to go to STA but when I found my dream I really wanted to see if I could do it.”

Claire Wahrer

• Left after sophomore year
• Now goes to Shawnee Mission East High School
• “I left [STA] primarily because I was unable to keep up academically.”

Grace Whitley

• Left after first semester sophomore year
• Now goes to Bishop Miege High School
• “I left [STA] to get more ethnic and economic diversity, also I liked the idea of an actual high school experience and atmosphere (i.e. football games, co-ed, etc.).”

Emily Wilson

• Left after sophomore year
• Now goes to St. Thomas Aquinas High School
• “…I didn’t feel the sense of Catholicism [at STA] that I was expecting. Yes there was mass on special occasions and theology classes, but I didn’t feel like school itself was centered around God…Another reason I left was the single-sex environment. There was so much pointless drama in the all girls environment that I just couldn’t stand. I also didn’t like the modular schedule. I had way too much free time my sophomore year that I could have spent learning something. I felt like I was wasting my parents money when I would be at school but not actually in a class. Plus, I felt that the 40 minute classes were way too short. The short classes were not conducive to discussions and they made it hard to really get a handle of difficult concepts…”

Hannah Longstreet

• Now goes to St. Mary’s High School

Amanda Morrow

• Now goes to Lee’s Summit West High School