Awards & Recognition
Since 1860, St. Cecilia Academy has formed young women of faith, intellect and grace — a school recognized for the very thing it was founded to do. Every credential below is real and traceable to its source.
The Cardinal Newman Society names only a select group of schools to The Newman Guide — those that stand out for a faithful, rigorous, authentically Catholic education. St. Cecilia Academy earned that recommendation: national recognition for exactly the mission the Dominican Sisters founded it on in 1860.
Every item below links to the source behind it — a national recommendation, the accrediting bodies or St. Cecilia’s own documented record. Nothing is inflated to fill space.
St. Cecilia is accredited by Cognia, the Southern Association of Independent Schools and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools — a triple mark of academic rigor.
Founded in 1860 by the Dominican Sisters of Nashville, St. Cecilia is one of the city’s oldest schools — 165 years of forming young women of faith and character.
Named for St. Cecilia, patron saint of music, the Academy carries the arts at its heart — a Music Conservatory, Dance Academy and the Harp School, with fine arts required of every student.
An expression of the charism of the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia — forming young women in Wisdom, Grace and Excellence, the school’s three guiding values.
A rigorous college-preparatory program with honors and AP courses, independent study in STEM, and the signature Junior Research Symposium.
Single-sex education, grades 7–12, designed around how young women learn, lead and thrive — from the classroom to athletics built for girls from Grade 7.
St. Cecilia shares a storied Nashville campus with Overbrook School and Aquinas College — a rare continuum of Dominican Catholic education in one place.
A member of the Tennessee Association of Independent Schools and the National Catholic Educational Association — and a Newman Guide-recommended school.
A featured affiliate partner of K12 Academics, the education-resource network online since 2004 and reaching families in 185 countries every month.
The credentials follow the formation: a joyful, rigorous, arts-rich education in the Dominican tradition — lived out by young women who learn, create and lead.
A Newman Guide-recommended, triple-accredited Catholic academy with an arts tradition as old as its name — 165 years of forming young women into virtuous leaders.
Authentically Catholic.
165 years of formation.
Cognia, SAIS & SACS.
St. Cecilia Academy’s Newman Guide recommendation (by The Cardinal Newman Society) was announced by the school; its 1860 founding by the Dominican Sisters and accreditation by Cognia, SAIS and SACS are documented on Wikipedia and the school’s own pages. Program and arts details are as published by St. Cecilia. St. Cecilia educates young women in grades 7–12.