‘What It Means to Lead with Loretto’: A letter from Iswari Natarajan, President of St. Mary’s Academy

The Loretto Community is proud of our legacy and continuing mission of Catholic education. So it is with pleasure that we share this letter from Iswari Natarajan, the President and Head of School at St. Mary’s Academy in Englewood, CO. Her words shine a light on Loretto values and vision, while sharing a bit of Loretto history as well. Let Loretto (and its schools) be Loretto forever!

In the business world, value statements for companies became widespread in the 1980s and 1990s. For the Sisters of Loretto, the seeds were planted more than a century and a half earlier, in 1812, with a sense of belonging established for their first and all future schools: “No denomination is refused.” Reshaped at the opening of St. Mary’s of Academy in 1864, a publication read: “Children of every denomination will be admitted.” Our Academy, which predated statehood, a railroad depot, and the telephone, had already established itself as a place of belonging and a source of “elementary” and “the higher branches of a finished education” for all girls.

It is with this moral integrity and trailblazing vision that the Sisters of Loretto weathered the challenges of lifting a school, with student boarders, in a matter of weeks upon their arrival from Santa Fe to the mining town recently flooded by the Cherry Creek. One of my favorite passages from the earliest journal of Sister Joanna Walsh reveals: “Now, all this seemed enough to puzzle the head of an engineer. But no engineer being at hand, we made use of our own heads, and indeed, not only our heads, but our hearts and souls, to solve the problem.“ This spirit of invention, guided by faith and compelled by a responsibility to the community, remains at the core of St. Mary’s Academy. 

Now in the year 2025, I actually do lead St. Mary’s Academy in the possession of a degree in engineering — and a formidable foundation from the Sisters of Loretto via our Loretto School Values:

• Faith – Experiencing the enduring love of God, we build hope, foster community, and act in service.
• Community – We strive to build interdependent relationships, which are affirming, inclusive, empowering, and compassionate.
• Justice – We promote change in systems and in relationships that are oppressive. We work to create systems in which people, especially women, are treated fairly and impartially.
• Respect – We are open to differences and believe in the potential of each person. We promote the dignity of each person and protect the sacredness of all creation.

We have lived these values through empowerment of every student who passes through our doors, coupled with astute awareness of the world outside our doors. It was at St. Mary’s Academy that the earliest students took courses in ethics and sociology, applying the principles to real cases involving Denver families. Where they prepared for speech, debate, and essay-writing competitions, formed press clubs, and learned foreign languages. It was where they purchased the first typewriter in 1889, offered a programming course in 1964, and the first robotics elective in 2011. It was where the Sisters of Loretto were more than ten steps ahead in addressing the specific needs of young adolescents with a middle school program in 1973 that fostered individualized, hands-on learning and collaboration. It remains a place of grace, where service is a core part of learning, modeled first in the mutually respectful relationships of all members of our community.  

The Sisters of Loretto were forever forward-thinking and strategic in their decisions on behalf of our students. Loretto School Values will continue to shape every decision we make on campus, large or small. The values especially inform the first of our four pathways: Forge Program Excellence – As forward-thinking educators, we strengthen our programs with innovative, evidence-based practices rooted in our Loretto School Values. 

I am inspired to draw on the heart and soul of our founders that allowed for continual progress and success in my role engineering our future, with humility, purpose, and devotion.