Our Story
Saint Martin de Porres Academy is a faith-based, NativityMiguel model middle school that provides a tuition-free, extended day education for underserved girls and boys from low-income families in the New Haven area. We are an independent Catholic school committed to a belief in the dignity and worth of every person. We strive to provide each child with a promising start in life and to equip them to fulfill their academic potential while achieving spiritual and social maturity. We welcome children of all faiths, races, and cultures.
Intentionally named after St. Martin, the first black saint and the patron saint of social justice, our mission is one of social justice: to break the cycle of generational poverty through education and opportunity. Our goal is to provide urban boys and girls the opportunity to choose a quality education that will allow them to live up to their full potential. At the Academy, we promote more than academic excellence - we cultivate personal responsibility, social skills, and leadership, balanced with a strong spiritual foundation and a recognition of the need to serve others.
We make a commitment to support each child academically, socially, emotionally and financially for twelve years through middle school, high school and college. We have an unwavering belief in each student and their ability to reach their greatest potential.
To help our kids achieve their potential, we work to level the playing field, providing experiences and opportunities they deserve but that are not generally available to them due to their socio-economic status, and helping them to gain access to, attend and successfully graduate from private college prep high schools and four-year colleges and universities so they have the ability to live lives of their choosing, free from poverty.
Our students celebrate a 99% high school graduation rate and a 100% college acceptance rate. 83% of our graduates go on to attend college prep high schools. Our grads rates of graduation outpace city, state and national averages. The education and opportunity your support provides makes those kinds of incredible outcomes possible!
The Lewis G. Schaeneman, Jr. Foundation, Inc. who believes deeply in the mission of SMPA, has offered a $13,824 dollar-for-dollar MATCH to gifts made to SMPA through the Great Give! Because of their generosity, your support during the Great Give will go even further in helping us to continue to help our students reach their highest potential.
With your support, our students will remain #UNSTOPPABLE!