Mission & History

Service to Others

At Maria College, our mission is simple: to serve others. In the classroom and outside it, in our hallways and throughout the community, Maria students experience the difference of an education that is not only about acquiring knowledge but about giving of oneself.

The Maria Mission

Maria College of Albany is a private college that offers a Bachelors Degree in Nursing and Associate Degrees in Accounting, Early Childhood Education, Education Transfer,  General Studies, Liberal Arts (concentrations in English, Psychology and Religious Studies/Philosophy), Management, Nursing, Occupational Therapy Assistant, and Paralegal. Its curriculum is grounded in the humanities, seeking to instill in its graduates respect for the dignity of each person and the ability to transform learned skills into caring service. The ideal of “service to others” is rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition and the ideals of the Sisters of Mercy, who founded and sponsor the College. The intent of the College is to deliver these programs with high academic standards, convenient scheduling formats for students of any age who will benefit from small classes and a warm, encouraging environment.

Maria Today

Maria has enjoyed more than five decades of growth, due in large part to the success of its graduates, but underlying this success is the delicate balance the College has maintained between its commitment to the liberal arts and the highly contemporary, career-oriented degrees it offers. This balance breathes life into an educational philosophy that seeks to instill in its graduates respect for the dignity of the individual, as well as the ability to transform learned skills into vehicles of service.

The College, a nonprofit, independent, coeducational institution, serves nearly 1,000 students from across the Capital Region each year, and offers a variety of certificate and degree programs. Students can currently pursue the following degrees: Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing (RN-BS for registered nurses), Associate in Applied Science (Accounting, Early Childhood Education, Management, Nursing and Occupational Therapy Assistant), Associate in Arts (Liberal Arts), and Associate in Science (General Studies and Paralegal). Because a Maria education has from its founding been grounded in the liberal arts, Maria degrees qualify for transfer to four-year institutions—a cost-effective benefit that increasing numbers of its graduates elect. The wide range of degree programs is both a gateway to a professional career and preparation for further education. Certificate programs, which are especially attractive to students already in the workforce who wish to advance their careers, are available in the following: Bereavement Studies, Gerontology, Paralegal, Practical Nurse (LPN) and Teaching Assistant.

Maria’s commitment to the needs of the individual student is nowhere more evident than in its guidance and counseling programs: academic guidance through a faculty advisor assigned each student; personal counseling through the Counseling Center; spiritual counseling through the Campus Minister; and career guidance through the College’s Career Planning and Placement Office, a service that is available to alumnae/i as well. A student/faculty ratio of 14:1 ensures personal attention and meaningful interaction with staff.

  1. Our History

    In 1958, Maria was founded as a Sister Formation and liberal arts college, mainly to educate the Sisters of Mercy, and had a student body of 52. The vision soon broadened with the College’s first degree program that was open to the community: Early Childhood Education. All certificate and degree programs were opened to coeducational enrollment in 1971, and today, male students account for more than 20% of Maria’s student body.

    The Campus School —a teaching laboratory for students enrolled in the Early Childhood Education degree program—was established in 1967. It is an independent, not-for-profit preschool open to the community.

    To demonstrate its conviction that the opportunity to learn should be available to all serious students, regardless of their personal situations, Maria established innovative flexible scheduling formats. These formats serve those who want to learn—from recent high school graduates and those seeking to advance or change careers, to older students returning to school from the home—and whose personal schedules have excluded them from further education. In 1971, the college established an active Evening Division, which offers degrees in a three-year sequence. In 1981, Maria announced the first Weekend College in northeastern New York, with classes every other weekend. The Weekend College, which makes it possible to earn an associate’s degree in a two-year time frame, best serves the needs of the mature student who must coordinate family and career responsibilities with educational opportunity. Additionally, in 2007, online education became a reality at Maria, with a variety of online courses being offered each semester.

    The Learning Resource Center was created in 1982 and has become a major support service for students in all divisions. Its goal is twofold: to provide tutorials for development/remediation in math computation and concepts, study skills, and language arts, and to provide the general student body with supplemental learning materials.

  2. Our Campus

    The College’s intimate campus helps create an academic atmosphere that embraces both the timeless and the contemporary: timeless, because of the commitment to humanities-based learning, and contemporary, because of the modern environment in which these classic convictions of the human spirit are nurtured.

    Maria’s Main Building was constructed in 1959, and today houses classrooms, computer and information processing laboratories, multimedia and learning resource centers, administrative and faculty offices, and a working library with more than 59,000 volumes and Internet access.

    The cloistered convent of a Dominican order was purchased from the Catholic Diocese of Albany in 1970 to house Maria’s health care programs, and in 1984, was transformed into a state-of-the-art allied health facility. The convent—renamed Marian Hall—had been renovated to preserve architectural integrity and in 1986, was designated an historic building by the Historic Albany Foundation.

  3. Our Logo

    Maria’s logo is a double M, in which the M above (representing the college) and the M below (representing its founders, the Sisters of Mercy) complement each other in the mission of educating for service. The triangles in the logo, reflections of its founding faith, are emblems of strength. The diamond at the center gives hope to all futures, a symbolic doorway through which Maria’s daughters and sons may pass as sharers of its mission. The dedication of the logo occurred on December 9, 1984.

  4. Our Values

    Compassion

    We…

    • respond to suffering with sensitivity and loving care.
    • learn to observe with the eyes and ears of the heart.
    • reach out to others in need.
    • are kind and considerate.
    • seek to forgive rather than harbor grudges.
    • are not judgmental.

    Service

    We…

    • seek to translate learned skills into competent and caring service.
    • cultivate awareness and sensitivity to persons in need, particularly the poor and disenfranchised.
    • use our personal and professional gifts for life enhancement.
    • deepen and assimilate more conscious practices of peace, justice and nonviolence.

    Scholarship

    We…

    • strive for academic excellence.
    • nurture a reverence for learning.
    • maintain high standards of scholarship and academic integrity.
    • develop intellectual curiosity and the practice of critical thinking.
    • recognize education as an ongoing process.

    Community

    We…

    • advocate the fostering of meaningful relationships.
    • stand in solidarity with others, both in suffering and in celebration.
    • are hospitable to all persons, lifestyles and ideas.
    • seek out possibilities of creative connections.
    • create opportunities for communication and communion.
    • manifest values of complementarity, collaboration and interdependence.
    • develop a global perspective.

    Integrity

    We…

    • seek to develop congruence in word and deed.
    • take responsibility for our own choices.
    • are mindful of the connectedness of body, mind, soul and spirit.
    • strive for honesty in all spheres of life and work.
    • are uncompromising with our word.

    Respect

    We…

    • reverence the dignity of all persons and the beauty of creation.
    • practice reverence.
    • maintain a spirit of openness to persons, ideas, and new ways of thinking and being.
    • increase our awareness of the sacredness of the earth and work more effectively toward the sustainability of life and the dignity of all persons.