School Earns Three Blue Ribbons Under Larkin’s Leadership

The U.S. Department of Education only recognizes approximately 350 schools with National Blue Ribbon Awards each year.

Under Head of School Mary Larkin’s leadership, St. Ignatius of Loyola School (SILS) has cinched three, earning national recognition for excellence in education in 2011, 2018, and most recently in 2024.

Larkin has led the storied Jesuit institution—which serves children from pre-K through middle school—since 2008.

The educator attended Catholic school herself as a child. Larkin grew up in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, attending grammar school at nearby St. Anselm’s School and high school at the all-girls St. Saviour in Park Slope. College at Fordham University in the Bronx followed, as did an undergraduate degree in psychology.

Though she knew she wanted to teach, Larkin first entered the corporate world instead, working on the marketing side of the mutual-funds industry.

After an unexpected layoff—“which was a good thing,” Larkin noted, “because it gave me the opportunity to pursue my dream of teaching”—she returned to Fordham and got her Masters in Reading and Literacy Education, an accomplishment that, ironically, took her back to where she started—literally blocks from where she grew up, teaching middle schoolers at the Dimitrios & Georgia Kaloidis Parochial School.

While this was an important first step in her new career, Larkin knew there was a world beyond Bay Ridge and, being familiar with St. Ignatius of Loyola (her sister had been married in the church), in 2001, she “cold called” her résumé there—and they gave her the job. She was in charge of a 7th-grade homeroom and taught English and Language Arts to 7th- and 8th-graders.

In 2006, an assistant principal position became available and Larkin thought, “Hmmm, let me throw my hat in the ring, nothing ventured, nothing gained.” She got the job.

Six months later, though, uncertainty struck. The school’s principal was retiring. “I was like, oh my gosh,” Larkin recalled, “this could be good or bad. A new person comes in, you could lose your job . . .”

With the hope that wouldn’t happen, Larkin applied for the principal position herself—and got it, starting that role in 2008. With another Master’s degree from Fordham—this one in Administration—under her belt, Larkin has successfully led the school, whose mascot is the Lions, from challenge to challenge with competence, compassion, and an unflagging enthusiasm.

Had she been scared to take on that new role? “I never thought about it, you know what I mean?” Larkin said. “Because if you think about it, you scare yourself.”

For these accomplishments, Larkin’s title was revised in 2021 to Head of School, both as an honorific and to reflect that SILS now included a second East 84th Street campus for lower-grade students that had previously been a separate parish school.

Though personally modest, Larkin takes great pride in the fact that SILS was able to keep lower-grade classrooms open five days a week during most of COVID (“We knew what our parents needed and wanted”) and, of course, takes pride in those three National Blue Ribbon Awards and an OTTY award too.

“This award is for everyone, not just me,” Larkin said.

As for her motivation, she said it comes from “How much I love what I do, the children in this building, the administrative team, this faculty, and the parents. This is an amazing community.”