“My whole life is Mercy,” Bunting said in a June 9 release from the all-girls college preparatory school in Baltimore.
The funds will help Mercy High School begin implementation of the International Baccalaureate program as well as strengthen faculty and staff compensation.
Mary Beth Lennon, president of the school, called the gift “transformational.”
“Next academic year we will begin introducing the International Baccalaureate program, a highly respected program of international education that develops the intellectual, personal, emotional and social skills needed to live, learn and work in a rapidly globalizing world, to our 9th and 10th grade students,” Lennon said in the release.
She explained that Mercy High School recently became a candidate for the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme and is pursuing authorization as an International Baccalaureate School.
“These are schools that share a common philosophy,” Lennon said, “a commitment to high quality, challenging, international education that Mercy High School believes is important for its students.”
“Ms. Bunting’s support of our efforts helps us pursue our core values of educational excellence, global vision and responsibility, compassion and service, concern for women, and spiritual growth and development,” Lennon continued. “We are deeply grateful to Ms. Bunting for her leadership gift.”
“Peace, justice and global understanding are so important to me,” Bunting said, “and the work being done at Mercy High School toward becoming an International Baccalaureate World School and its commitment to the values of service, justice and compassion among people of diverse backgrounds in Baltimore is so affirming.”
The donation is not the first contribution to Mercy High School bearing the Bunting name. The Dorothy Williams Bunting Science Center, named for Bunting’s mother, opened at the school in 2012.
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