Academic Program

Hill is a place where students have a choice of:

Pathways
Learning Styles
Courses
Activities

St. Joseph Hill Academy has a long tradition of offering college preparatory curricular programs that seek to meet the individual needs of students. We do this by providing a highly unique experience. With a selection of Honors, College, and AP courses, Hill is equipped to provide a challenging and enriching experience for all students.

At Hill, every student embarks on a comprehensive four-year journey through core academic subjects, culminating in an Advanced New York State Regents Diploma. Beyond these foundational courses, students have the opportunity to specialize their education by choosing between our STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Pathway or our Humanities Pathway. These pathways serve as the cornerstone of each student's academic program, fostering depth of knowledge and passion in their chosen field.

YOU WILL BE READY FOR COLLEGE. Hill’s AP for All program ensures every student has access to college-level coursework with 16 AP courses across 5 disciplines.

Every Sophomore has the opportunity to take AP Seminar and either AP Human Geography (Humanities Pathway) or AP Computer Science Principles (STEM Pathway) with 13 additional APs available. We meet the individual needs of students by providing a highly unique experience.

By Junior year, students can earn AP Scholar status before college applications even begin.

We are proud to announce we have been recognized with the 2025 AP School Honor Roll and AP Access Award PLATINUM (the highest honor) for the second consecutive year.

Hill’s AP for All program develops confidence, independence, and leadership in every Hilltopper.

Humanities Pathway

The Humanities Pathway encourages learning from multiple perspectives, enabling students to make connections across disciplines. Beginning freshman year, students refine their speech and writing skills, paying particular attention to persuasive, analytical, and journalistic techniques. The Humanities Pathway emphasizes developing critical readers, effective writers, and articulate speakers through the study of literature, social studies, fine arts, and communications. This forms the foundation for selecting higher-level coursework. For more click below:

STEM Pathway

Hill's STEM Pathway immerses students in science, mathematics, engineering and technology, while emphasizing critical thinking and ingenuity. Beginning freshman year, students will engage in 3D Computer-Aided Design (CAD), introductory computer programming, and robotics. The STEM Pathway emphasizes real-world collaborative problem-solving skills through project-based learning. This forms the foundation for selecting higher-level coursework. For more click below:

AP Capstone Diploma Program

Hill proudly offers the prestigious AP Capstone Diploma Program, now in its third successful year. As the only Catholic high school on Staten Island with AP Capstone, and the only high school in the area offering it to all students, we're at the forefront of innovative education. This program provides a unique opportunity for students to explore questions that truly matter to them, developing crucial academic skills for college and beyond. Through AP Capstone, students stand out in college applications, showcasing their readiness for higher education.

Enhancing the AP Capstone experience, we host an annual AP Capstone Symposium where exceptional students showcase their AP Seminar and AP Research projects to external audiences. This event not only allows students to demonstrate their newly acquired skills but also provides a platform for them to share their in-depth research and insights with the wider community.

For more click here.

Programs of Study

Course Offerings

All our courses are designed with our mission in mind: to educate and empower young women to be confident independent thinkers with strong character and leadership qualities, who stand ready to meet society’s challenges.

Our curriculum encourages students to synthesize information from religion, world language, social studies, language arts, and science to understand the world they live in, apply math and technology to harness, chronicle, and make sense of that information, and use critical thinking skills, creativity, and collaboration to create, design, engineer and communicate new ideas and solutions that meet society's challenges.

For more details on specific subjects follow the links here:

Daily Bell Schedule