Place of love and success
WORCESTER — A cure for much that ails us can be found in a squat brick building just off Route 290 in Worcester.
On a recent chilly morning, boys climbed out of family cars outside Nativity School of Worcester. Just as they do every morning, School President Tom McKenney and Principal Andrea Munar stood ready to greet them. Each kid said good morning and shook their hands, then, without being prompted, introduced himself to a visitor with a warm smile and a confident handshake.
Students at Nativity School know they belong. These 60 or so middle-schoolers belong at the tuition-free Jesuit school, which welcomes them every day with love and high standards and a commitment to stick with them long after they leave the building — through high school, college, and beyond. They learn here that they are every bit as worthy as any other person, even though many of them come from families who struggle. Here, they are expected not only to excel academically but to transform themselves, their families, their communities.
It’s all there in Nativity’s four pillars: Strength, Scholarship, Character, Service. It’s in the morning meeting, where students gather to discuss the word of the day — “identity,” on this occasion, and the importance of taking pride in who you are — to pray together for peace in the Middle East, to give thanks for a new job for one of the boys’ mothers, and to honor each other. One delighted boy was celebrated as Man of the Week by his teachers and other students: “He does not ask if service is needed, he just jumps in to help.”
At Nativity, this glorious engine of confidence and higher values produces astounding academic success. Intensive teaching and an army of tutors from Holy Cross and other colleges means kids who enter the school mostly behind their peers leave eighth grade with reading and math skills to rival 11th and 12th graders. Many go on to prestigious private high schools, and to colleges including Brandeis, Morehouse, Georgetown, Yale. Fully 60 percent of Nativity grads are first-generation college students.
This place of love and success turns 20 this year, and this banner anniversary is one to remember.
Last year, Bishop Robert McManus, head of the Worcester archdiocese, stripped the school of its Catholic identity because leaders there declined to take down the Black Lives Matter and Pride flags that had been flying outside the school — at the request of students — for more than a year. Nativity, which runs entirely on donations, lost some significant supporters, who sided with the bishop’s myopic views.
But many more donors have stuck with the school, and new ones, inspired by Nativity’s commitment to tolerance and excellence, have arrived. A year ago, the school launched a quiet fund-raising campaign to do something its leaders have long hoped for — to offer the school’s stellar education to girls, too.
It has been a staggering success so far, raising over $14 million of a $20 million goal.
“This is a historic moment for us,” said school president McKenney. “We believe in educational equity, and now we will be able to welcome girls who will be future leaders of Worcester and beyond.” The donations include four gifts over $1 million. The largest comes from the J.D. Power family’s Kenrose Kitchen Table Foundation, which has given $3 million.
J.D. Power, who founded the huge marketing firm, grew up in Worcester, just up the hill from the school, said his daughter Susan Curtin. The Girls Division will be named for her mother Julie Power, who was a devoted teacher.
“It was such an easy decision for us,” said Curtin, who runs the family foundation with her three siblings. “We could not be more proud to be able to do this, for the incredible work Nativity does.”
If it meets its target, Nativity will be able to keep doing that incredible work, reach many more kids, and send ripples of hope out into even more lives, starting with the girls who enter next summer.
How lucky, for them, and for all of us.