Class in Session

On Aug. 14, 2024, 49 boys in grades 3 to 5 arrived for their first day of school at Xavier Jesuit Academy (XJA) in Cincinnati, kicking off not only the 2024-25 school year, but a school’s history as well.

The opening, in the Bond Hill neighborhood, marked the Midwest Jesuits’ 10th new school in the past 30 years. A Nativity model elementary/middle school, XJA joins a thriving collection of new Jesuit schools in communities where students have the potential to become the first in their families to attend college.

“When historians look back at this era, 1990 to present, they will ask, ‘What was in the water that the Church grew so prolifically in this way?’ in perhaps the same way we now marvel at seminary growth in the 1950s,” says Fr. Karl J. Kiser, SJ, provincial of the USA Midwest Province.

Classes are small at XJA, and the school day runs longer than usual, 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Occupying the former St. Agnes Elementary School on the campus of the Church of the Resurrection, one of three predominantly Black churches in the city, XJA educates a mostly non-Catholic student body.

“The mission had a number of pillars— providing education for young Black males, living out the dream of Catholic evangelization and making significant change for the neighborhood,” says Deacon Royce Winters, who serves at the Church of the Resurrection and as director of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati’s African American ministries. “The school will eliminate the systemic ills that keep people poor.”

Saint Agnes closed in 1993, and after a recent nine-month, $9 million gut rehab project, the 100-year-old building was ready to reopen.

“By the grace of God, we were able to get in,” says Tamia Ushery, the mother of fifth-grader Easton Ushery. “I see a stark difference in the short period of time,” she says. “His excitement is over the top. His engagement is over the top and I am over-the-top happy, too.”

One of 20 schools in the Jesuit Nativity education model, XJA plans to add a new third-grade class each year until the school has full classes in grades 3 through 8.

“I told my mom I wanted to go here for fifth grade and stay here until eighth grade,” says Aiden Cox. “No girls to annoy me, and I get to do what I need to do.”

A sign advertising the school was what attracted Aiden.

“When he saw that it was an all-boy program, he was like, ‘Mom I want to go there’ because he did not like being in the class with girls,” says his mother, Shante Cox. “They can experience things they’d never see at another school.”

To bring XJA to life, Mabe Rodriguez of the Catholic Inner-City Schools Education office (CISE) of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati partnered with a major benefactor who had an interest in doing something transformational with the African American community in Cincinnati. Rodriguez connected with Deacon Winters and with his help, grew to know the Bond Hill that Winters has called home his entire life. After St. Agnes closed, the neighborhood had no Catholic elementary school, just an empty St. Agnes building in a community in need.

Rodriguez, a retired Procter & Gamble executive, secured the necessary funds, and already had the targeted location. But she needed someone who knew about faith-based education in resilient communities like Bond Hill. She knew just who to call—the Jesuits, whom she had encountered in her childhood in Venezuela and as a parent at St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati. In the Jesuits, with their nearly 500 years of leadership in Catholic education—particularly in high-need settings—Rodriguez found the perfect partner.

“The donors were very open to having a school for boys, and that kind of came together,” says XJA President Fr. Nathan Wendt, SJ, who worked at Xavier University when he was invited to represent the Jesuits in the planning stages of XJA.

Word about a new school began to spread. As the planning team gained the trust of the community, people inquired, and the recruiting began. Lawn signs, direct mail, a social media presence and good old-fashioned door-knocking brought in some students. But the relationships that school personnel developed with parents was the most-important factor in leading parents to seriously consider this opportunity for their sons.

Parents of XJA kids qualify for the Ohio Department of Education’s EdChoice Expansion Program voucher, which amounts to $6,166 per student. The rest of the approximately $16,000 per year tuition will be covered by fundraising.

The school is beautiful and welcoming, and students have noticed. “There’s so much energy and life in this place,” says fifth-grader Malik Murray. “They put a lot of money into making this place, and I appreciate it.”

An education design firm helped create the learning spaces, utilizing textured cubes and stools that wobble and spin to keep kids awake and alert. There are no desks in rows. Students sit at geometric shaped tables in bright yellow chairs.

“We tried to make sure every floor is a combination of blues and grays and black because that’s calming,” says principal Kyle Chandler, who spent 13 years as assistant principal for student affairs at the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy and taught middle school and high school English before that. “The walls, too. That’s a blueish gray. Everything is calming with a bit of flare.”

Artwork at XJA shows students what they can aspire to be. As soon as students enter the building, they are greeted by seven images of Black Americans who are up for canonization, including Fr. Augustus Tolton, who was born into slavery and in 1886 became the first Black American priest.

“Every day you walk in here, you see that man’s face,” Chandler says, adding an affirmation to his students. “If he can do it, you can do it.”

The paintings are the work of local artist Brent Billingsley, who was introduced to the school through the Cincinnati Reds Community Fund. Each year, the intiative transforms a neighborhood as part of its goal to strengthen youth baseball and softball programs. XJA was the anchor for the 2024 community project, which also rehabilitated a nearby public school, community center, food pantry at the Church of the Resurrection, and a new ball field at Bond Hill Park.

Corporate partners and hundreds of volunteers came together for the community makeover. GE Aerospace made the STEM labs for the schools possible. Kroger helped renovate the kitchen at XJA. The horticulture and design team from Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden created a learning garden with more than 1,000 plants and pollinators, and 60 shade trees and walking paths. The garden will serve as quiet space for reflection as well as an outdoor classroom where kids will learn about nutrition and sustainability.

A community garden was also planted in Bond Hill Park, next to XJA’s campus. Reds players Brent Suter and Will Benson led the planting effort, which included tomatoes, herbs, berries, melons and other produce.

“It’s great for kids to spend time in nature,” Suter says. “If kids have an environmental mentor, they will grow up to respect nature and have a lasting impact on other people’s lives.”

As teachers, students and their families settle into the new school year—and a new school—expectations are high. Deacon Winters says XJA will change lives.

“It empowers us to take hold of the dream placed in our hands,” he says. “To see God at work in these young men is indescribable, and it’s a joy.”