Esperanza 101

I gain wisdom from experience. I meet challenges with integrity. I lead with courage. I serve others with humility. At Esperanza Academy, we make every day count! I gain wisdom from experience. I mee challenges with integrity. I lead with courage. I serve others with humility. At Esperanza Academy, we make every day count! I gain wisdom experience.

I E S P E Rfrom ANZ A 101 meet challenges with integrity. I lead with courage

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Academic Excellence

Graduate Support

Music Therapy

Restorative Justice

Cultural Wealth

Esperanza Academy is a tuition-free, all-girls independent school, serving students and families in the community of Lawrence, MA.

Our goal is to show the world what’s possible when you invest in a girl.

ESPERANZA BY THE NUMBERS Esperanza girls sing out...

100% of answers

280 hours of

in class provided by girls

creative writing each year

90 hours of

public speaking each year

61% of faculty speak Spanish

Percentage of faculty members who believe our girls are brilliant:

100%

Amount of times girls are interrupted by boys in class:

0 $1,000,000+

Total financial aid scholarships accepted by recent graduates (2018-2019 school year)

100% Our high school Esperanza girls shine on...

graduation rate, to date (Lawrence: 66%)

170 Total # of Esperanza graduates (Eleven classes: 2009-2019)

76% Our college graduation rate (Lawrence: 10%)

April 2006: Esperanza holds first admissions lottery, admitting 21 fifth-grade and 21 sixth-grade students.

Sept 2006: Esperanza opens its doors to its first students.

BECOMING ESPERANZA In 2002, the vestries of Christ Church of Andover and Grace Church of Lawrence convened to brainstorm a joint high-impact project to serve Lawrence. After much research and review, they agreed that the highest need and the largest opportunity for impact was addressing the lack of high quality educational opportunities for young women from the city, and the best way to do this was to start an independent middle school for girls.

On June 3, 2004 the board of trustees held its first meeting at Christ Church in Andover. Trustees quickly got to work hiring a founding head of school, selecting a location for the new school, and ramping up fundraising efforts. On April 24, 2006, Esperanza held its first admissions lottery, selecting 21 fifth graders and 21 sixth graders. On September 6, 2006, with balloons, music, and many friends and supporters on hand, Esperanza Academy opened its doors to its first students. For the following two years, the school added one grade per year to reach capacity. In 2015, Esperanza earned full accreditation from the Association of Independent Schools in New England (AISNE).

Esperanza currently educates 60 middle school girls in grades five through eight, and supports 141 alumnae in secondary schools and colleges across the country. Esperanza graduated its first class of eighth graders in 2009; those young women graduated from high school in 2013 and finished college in 2017.

2007 & 2008: Esperanza adds one grade per year to reach capacity.

2009: The first class of eighth graders graduate from Esperanza.

2013: The first Esperanza grads finish high school with 100% graduation rate.

2021: Today, Esperanza educates 60 girls in grades 5–8 with 141 alumnae in secondary schools and colleges across the country.

T HE FU T UR E IS FEM ALE .

Why all girls?

E Q U I T Y & AC C E S S Equity is about access. In education, according to the Center for Public Education, “equity is achieved when all students receive the resources they need so they graduate prepared for success.”

At Esperanza, we believe that every girl has a powerful voice. It is our job to foster a sense of agency in our students, and to create an environment where each girl can be her authentic self and step into her innate power.

Since Esperanza Academy’s founding, equity and access have been at the core of our social justice ethos and Episcopal identity. Nowhere does this shine more brightly than in our admissions policy. While many schools with models similar to Esperanza’s admit students through merit-based systems that base selection on grades and academic measures, our student admissions are lottery-based.

Young students come into the school and witness girls flourishing as leaders, artists, musicians, debaters, performers, engineers, educators, and philosophers. Our students see there is immense power in being a girl.

After meeting residency and income requirements, applicants have equal opportunity to join our joyful, supportive community. This means equal opportunity for the student who has read 100 books this year and the student hesitant to pick up her first graphic novel, the student who does coding after-school and the student who is working on her math anxiety, and the student who doesn’t always complete assignments, but spends her free time writing plays.

The research is clear regarding the impact of investing in girls and the positive effect on communities in poverty. According to the Goodman Research Group, “girls’ school grads are 6 times more likely to consider majoring in math, science, and technology compared to girls who attended coed schools.”

We believe all students—whatever their cognitive abilities or test scores—deserve the chance to grow their gifts, voices, and dreams.

We designed a scaffolded, student-centered, and culturallyresponsive program that supports each student’s academic needs and social-emotional well-being. Unsurprisingly, our students thrive, even those who previously struggled in school.

We are proud of our lottery-based admissions and our students.

They affirm our social justice mission and our commitment to equity and access.

We know that educated girls have the skills to make choices over their own future, defy historical gender inequities, and lift themselves and their communities out of poverty.

Our goal is to show the world what is possible when you invest in a girl.

E S P E R A N Z A’ S F I V E P I L L A R S

1.

Academic Excellence

At Esperanza, our vision of academic excellence is, “High challenge, high support, high joy.”

Our academic program is fully student-centered.

We honor and embrace students’ identities and learning needs. As an independent school, we are free to center their strengths, interests and identities as girls of color.

While we use Common Core and other national standards as guides to ensure our students are building critical skills, especially in reading and writing, we can teach in whatever way best serves our students. The curriculum reflects our students, their critical lens on, and desire to bring positive change to the world. Using principles of Universal Design for Learning and Culturally Responsive Teaching, we provide a wide variety of options and scaffolding to reach each student, enhancing the experience for everyone.

2.

Graduate Support

Our Graduate Support Program (GSP) team begins their commitment as fifth-graders enter our middle school program. The GSP offers 12+ years of support, starting in middle school and continuing on to high school and college to ensure that each student gains access to the opportunities that they deserve.

During its 12-year commitment, the GSP team provides mentoring and targeted academic, social-emotional, financial, and career support to alumnae of all ages. Our program team walks alongside graduates as they navigate these journeys by providing resources and programming and celebrating their successes as first-generation college students long after they have graduated from Esperanza Academy.

Year-Round Instruction Our extended-day, extended-year model provides students with more learning time, and allows students to participate in art, athletic, and STEM enrichment programs at school and with community partners.

3.

Restorative Justice

Restorative justice is a set of values that when practiced as a community, creates a transformative shift in how we relate to one another, learn, and grow. Restorative justice reimagines harm not as rules broken, but as relationships that need to be repaired. Restorative schools foster community, inclusivity, and belonging. When students feel safe, they listen and talk. When students listen and talk, they learn.

At Esperanza, restorative justice looks like curiosity. Why is this student having a hard time getting to class on time? Why is this student excelling in math, but not English? Why is this student out of uniform? How can we, as a community of faculty, families, peers, and partners, support our students to be their most authentic selves and thrive? Restorative justice practices invite reflection, accountability, and transformative growth.

4.

Music Therapy

Through Music Therapy, we aim to support our students’ social-emotional well-being, so they are able to succeed and thrive in and beyond their time with us. Music Therapy nurtures resiliency and joy and aims to minimize the effects of adverse childhood experiences.

Our culturally-responsive individualized programming uses intervention techniques familiar to our students and families and establishes an environment of safety, stability, and trust. We have seen Music Therapy improve social and psychological outcomes such as socialization, motivation, mood, and depression. Students and families are able to easily access and engage in this therapeutic service throughout the academic year and their time at Esperanza Academy.

5.

Cultural Wealth

At Esperanza, we are creating a culture of achievement by learning how Latinx and other students of color have successfully attained educational success and degree attainment. If we can highlight these students’ experiences and strengths on campuses, perhaps educators at Esperanza and beyond can provide effective support to help rising students access and succeed in secondary and postsecondary educational institutions. Understanding our students’ experiences means exploring the family’s role within a cultural context and the school environments in which they develop as students. We practice a constant review of self, school, processes, and curriculum, enabling us to create a more just and inclusive environment.

E S P E R A N Z A : W E A R E L AW R E N C E The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.

(Matthew 7:25) We owe so much to the beautiful city of Lawrence. It is the home to our students, and more importantly, home to our school which has cradled, nurtured, and protected the dreams of over 200 girls and their families. One of the most beautiful aspects of our school is that it reflects the values and traditions that have been woven in the DNA of our city.

Esperanza has been creating a space where our girls are free to dream, and this is really the legacy of Lawrence; a former industrial city that has always been an immigrant city. And that history is very much alive today.

If you drive through Lawrence’s neighborhoods, you can see homes painted in beautiful, vivid colors usually found in the Caribbean.

You can eat Dominican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Vietnamese, Central American, and Peruvian foods all made by the hands of folks who have brought their culture and traditions from around the world to this place they call home.

And you can drive by 198 Garden Street and see a small and beautiful building that has two flags hanging from its second-floor windows: an American flag and a fierce purple flag with the name Esperanza Academy on it.

A Day in the Life Our school day is fully student-centered and supports, challenges, and inspires each child. Students arrive at 7:20am and return home at 5pm, fully nourished in body and mind.

It all begins with good morning, direct eye contact, and smiles. Grade-level advisory groups meet at 7:30am and include restorative-justice circles, group games, jokes, and conversation.

From there, it’s time for Community Morning Meeting, a whole-school gathering designed for maximum joy! It’s a place to ask questions and voice what’s in your heart. It is led by students and faculty, and sets the tone for the rest of the school day.

MORNING GAT HERING S Academics are at the core of our school day. Designed to be high challenge, high support, and high joy, our English, math, social studies, science, and art classes are student-centered and honor each girl’s learning needs and identity. The learning experience is inherently creative and interactive; students learn from and with each other through group projects and discussions and exercise their skills in debate, performance, and storytelling.

ACADEMIC S

Nutrition is key to student health and well-being. Each day Esperanza’s chef prepares a delicious homemade breakfast, lunch, and after school snack for our students. In addition to providing the necessary nutrition for a 9 ½ hour school day, meal times are a communal and jovial experience to share during the day.

NOURISHMEN T When the academic day ends at 3pm, choices abound. Through partnerships with Berklee School of Music, Andover Breadloaf Writers’ Workshops, and Elevated Thought, students have access to programs in spoken-word poetry, creative writing, and mural art. There are opportunities to move as well, with basketball, soccer, softball, swimming, and dance.

ENRICHMEN T

SUMMER FUN

FIELD TRIPS From

ART + MUSIC Visiting

Experiential programs in art, horseback riding, theater, and more

local trips to overnight camping, we get out and see the world around us

authors, musicians, and other culturally relevant luminaries

HIGH CHALLENGE. HIGH SUPPORT. HIGH JOY.

IT’S A G I R L’ S WORLD

Esperanza Academy 198 Garden Street, Lawrence, MA. 01840 (978) 686-4673 info@esperanzaacademy.org www.esperanzaacademy.org