An All Girls School Culture Built on Integrity, Compassion, and Academics
Could an all girls school culture help your daughter thrive in high school? Read on to learn more about how our single-gender environment influences campus culture at St. Agnes.
Are you a Houston parent searching for the perfect academic environment for your daughter? With so many options — public, private, religious, single-gender, and more — it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Finding a school with a supportive community, a challenging curriculum, and the right culture is no small task.
At St. Agnes Academy, we are proud to be recognized as the top-ranked all girls high school in Houston. St. Agnes provides an environment where students are encouraged to grow into confident, compassionate, and intellectually driven young women who are keenly aware of the roles they play within our vibrant and diverse community.
Our single-sex education model fosters a culture of academic excellence while helping students develop real-world leadership and interpersonal skills they need to thrive across multiple facets of their lives.
Let’s take a closer look at our all girls school culture and why so many parents choose to enroll their daughters at St. Agnes to set them up for success.
The Benefits of an All Girls Education
Research consistently highlights the advantages of a single-sex education for young people navigating the challenges of adolescence and early adulthood. According to research, young women tend to feel empowered to engage more confidently in the classroom without many of the pressures and distractions associated with co-ed learning structures.
Young women in an all girls environment like St. Agnes also benefit from consistent access to positive role models, leaving students feeling more empowered to take on leadership roles within their communities.
Without the social pressures and gender biases often found in co-educational settings, students in girls' schools like St. Agnes can thrive academically, socially, and emotionally while building the skills they need to succeed in their future academic and professional environments.
These benefits, of course, are in addition to the well-researched benefits of Catholic schooling as a whole. The typical outcome is better academic outcomes, higher graduation rates, and increased civic involvement after high school graduation.
Where Academic Excellence Meets Personal Integrity
At St. Agnes Academy, we believe that a young woman’s success is measured not just by her academic achievement but by her personal integrity. To that end, our school culture is deeply rooted in the cornerstone values of Catholic Social Teaching, which include:
1. Life and Dignity of the Human Person
2. Call to Family, Community, and Participation
3. Rights and Responsibilities
4. Option for the Poor and Vulnerable
5. The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers
6. Solidarity
7. Care for God's Creation
Additionally, St. Agnes was founded in the Catholic, Dominican tradition. As such, we are committed to fostering a devotion to the pursuit of truth and justice in all things.
We believe the young people who make up our community are the future leaders of our world and will take center stage in their future endeavors. We strive to foster the skills and strengths they need to lead others with grace, competence, and compassion.
Academic Excellence in a Supportive Environment
At its heart, St. Agnes is an academic institution. Subsequently, we strive to support our students throughout their high school journeys with top-tier academic programming and accelerated curriculum offerings. Students are encouraged to pursue high levels of study in disciplines ranging from the STEM fields to the fine arts and just about everything in between.
At St. Agnes, the average student/teacher ratio is just 9:1, which means our faculty and staff can effectively support students with individualized care and attention that plays to each student’s unique strengths.
Our high school students are well-equipped to navigate even the most challenging academic tasks thanks to the hands-on approach offered by the adult members of our staff. Whether in the sciences, humanities, or arts, our students are encouraged to push their intellectual boundaries and pursue their passions.
We also offer a variety of elective courses and extracurricular programs designed to help students deepen their interests while building more robust, comprehensive skill sets that will serve them well in years to come.
A Commitment to Service is Embedded in the School Culture
As evidenced by the previously outlined pillars of Catholic Social Teaching, St. Agnes is firmly committed to educating students about their duty to serve the communities around them.
As a condition of graduation from St. Agnes Academy, all students must complete a 100-hour service project working with one local organization to serve the poor and vulnerable.
We also coordinate ongoing immersion mission trips for students in all grade levels so students can engage with key social justice themes in the context of other cultures and communities.
Student Support Services That Go the Extra Mile
St. Agnes is dedicated to empowering high school students to become the leaders of tomorrow. Still, we recognize that students’ overall health and well-being are critical in helping them achieve their future goals.
Not only is leadership development deeply integrated into our culture, but we also offer students many support services to enhance their overall sense of wellness and self-efficacy.
Our Wellness Center provides ongoing programming designed to help students develop and hone the skills they need to navigate many of the personal challenges often associated with high school life. Counselors can provide guidance in areas like:
- Stress management
- Mental health
- Relationships
- Self-esteem
- More topics
The Wellness Center also provides students with access to preventative programming aimed at helping students foster the skills they need to make safe, healthy choices during this vital period in their development.
Additionally, our Student Success Center helps students with disabilities and specific learning needs in their efforts to set and achieve their goals. Our team is responsible for overseeing the administration of accommodations and ensuring students have access to the services and resources they need to achieve their highest potential.
We believe these services are vital to ensuring that we provide an equitable learning environment for students of all backgrounds. Our goal is to equip all students to find success across multiple areas of their lives.
Our All Girls School Culture Prepares Students with Confidence
At St. Agnes, we pride ourselves on preparing students and their families for the next stages of their lives. Our graduates don’t just go on to attend top universities across the country; they go on to exhibit confidence, leadership skills, integrity, empathy, and honesty in all their future endeavors and relationships.
Our strong, faith-based academic foundation – coupled with our support services and emphasis on servant leadership – helps students better understand their own needs and the needs of those around them.
If you are in the process of selecting the right academic fit for your middle school daughter, the single-sex learning environment at St. Agnes Academy may be just the place she needs to grow in multiple facets of her life.
To learn more about St. Agnes Academy and our all girls school culture, reach out today to speak to a member of our team. We can help you schedule a tour of our top-rated institution to learn more about what it’s like on campus!
