At Xavier Jesuit Academy, we believe that forming the whole person means tending to more than academics. Social and emotional intelligence are just as essential to a young man's development as reading, writing, or mathematics. This year, XJA partnered with Beech Acres Parenting Center to bring The Character Effect program to our students, and the impact has been felt across every grade level.
The Character Effect is rooted in strength-based social-emotional learning. Throughout the year, XJA teachers led students through weekly curriculum focused on character strengths including curiosity, zest, and bravery. Rather than isolated lessons, students received what program facilitator Ms. Hannah Foley describes as "consistent daily doses" of intentional formation. Teachers brought the curriculum to life in the classroom, owning that component of the program and making it part of the fabric of the school day.
"You don't have to be somebody that you're not," Ms. Foley shared. "You just have to be more of who you are."
Ms. Foley, who works with the programming of social-emotional learning and prevention at Beech Acres, also met directly with small groups of students at each grade level to go deeper. At XJA, those small group sessions were grounded in our Saintly Small Groups model, creating a familiar and trusted space for students to explore ideas together.
Over the course of the year, students worked through a toolkit on relationships, examining what it means to show up as a good friend, a good peer, and a good family member. They explored the qualities that make relationships strong: mutual respect, active listening, and honesty. The program concluded by turning toward emotional intelligence, with students learning to identify what they are feeling and building strategies to manage big emotions before those emotions take over.
The growth Ms. Foley witnessed was real. "At first when I met all of these boys, we didn't know each other," she reflected. "The trust maybe wasn't there. We're strangers in each other's eyes." But that changed. "Now, most of the kids look forward to coming because they see that it's a time to connect with each other, feel heard and listened to, feel like they just have a safe space to kind of bring some challenges or some successes and everything in between."
She also noted something more personal in several students: a shift toward intentionality. "There's definitely a couple of students who really stand out... They have grown so much in just being really mindful, mindfully present, really paying attention to who they are and who they want to be, and taking those really active, intentional steps to become and be that person."
That kind of growth does not happen by accident. It takes a program built on genuine care, a school culture that makes space for it, and adults who show up as their full selves. Ms. Foley encourages the same of every educator who participates: "You don't have to be somebody that you're not. You just have to be more of who you are."
At XJA, that is exactly what formation looks like. We are grateful to Ms. Hannah Foley and the Beech Acres Parenting Center for the gift of this partnership and for walking alongside our young men this year.
