Before the First Bell: Inside XJA's Summer Institute
Two weeks before the official start of the school year, the halls of Xavier Jesuit Academy are already full of young men in motion. Backpacks are on. Morning prayer has just wrapped up. And for a growing number of these students, this is their very first day ever inside XJA's walls.
This is Summer Institute, a required part of the XJA calendar and a hallmark of the Nativity school model. Running July 27 through August 7 this year, and rooted in the extended academic year that defines Nativity-model education, Summer Institute exists for one simple reason: to close the summer learning gap before it can open at all.
A Running Start, and a First Look
For returning students, Summer Institute is a running start. Two weeks of focused practice in reading and math means students walk into the new school year with skills sharp and momentum already built.
For new students, and this year that means a full class of incoming third graders, Summer Institute is an introduction. It is their first morning prayer and examen at XJA. Their first experience of a school built around the whole person. Their first taste of a place where every young man is known by name.
"Summer Institute serves a few purposes at once," said Michael Gong, XJA's Assistant Principal. "It's a chance for our teachers to work directly with students and get to know the young men who are new to XJA. Students spend time practicing reading and math before the school year starts, and just as important, they build real bonds with each other outside the classroom. We also use this time to run baseline assessments, so our teachers walk into the first day of school with the data they need to support every student right from the start."
Building Culture From Day One
Summer Institute matters just as much for the adults in the building. For teachers, it is a chance to get to know students early and to build XJA culture into the school year from day one.
"After the first year, you see how the investment you made in students is already paying off," said Dr. Hollie Johnson, XJA's Director of Graduate Support. "They understand the culture we're trying to build, the one embedded in our students' pledge."
That pledge, recited by every young man at XJA, captures what Summer Institute begins to instill:
At XJA, we are faith-filled, intellectually competent, open to growth, committed to doing justice, and loving. I dedicate myself today to grow in faith, scholarship, leadership, and service by respecting and giving my best to my fellow students, my teachers, my family, and myself.
That data matters, and so do the relationships built during these two weeks, between new students and returning students, between students and teachers. Long before a single class schedule is handed out, students are already learning what it means to be part of the XJA community.
More Than Academics
Summer Institute is also about fun. Mornings are built around academics, and afternoons open up for activities XJA runs alongside community partners: chess with the Chris Collinsworth Chess in Schools Program, cooking with New Leaf Kitchen, fitness with the Cincinnati Vibrant Youth Project, wellness programming with the Cincinnati Music & Wellness Coalition, and, new this year, a photography class. Students also head out on trips to Great Parks, the Cincinnati Museum Center, and Stone Lanes. Students may even get a visit from Kona Ice.
Summer Institute usually falls right around the Feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola, and this year it falls right in the middle of it. Students will celebrate the feast alongside the wider Cincinnati Jesuit community, capped off with a trip to a Cincinnati Reds game together.
A Growing School, A Growing Program
This year's Summer Institute also marks a shift: for the first time, the program is being held entirely on XJA's own campus in Bond Hill. It is a small but meaningful milestone for a school that continues to grow into its own home.
That growth is visible in the numbers. XJA now serves grades 3 through 7, approximately 83 students in all, and Summer Institute could not run without the support of roughly 14 volunteers who give their time to work alongside students and staff throughout the two weeks.
By the time the first official bell rings, the young men of XJA will have already prayed together, studied together, and started to know one another. Summer Institute makes sure that when the school year truly begins, it does not begin from scratch.
