In the New York metropolitan area, there are six Jesuit high schools, and four of them enroll only boys. In the spirit of being “men for others,” an oft-repeated phrase at Jesuit high schools, many of these schools run programs for underprivileged middle school boys to level the playing field. For example, the REACH program at Regis High School offers academic classes, high school application assistance and leadership development to boys in sixth, seventh and eighth grades throughout the summer and academic year. 

“What’s the common theme in that? It’s that it’s preparing young boys, right? And you’re like, well, there’s another half of the population…who would also benefit from something like this,” said Jacques Joseph, founder of the Institute for Nurture, Enrichment, and Self-Empowerment (INES) program at Loyola School. 

Launched in 2019, the INES program (the acronym honors Inés Pascual, an early benefactor of the Society of Jesus) is similar to REACH in that it offers middle school girls (here, seventh and eighth graders) academic and personal enrichment.

“It’s important to amplify women’s voices in Jesuit education, and so that’s why the program, I think, philosophically exists,” Dr. Joseph continued. “There were so many programs like this for men that were Jesuit-based, and we just felt that we need something exclusively for women.”

Participants come to the Loyola campus on weekdays in August and on Tuesday afternoons and Saturday mornings throughout the academic year to take classes in math, English, Latin and history, and to prepare for high school admissions tests. 

The girls also participate in mentoring classes, where they discuss topics like time management, mental health and their goals for the future. Loyola teachers and current students serve as teacher’s assistants in the academic classes and as mentors who lead the mentoring sessions. The program extends over three summers and two academic years. 

In a program with “Self-Empowerment” in the name, making girls feel confident and capable in the classroom is paramount—especially in STEM courses. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s annual report on the federal workforce for the fiscal year 2019 found that women comprised 29.3 percent of STEM federal workers, with the lowest number of women (6,469) working in math-related jobs. “There were significantly fewer women in Technology and Engineering than expected,” the E.E.O.C. reported. The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics also reported in 2019 that women held 34 percent of STEM jobs throughout the U.S. workforce but 52 percent of non-STEM jobs. 

The seeds of this disparity may be sown in middle school. A 2023 study of middle school students in China found that in classrooms where the number of students who believed that “boys’ natural ability in studying math is greater than that of girls” was higher than in most other classrooms, girls performed significantly lower on math tests than the boys. A national study of U.S. students by the Northwest Evaluation Association of Portland, Ore., discovered through skills assessment tests that girls have fallen behind boys in math since the Covid-19 pandemic, which may be a result of boys getting increased attention from teachers due to a rise in behavioral problems.

“When you don’t get the kind of attention and validation that you need from your educator, you can start to believe that you are just not good at something,” said Caroline Adams, a math teacher for INES and an alumna of Loyola School. “And when you think that you’re not good at something, it makes you feel bad when you’re trying to do it, so that adds a block to getting better at it.”

“I think that is a constant struggle because I think there are some girls who just believe that they’re not good at it,” Ms. Adams added. “And then I see that they are actually capable of it and [convince] them that they are capable and that not being good at something [the] first time doesn’t mean you’re not good at it permanently.”

Not About Being ‘Perfect’

It is this core spirit of empowering girls to grow as scholars and in their self-worth that drives the operation of the INES program. “Something I’ve tried to emphasize to my students is that this program is about growth and it’s not about being perfect,” Ms. Adams said, citing how her Jesuit education at Loyola impressed upon her the virtue of being “open to growth.” 

To incorporate this spirit in her classroom, Ms. Adams allows her students to submit test corrections and extra credit assignments, giving them “as many chances as they need to succeed.” “I want these opportunities to be something that allows you to let go of some of that self-judgment that you have around grades and perfectionism and allows you to really put your energy into growth. Because INES is a safe space for that,” Ms. Adams said. To help her students connect with math, she frequently incorporates pop culture figures like the singer Chappell Roan, and current events like the feud between the rappers Drake and Kendrick Lamar, into word problems.

Andrea McDermott, who oversees the mentoring program, said: “I think the most important thing for me was, one, to provide positive role models for the girls who are just a little bit older than them and see a diverse group of people who have different interests and talents and strengths, who are all great in their individual way, showing them that it’s ‘OK to be you.’ And there’s no one way to be successful or a leader.” 

On what she thinks have been the successes of the INES program so far, Ms. McDermott cited her individual discussions with girls about how it has benefited them as they go through the high school application process. “A lot of them will talk about how INES has made it so that they felt confident to apply to this thing, or audition for a specialized school in dance or music or something like that, just because they know that they can do it,” Ms. McDermott said.

With the INES program still in its relative infancy, what are its leaders’ goals for the future? “We have some stats about outcomes, but it’s really hard to get buy-in and funding if you don’t have those outcome stats for something that’s new,” Ms. McDermott said. “And I think the other piece is just really figuring out—and this is something [Dr.] Joseph is working on—how we can support the girls after the INES program and really give them some extra help from when they’re in high school through the college process.” 

Dr. Joseph also said he wants to grow the program. INES currently accepts about 15 or 16 students per grade level, but he “would like, eventually, to get 25 to 30.”

Ultimately, Dr. Joseph’s goal for the program is that participants are “able to act with love…to be self-aware, you know, being confident of who they are, and being able to be of service for others,” he said. 

“I think ethical leadership, Jesuit leadership is what we need, and we need to form more students…. Everyone should have access to that.”

Correction: A previous version of this article referred to Regis High School’s enrichment and development program as “Reach.” The program’s title is an acronym, REACH. The story has been updated.

This article appears in September 2025.

Grace Copps is a student at Georgetown University and a summer intern at America Media.