Empowered Girls

Brave new girl.

At Holy Cross, girls don’t wait for opportunity, they create it. They don’t wait to be called, they make their voices heard. They don’t ask coach for playing time, they earn it. They don’t accept the status quo, they speak out. They don’t just stand there, they stand firm in their faith.

They thrive.

See It. Believe It. Be It.

Our girls believe they can do anything, because they see girls do everything.

They fill every leadership role on campus. Every lead in the play, every team captain, every student council member, every president of a club, every campus ministry helper is a self-motivated, confident and compassionate girl. Inspired and supported by each other, Holy Cross students value the importance of being a girl of intellect, a woman of faith, a leader of the Academy.

An all-girls education eliminates potential gender bias in the classroom and allows students to explore subject areas that would otherwise be considered masculine, such as science and technology.

Why All Girls?

Because it works best for our girls. A UCLA study indicates teenage girls excel in all-female educational settings and maintain an advantage over female graduates from coeducational (both independent and public) institutions.

  • Ninety-three percent of girls’ school grads say they were offered greater leadership opportunities than their peers at coed institutions.
  • Nearly 80 percent of girls’ school students report that most of their classes challenge them to achieve their full academic potential. That’s compared to 72 percent of girls at coed independent and 44 percent of girls at public schools.
  • Forty-eight percent of girls’ school alumnae consider themselves great at math versus 37 percent for girls in co-ed schools.
  • All-girls graduates rate their public speaking and writing abilities five to six percentage points higher than girls in co-ed schools.
  • All-girls graduates rate their confidence in mathematics and computer science 10 percentage points higher than those of their peers from co-ed schools.
  • Fifty-eight percent of all-girls graduates are likely to keep current with political issues and discuss them with friends, compared to 48 percent of their co-ed peers.
  • On average, female students from single-sex high schools outscored their co-ed peers in composite SAT scores by 43 points.

Learn more from the International Coalition of Girls' Schools

Girls’ school alumnae are three times more likely to pursue engineering careers.

All-girls education benefits girls in more ways than just academics. Holy Cross understands the adolescent experience of girls, and female faculty promote positive emotional growth in our girls—from high levels of self-esteem to healthy body image.