Why An All-Girls’ School: Discover the Villa Advantage

When it comes to choosing the right school for your daughter, these important developmental years can be greatly enhanced by attending an all-girls’ school like Villa Maria Academy Lower School, which is dedicated to the way girls learn.

In today’s society, girls are paving the way of the future.

Educational research consistently supports the conclusion that female students thrive physically, intellectually, emotionally, spiritually and socially in an all-girls educational environment. A national study conducted by UCLA’s Graduate School of Education & Information Studies indicates that “girls’ school graduates consistently assess their abilities, self-confidence, engagement and ambition as either above average or in the top 10 percent… They are more likely to pursue careers in engineering, engage in political discussions, keep current with political affairs, and see college as a stepping stone to graduate school” www.ncgs.org.

Dr. Rosemary Salomone, a professor at St. John’s University School of Law, in her book Same, Different, Equal: Rethinking Single-Sex Schooling, writes:

“All-girls settings seem to provide girls a certain comfort level that helps them develop greater self-confidence and broader interests, especially as they approach adolescence. Research has found that single-sex schools and classes promote less gender-polarized attitudes toward certain subjects-math and science in the case of girls and language arts and foreign languages in the case of boys.”

If we accept the premise based on research that shows a girl’s brain is different from a boy’s brain, co-education simply does not work satisfactorily for every child. At Villa Maria, instruction is geared toward the way girls learn. Girls learn in different ways than boys, at different rates and at different times in their developmental lives and at Villa we are attentive to this developmental learning. At Villa, girls learn what it takes to be leaders. Girls have the opportunity to be free to experiment and explore, trying out new things and trying on new roles. Your daughter can follow her ambitions without wasting a second thought or a backward glance on how her male counterparts might perceive her.

Villa adds opportunities. At Villa, a girl occupies every role: every musician in the band, every seat on the student government, and every position on every team. Not only does she have a wealth of avenues for self-exploration and development; she has a wealth of peer role models.

Villa’s strong female mentors, positive role models, and abundant opportunities for learning inside and outside the classroom walls allow us to be at the forefront of sought-after educational experiences for young women.

Discover more about the Villa advantage by talking with our Admissions Director or scheduling a private visit to our 30-acre campus. Contact (610) 644-4864 or at admissions@villamaria.org for a (masked) socially distant tour of Villa today!