Conclusion

"Juan discovered his running ability in the seventh grade. He broke cross-country records while attending LaSalle Academy and was awarded a track scholarship to Fordham University. Freddy and Jose earned entrance to all-scholarship Regis High through their performance on a very difficult entrance exam and in personal interviews. Both are now attending Amherst College.

When these and many other boys first knocked on Nativity’s door, they were indistinguishable from any other Hispanic boy of the Lower East side. Nativity offered them an opportunity to hope, to dream, to succeed. What each of them has done with this opportunity is his gift to Nativity" (Podsiadlo, 1993, 37).

The emergence of Nativity/Mission schools is a response to the inequality and low quality of public school education available to many low income minority students. Nativity/Mission schools have vowed a strong commitment to provide these students with a higher standard of education. They have pledged to support students and families, not only academically but emotionally as well.

Nativity/Mission schools have served as a model for small groups interested in providing alternatives to public education in cities with a high concentration of low income minority children. Only recently have other groups of Jesuits realized the twenty-five year success of Nativity Mission School in Manhattan. Within the past 8 years, several other schools have modeled Nativity Mission School. The accomplishments of Nativity Mission School and the other schools that followed indicate that effective steps are being taken to level the playing field for the economically disadvantaged.