On September 4, 2001, the vision of an independent middle school for low-income boys from the City of Harrisburg became a reality as The Nativity School of Harrisburg welcomed its first class of students. Prominent local professionals and the Joshua Group, an inner-city youth development program in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, shared the dream of increasing opportunity through education. Together, they collaborated to build a community of hope in the city of Harrisburg, where the dropout rate in 2001 was nearly 75 percent. The promise of a school that specifically targets students most in need, those most at-risk, was kept with the birth of a NativityMiguel model school.
On September 4, 2001, Nativity-Harrisburg welcomed nine students as members of its first sixth grade class. Carole Cheney, Founding Head Teacher, and the acting director greeted each student at the door of the classroom, which was transformed into Nativity-Harrisburg’s one-room schoolhouse and the setting for the adventure that lay ahead.
Nativity-Harrisburg quickly outgrew its “one-room schoolhouse” and moved to the Education Building of St. Francis of Assisi Church on Zarker Street in Allison Hill. One class of sixth graders expanded to nearly three dozen boys in 6th, 7th & 8th grades – and dozens of graduates attending Bishop McDevitt High School, Trinity High School, Harrisburg Christian School, Newport High School, Elizabethtown High School, Harrisburg High School, Harrisburg SciTech High, Harrisburg Academy, and the Milton Hershey School. The staff of two grew to include full-time teachers for each grade, intern teachers, and volunteers. Building on core NativityMiguel Network principles, the extended school day helped the boys develop skills and improve their classroom performance, and the already extended school year grew to include several weeks of overnight camp. In August 2009, Nativity School relocated to its present home at 2135 North Sixth Street – the second floor of the Camp Curtin YMCA.
Nativity-Harrisburg’s tenth school year ended on Friday, June 24, 2011, on the last day of sleepover camp at the Camp Shikellimy Aegis Learning Center in northern Dauphin County. Summer Leadership Camp includes refresher lessons in math, language arts and science, participation in environmental education exercises, a range of athletic and recreational activities, and work on leadership and character-building. August camp for returning students will begin on Wednesday, August 10, 2011, and they will be joined by prospective new students on Monday, August 15, 2011.
The Nativity School of Harrisburg is a private, independent, faith-based, non-denominational preparatory middle school. We are the only NativityMiguel Network School in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. We are NOT a charter school, not a parochial school, and not a behavior-alternative school.
