Unabashed Determination

Five years ago, while New City School was still in its planning stages, a local businessman expressed great skepticism in the viability of our vision. He was enamored with our dream to make a quality private-school education available to anyone, regardless of ability to pay, but he couldn’t see how it would be financially viable. In addition, from his vantage point, the fact that we are a Christ-centered school could limit not only our pool of potential students but also potential investors who might not share our faith. Time has proven his assertion to be false. In fact, we’ve seen just the opposite.

A glance in the rear-view mirror shows that we are financially viable. Our year-end giving campaign almost doubled that of 2017, thanks in large part to a generous matching gift of $25,000. Apart from that gift, we saw a 50 percent increase in giving in the month of December from that of the previous year. This giving allows us to award scholarships that cover, on average, 92 percent of our tuition costs. We’ve reached this milestone because you believed in us.

Furthermore, a look at our demographics shows that our Christ-centered approach has not impacted our student population in a negative way. In fact, 36 percent of our students come from households that report no religious affiliation at all, and only 25 percent report a strong religious affiliation. Our students are here because this is a place where they’re loved and accepted—plain and simple.

And lastly, we’ve seen that donors do not shy away from us because of our faith statement. Some of our larger donors contribute simply because they resonate with our model, which is first and foremost to provide a quality education in a warm, safe environment. At the end of the day, we believe that our academic excellence and our warm, safe environment flow from the foundation of the love of Christ.

In a recent New York Times op-ed piece, David Brooks wrote, “What teachers really teach is themselves—their contagious passion for their subjects and students. It reminds us that children learn from people they love, and that love in this context means willing the good of another and offering active care for the whole person.”

This is exactly what we are able to offer at Logos Academy Harrisburg. We are dedicated to educating the whole person, mind and soul. We are committed to developing both character and intellect. Through our small classes, our dedicated staff, our faithful, generous donors, and our unabashed determination to nurture our students in a Christ-centered environment, we are making a difference.