Louisville, Ky. (WHAS11) - With all the talk about struggling schools in Louisville over the last couple of months, you probably haven't heard about one school that is finding success.
It's called Nativity Academy and they only serve Louisville’s impoverished community.
WHAS11’s Renee Murphy met some kids from their first graduating class this year.
They are students that are going on to college when many thought they wouldn't finish high school.
You've probably driven past it and never noticed it.
“It got me through a lot of stuff and I probably wouldn't be where I am right now if it wasn’t for Nativity,” says senior Felisha Lovett.
The private school sits directly across from the old Clarksdale housing project that is now called Liberty Green.
It’s a small building where young lives are seeing huge changes.
“They brought in plenty of people from different kinds of cultures and really made it fit for us. It really got me to notice how blessed I am to be here,” says senior Joshua Jordan.
Nativity Academy is part of a national model that takes in a small number of students from low income homes and charges them just $20 a month in tuition.
The school raises the other $15,000 to $17,000 dollars per child.
“They helped him tremendously as far as getting the right attitude getting the right grades that he needed in order to get to the higher level,” says Joshua’s father William Jordan.
The students are a part of the school’s first graduating class.
“It’s a great honor you know, you think of it as you’re a guinea pig, they are testing you to see if what they are doing right now is actually working,” says Felisha.
It’s technically a middle school, but teachers and advisors from Nativity follow and mentor the students though high school.
And now they are proud to see 14 of their first 15 students graduating from high school and are going on to college.
“It’s opening a lot of doors. People who live in our neighborhood just never thought they could ever go to college, never thought they could ever do anything with their lives,” says Felisha.
“She has just grown and developed in such a way that I am really proud of her,” says Felisha’s mother Jackie Lovett.
Those with Nativity believe their small class set up is the secret to their success.
They are proving that a child's socio-economic background doesn't have to predict their future.
Nativity Academy likes to keep their class size around 13 to 15 students.
When students finish middle school at Nativity Academy, many go on to Louisville’s private high schools through scholarships.
The school originally started out to serve the Clarksdale housing project but since the city tore that down, they now serve the lowest income zip codes in Jefferson County.
