For female athletes and students, Catherine McAuley High School was a second home and a safe haven. That is exactly what McAuley’s successor, Maine Girls’ Academy, was to me. After only one year, the green and gold became more than colors but a way of life.

I chose to attend Maine Girls’ Academy because we were treated like people, not numbers. The small and supportive classes invited me to share my ideas, unlike at my old school. I felt important and listened to; I began to voice my thoughts with my recently newfound confidence.

Maine Girls’ Academy welcomed every girl. Without male peers, we were less focused on what we thought of ourselves. I learned more about my peers than I had at any other school. I came to genuinely care for each and every student in the building, which was a tradition that had been created over the years.

Citing a 2013 survey, Richard A. Holmgren of Allegheny College writes in a report about all-girl schools that “girls’ school students are more likely than their female peers at coeducational schools to experience … an open … exchange of ideas.” He goes on to note that nearly 87 percent of girls’ school students “feel their opinions are respected at their school,” compared with 58 percent of girls at coed schools. If this is public knowledge, then why are girls’ schools disappearing?

Every week, we would have alumnae come in and speak to us about their positions and how McAuley had given them the opportunities to thrive in their fields. The school prepared many women to get into fields such as meteorology, engineering and math. The school has created generations of confident and strong-willed women, and that will soon be lost. Maine needs another safe haven for generations of girls to come.

Katie Fitzpatrick

Cumberland