Incarnate Word Academy (Houston)

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Incarnate Word Academy
Address
609 Crawford Street Houston, Texas , (Harris County) 77002 United States
Coordinates	29°45′23″N 95°21′26″W / 29.75639°N 95.35722°W / 29.75639; -95.35722
Information
Type	Private, all-girls
Motto	Praised be the Incarnate Word
Religious affiliation(s)	Roman Catholic
Denomination	Catholicism
Established	1873
Founder	Mother Jeanne de Matel
Status	Open
School code	443330
President	Sister Lauren Beck, C.V.I.
Principal	Cathy Stephen
Faculty	39
Grades	9–12
Gender	All girls
Age range	14-18
Enrollment	348
Average class size	16
Student to teacher ratio	9:1
Language	English
Color(s)	Red and white
Athletics conference	TAPPS 5A
Mascot	Falcons
Team name	Falcons
Accreditation	Southern Association of Colleges and Schools[1]
USNWR ranking	827
Publication	The Word Magazine
Yearbook	The Margil
Tuition	$16,650
Website	www.incarnateword.org

Incarnate Word Academy is an all-girls Roman Catholic college preparatory school located in Downtown Houston, Texas, United States.

Incarnate Word Academy serves grades 9 through 12 and is owned and operated by the Congregation of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament. IWA opened a new $15 million, 18,500 square feet (1,720 m²) academic building in the Spring of 2017 to provide additional space for classes, collaboration, student life, and fine arts.

The student body represents fifty-one Catholic parishes and 101 zip codes across the Houston metropolitan area and is a community of 348 young women. As of the 2017–2018 school year, school's racial percentages are as follows:^[2]

• Hispanic: 24%
• White American: 48%
• African-American: 9%
• Multi-racial: 11%
• Asian/Pacific Islander: 8%

In 1873, Mother Jeanne de Matel and two other sisters of the religious order of the Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament arrived at the corner of Jackson and Crawford with a historic mission in mind. The sisters were invited by Bishop John Odin to establish a school for young women.

The sisters arrived in Houston from Lyon, France by way of Brownsville, Texas on April 25, 1873.  They took up their residence in a large building, once a Franciscan Monastery, across the street from St. Vincent's Church on Franklin Street.  A chapel was prepared and on May 5, 1873, Mass was celebrated there.  The student body marks this day each on Foundation Day.^{[citation needed]}

These women of early Texas founded the first permanent school in Houston, and called it Incarnate Word Academy for Young Ladies.^[3]

The curriculum is primarily intended to prepare students for higher education and to this end students take core, college-preparatory courses and electives based on their individual interests.

The school has an Advanced Placement (AP) program with honors and AP classes, wherein students take classes that closely parallel university-level courses in the same subject. These classes follow a strict syllabus and are graded more rigorously than non-AP courses. They culminate in a standardized, comprehensive exam each spring, a passing score on which may earn the student college credit.

• Christianity in Houston