Girls School With Objective To Battle Weight Issues

Just east of Phoenix, a school designed to help girls achieve a healthy weight, will be opening in Scottsdale Arizona. The school is for teenage girls between 13-18, that are around 30+ pounds over their targeted weight range.

The Gem Academy

The Gem Academy (gratitude, empathy, mission) is a private boarding school program that is helping teenage girls fight obesity. Jim Hershey, the program’s founder, sees the institution’s efforts as a form of intervention, for girls struggling with weight issues. Seeing as data shows that girls who enter adulthood overweight, are likely to remain so, Jim and the academy are on a mission to intervene before this occurs. Doing so, he believes, could greatly adjust the course of these girl’s lives for the better.


A Chance For Girls To Work With Nutritional Experts

The private Academy, for a fee, gives girls a chance to work with dietary and fitness specialists, for a minimum of 6 months. There will also be on campus therapists as well as nutritional experts, supporting the girls. Jim Hershey believes these specialists can help the girls understand the link between behavior and health. He mentioned that the underlying goal of the academy is to instill a health maintenance mindset in the girls for the long haul, not just the time they spend at the academy. This, he believes, will help them to find a “larger mission” in life.

By intervening now, the academy hopes to equip the girls with the knowledge they need, to stay healthy for the remainder of their lives. The tools the girls learn at the academy can be implemented into their daily routines after they leave the school.

After working with similar treatment programs in California, he decided to take his vision for the Gem Academy to Scottsdale. Enrollment for classes this summer will be available soon.