In 1978, five families questioned themselves – “what will be the best school for our family?” They believed that their children needed academic excellence and catholic and humanist formation. They were looking for a school where faith and reason would coexist harmonically. Soon, they concluded that to enhance the capabilities of a child, an extraordinary education system needs to be established. This visionary thought gave birth to the Liceo de Monterrey school in 1978. The school began its journey with less than 100 kids in kindergarten, first to fourth grades, with the objective of inculcating academic excellence, Catholic values, and faith in students.
Liceo de Monterrey provides unique education unlike any other education system. The school teaches to develop the child in a comprehensive way. It also provides an opportunity to cultivate spiritual nourishment in students. At Liceo, education is more than just a requirement of higher grades. It rather focuses on providing Christian humanism formation in students to become leaders of tomorrow, to serve society. It also provides an opportunity to enhance learning, develop humanism, and spread happiness.
Infrastructure:
The school campus is 29,758 m2 (2.9 hectares) and contains 15,000m2 (1.5 hectares) of academic building space. Its buildings were recently renovated to incorporate an active and collaborative learning approach. The school comprises exceptional learning spaces such as:
The Innovation room: Designed to foster collaboration and the use of technology in the development of interdisciplinary projects.
The STEM room: The school believes that women can play a larger role in STEM. Accordingly, the staff inculcate a scientific mindset through a hands-on approach. Here, students have the opportunity to learn robotics, coding, and get involved in other STEM projects.
Culinary Arts Studio: The school has state-of-the-art kitchens, where its students enjoy learning culinary arts. This is where students practice basic collaboration skills, as well as order and responsibility in a delicious way.
Sports facilities: Liceo de Monterrey has four basketball and two volleyball courts, one soccer field (Fut7), a gymnastics forum, and track and field.
Chapel: Liceo de Monterrey teaches Catholic faith. There is a beautiful chapel on campus, where its students can pray, reflect, and receive the sacraments.
Other: Library, Laboratory
Mission, Vision, and Core Values
Mission: It is a school comprised of families who educate their children and students with the highest standards of international academic excellence and provide Christian humanism formation in order to become leaders who influence and serve society.
Vision: To become an international reference of education of women with character, critical thinking, and Christian vision so they can become protagonists of their personal development to reach high ideals and serve society.
Strategic Pillars: The strategic Pillars of the school guide all its actions, so that they can contribute to the accomplishment of their mission.
- Academic Excellence
- Christian Humanism
- Committed Families
- Innovation
Core Values: The school wants to instill the following core values in its students – temperance, creative work, solidarity, integrity, and happiness.
Empowering Girl Education
Alicia Nakashima, Principal of Liceo de Monterrey, shared her school’s goal, “Our goal is that all of our students learn at high levels, we have high expectations for each one of them. We know that each student is unique, and we make efforts to personalize education in the classroom. Our teachers collaborate among them and have processes in place where they analyze student data to improve learning.”
Teachers monitor their students learning with international learning standards and work very hard so that all students achieve them. Students of Liceo de Monterrey have a record of obtaining academic and leadership scholarships from prestigious universities in Mexico, United States, and the world.
Focusing on academic excellence and having high expectations is a way the school supports its students’ education. The school carries two main programs to empower its students: I-lead and the Liceo Societies.
Students develop their leadership skills by participating in the Liceo Societies program, where they can organize student activities such as a Model of the United Nations (LiMUN). Additionally, these students conduct philosophical reflection on the role of women and how they can reshape the world on a course called: Women in the contemporary world.
Inspiring Leadership
Alicia Nakashima is the principal and an alumnus. She is the mother of three, this gives her an excellent understanding of the school culture. She has an international mindset and is always learning and looking for ways to improve the school. She completed her B.A in Economics from Tec de Monterrey and a Master’s in Science in International Management from HEC Lausanne University. She was in the first cohort that earned a certificate in School Management and Leadership from Harvard Business School and the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Brief About the School
Alicia said, “We believe parents’ engagement and commitment is the key to the harmonic development of their children. That is why we allocate resources for parent formation in order to help them become better parents.”
The school educates its students in an integral way, taking all the person’s aspects into consideration: the physical, the emotional, the intellectual, and the spiritual constituents. The school is an ideal place to empower women as it provides multiple opportunities for leadership development and high-level learning.
“We want our students to become the best versions of themselves, that is why we focus on the development of virtues. We transmit the Catholic faith to our students and provide opportunities to develop a close relationship with Jesus,” added Alicia.
The Liceo after-school program offers basketball, volleyball, track and field, gymnastics, tennis, aerial dance, ballet, and jazz. On the other side, the school provides variety of activities and courses such as chess, Chinese, business development, fashion design, Model of the United Nations, sign language, and coral choir. To foster a STEM mindset, it offers stop motion, robotics, and coding.
In the I-lead program, students have the opportunity to work with real NGOs. They learn about their mission and work to help them achieve their goals. Here, girls learn that having a quality education is a privilege and that they have to give back to the community. After graduating, the alumni have supported nine different NGOs that alleviate a specific issue in the community.
The course Life and Identity helps students become protagonists of their personal development by fostering self-knowledge and reflection in an anthropological way.
Achievements
Liceo de Monterrey is accredited by Cognia and is an Apple Distinguished school. In the early years, the school received a State Quality Award in the education section. In 2008, the school received the Iberoamerican Award for Academic Excellence.
Braving the Pandemic
The Covid-19 pandemic transformed the school to a 100% virtual school. The school adapted very fast, as its teachers were already using technology. Most of the classes were in synchronous mode, which ensured a close relationship between teachers and students. Talking about the pandemic days, Alicia shared “After 17 months in on-line learning mode, we can proudly say that our students continued learning, this is confirmed by our standardized test scores (MAP).”
When the schools were allowed to reopen, the school developed safety protocols aligned with national and international standards, which gives teachers and families the confidence they need for a safe return.
Scaling the Future
Liceo de Monterrey is always improving its processes and culture in order to improve students’ learning. In the next five years, its focus will be on women’s leadership and the management is aimed to work on more initiatives for the girls to develop this skill. Also, they want to re-start the international experiences and the exchange programs.
