American School Foundation of Monterrey

The American School Foundation of Monterrey is a private, international, nonprofit, and co-educational Nursery-12 school located in Monterrey, Mexico. It is one of a few American-style educational centers in this city and is notable for being the oldest one of that group.

The school is governed by a founders' board which meets twice a year and that elects a board of directors serving as the school's board of education. This board is constituted of 9 members serving 3 year terms each with an alternate member. All instruction is in English except for Spanish classes. For grades 10th to 12th there are two courses of study, one leading to a Mexican bachillerato and the other to a U.S. high school diploma. Students can choose either to follow just the U.S. diploma or both courses. The option to do the Mexican bachillerato alone is not offered.

History

ASFM, as the school is known, was founded in 1928 by the ancient dweller from the Monterrey Foreign Club in reaction to the need for children of foreign (mainly American) workers in Monterrey to have an American-style education in order to eventually return seamlessly to the United States. The school received its charter on October 13, 1928 and was re-established as the American School Foundation of Monterrey in April 1944 .

It was during this re-establishment that the founders' board was established with four founding individuals and thirteen sponsoring companies. The organization was created as a non-profit society, hence the inclusion of the word Foundation in the name. In 1948, ASFM received accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and the Texas Education agency. The school moved to the Missouri Campus, on September 1958, when its enrollment had exceeded 450 students.

The school's reputation improved over time and it remained the school of choice for the children of foreign workers that relocated to Monterrey. As the city's influx of foreigners increased, the need for an international education became paramount. Thus, in 1996 in order to accommodate this increasing demand, ASFM built a new campus for middle and high school students. This new state-of-the-art facility built in the Huasteca Canyon attracted many new students and launched ASFM into its present era. The Missouri Campus was used for Nursery through 5th Grade students, however beginning in the school year of 2010 these students switched campuses and are now attending the Huasteca Campus in the newly constructed elementary school and kindergarten campus.

High school profile

For the 2015-2016 school year, the high school enrollment was 634 students (159 seniors, 156 juniors, 156 sophomores and 163 freshmen). 92% of students are Mexican, and the remaining 8% are American and of other nationalities. The high school has a faculty of 59 people, all of whom hold teaching certificates or degrees with around 58% of the faculty and administrative staff having advanced degrees.^[1]

99% of the most recent graduating class is attending 4-year universities or colleges after 75% applied to universities in Mexico and 34% applied to universities in the United States and Europe. Some of the universities that these recent graduates are attending (or were accepted to) include: Tufts University, Columbia, the University of Texas, Rice, Brown, the University of Michigan, Cornell, New York University, Princeton, the University of Chicago, Yale, Purdue, Stanford, the University of Pennsylvania, University of Notre Dame and Harvard. Most students attending university in Mexico chose to go to Instituto Tecnologico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) or the Universidad de Monterrey.

The high school is notable for its Advanced Placement program. It offers around 15 AP courses and its students year after year take more AP exams than any other school in Latin America. 330 exams were taken last year with 247 scoring passing grades of 3 or better. The school's mean score was 3.461 while the global mean score was 3.015. As for SAT scores, the school's averages are 553 Reading, 581 Math, 536 Writing for a Composite Score of 1670.

Facilities

The Huasteca Campus, presently housing high school and middle school students, features 10 fully equipped science labs, 6 computer labs, 62 teaching classrooms, a black-box theater, a 500-seat auditorium, and a 14,000-volume library with 28 eMacs and 13 wireless iBooks for student use. The Athletic Department features an indoor gymnasium with two parquet-floored basketball courts, two regulation-sized soccer fields, one 8-lane athletics track, 3 outdoor concrete-floor basketball courts, a fully equipped conditioning gym and several other training rooms as well as four full locker rooms.

The campus for elementary school (previously called the Missouri Campus) is for students in nursery-grade 5 and has 66 classrooms, 4 state-of-the-art computer labs, counseling offices, a maintenance building, 2 houses, one currently used for the administrative offices and the other for a developmental nursery program, a 250-seat theater, 3 playing fields, 2 outdoor tennis courts and an instrumental music room.

Another Campus was built to replace the Missouri campus right next to the Huasteca campus, nicknamed "Huastequita". Pre-Kinder-Grade 5 are now given there.

Model UN Program

ASFM houses one of the largest international Model UN conference in Mexico: IMMUNS (International Monterrey Model United Nations Simulation). IMMUNS was established as a brand in 2003 when the high school and middle school Model UN conferences fused into one large event. Traditionally, IMMUNS is held in late February, and involves around 500 local and international students. Previous keynote speakers include Jane Goodall (2003) and Reon Schutte (2009).

Traditions and athletics

The school's mascot is the American bald eagle and the colors are red and white. ASFM participates in yearly sports tournaments sponsored by the Association of American Schools in Mexico (ASOMEX). It competes in soccer, basketball, track and field and in several other sports. The school has a healthy rivalry with other bilingual schools in the city, the Colegio Inglés and AIM, stemming from the continuous success of both schools in soccer tournaments held by ASOMEX. ASFM is deeply committed to ASOMEX and during the tournaments held in Monterrey the entire school comes out in support of its teams.

The school also issues several awards each year.

• Steve Fordham Award: The most important all-around award is the Benjamin Steve Fordham Award, given to the student at each grade level that best exemplifies leadership, citizenship, responsibility, friendliness, academic excellence, sportsmanship, and cooperation . Two nominees are named along with the winner. This award was established in memory of Steve Fordham, an ASFM student who earned a Purple Heart during the Vietnam War and who held the qualities that the Award recognizes.
• Aguirre and de la Garza Evia Quiroga Awards: Two other memorial awards have been established in recent years. The Alejandro Aguirre Award is given to an exceptional 9th Grade student in the Athletics Program . The other memorial award is the Carlos de la Garza Evia Quiroga Memorial Award given to the 9th grade student displaying humanitarianism and service.
• Graduation Awards: At Graduation, ASFM recognizes the Valedictorian and Salutatorian for each graduating class . The Valedictorian gives a Closing Address while the Salutatorian recites the Invocation at the start of the ceremony. Also, the American Legion Award is given to the graduating senior best exhibiting courage, scholarship, patriotism, honor, leadership, and service. This award is not given by ASFM but rather by the American Legion Chapter of Monterrey.
• Eagle Awards: Lastly and in honor of its Mascot, the school issues the Eagle Award to students who have been at ASFM for 15 years and the Eagle of the Month Award to students exhibiting excellent academic, citizenship and overall performance.

Finances

For the 2015-2016 school year, the school has 2,408 students with 466 nursery through kindergarten students, 808 elementary school students 482 middle school students and 561 high school students. In terms of finances, 97% of the school's income stems from tuition at the following rates , in Mexican pesos, for the school year 2015-2016:^[2]

• Nursery and pre-kindergarten: $11,450
• Kindergarten through Grade 5: $12,600
• Grade 6 through grade 9: $15,220
• Grade 10 through grade 12: $18,400

See also

• American immigration to Mexico

References and external links

• Official website
• History: http://www.asfm.edu.mx/about/school/history
• Profile: http://www.asfm.edu.mx/about/school-profile
• General information and finance: http://www.state.gov/m/a/os/1555.htm

International schools in Mexico Mexico City area Lycée Franco-Mexicain Colegio Alemán Alexander von Humboldt Liceo Mexicano Japonés Russian Embassy School in Mexico City Colegio Suizo de México Edron Academy Greengates School ASF Mexico Peterson Schools Westhill Institute Aguascalientes City Escuela Japonesa de Aguascalientes Cuernavaca École Molière de Cuernavaca Colegio Suizo de México Campus Cuernavaca Guadalajara area Lycée Français de Guadalajara Colegio Alemán de Guadalajara The American School Foundation of Guadalajara Monterrey American School Foundation of Monterrey San Roberto International School Puebla Colegio Humboldt Puebla Colegio Americano de Puebla Querétaro City Colegio Suizo de México Campus Querétaro John F. Kennedy School, The American School of Querétaro Torreón Colegio Americano de Torreón Tijuana Colegio Alemán Cuauhtémoc Hank(*) Schools marked with asterisks (*) are unrecognised by the Central Agency for German Schools Abroad (ZfA), not appearing in its list of German schools in Mexico.

References