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ATENEO De Naga Junior High School
MISSION STATEMENT
The Junior High School of the Ateneo de Naga University forms its students into young men and women for others characterized by Competence, Conscience, Compassionate Commitment, and Christ-Centeredness through its holistic educational program.
The educational program is faith-inspired and values-based, integral and adaptive, interactive and collaborative, humanistic and socially responsive. Cura Personalis characterizes all instruction, stressing self-activity, inquiry, and mastery.
VISION STATEMENT
The Ateneo de Naga University Junior High School is highly effective in its mission and goals for secondary education in the Bikol Region.
The school lives and operates out of Catholic and Ignatian values.
Religious or lay, the pedagogues are highly competent and committed to their vocation as companion and guide to students in their formation as men and women for others.
The completers are prepared for the rigors of higher education and the pursuit of their interests as persons. In the tradition of excellence and formation, they are imbued with core competencies in various forms of communication, equipped with scientific and technological skills, a discerning conscience, and a compassionate commitment to transcend self-centeredness. Inspired by Ignatian Spirituality, they recognize the reality of the human and divine person of Christ working actively in the lives of others. They are committed to take responsibilities in the local and wider communities especially in caring for God’s creation.
ADDRESS & CONTACTS
Km 7, Phelan Drive, Pacol, Naga City
Camarines Sur, Philippines, 4400
(054) 881-4190 / (054) 881-4185 / 09481009852 / 09771211750
THE SCHOOL MOTTO
The school motto is the Latin phrase, Primum Regnum Dei, which means First the Kingdom of God.This is taken from the verse, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His justice and all things shall be added unto you”
(Matthew 6:33).
PILARS OF PEDAGOGY
Competence that Serves the Faith
Conscience that Promotes Social Justice
Compassionate Commitment to Change that is Enculturated
Christ-Centeredness that Impels Inter-Religious Dialogue that Enhances the Faith.
Brief History
Ateneo is derived from the ancient seat of learning. Naga comes from the word narra or Philippine mahogany. Naga City, a center of religion, culture, education, and economics, is popularly known as the “Maogmang Lugar.”
Ateneo de Naga University is one of the eleven schools in the Philippines run by the members of the Philippine Province of the Society of Jesus. The main campus is located northwest of the Metropolitan Cathedral, in the barangay of Bagumbayan Sur in Naga City. In SY 2003- 2004, the high school transferred to a new campus in Pacol, now known as Bonoan Campus, located at the slopes of Mt. Isarog, seven kilometers away from the main campus. The other Jesuit schools in the Philippines are found in Manila, Cagayan de Oro, Davao, Zamboanga, Bukidnon, Cebu, San Juan, Nuvali, Iloilo and Culion.
Msgr. Pedro P. Santos, 31st prelate and first Archbishop of Caceres, invited Fr. John Hurley, S.J., then the Superior of the Philippine Jesuit Missions, to build a Jesuit school for boys in Naga. On 2 May 1940, Ateneo de Naga was founded with Francis D. Burns, S.J., as its director, aided by six Jesuits.
Classes formally started in June 1940 at the building formerly used by the Camarines Sur Catholic Academy (now Naga Parochial School) with 650 elementary and high school students. Meanwhile, Msgr. Santos initiated the construction of the Jesuit faculty house and the Ateneo school building with the now well-known four pillars. These buildings were intended to be turned over to the Jesuits on 15 December 1941. However, this plan was thwarted when the Pacific war broke out.
When the Japanese came to Naga, the Ateneo was taken by the Japanese army and became a local “torture chamber.” But as soon as Philippine Independence was declared in 1946, the high school department of the Ateneo resumed classes with Fr. Burns as Director.
On 1 June 1946, full recognition as a standard four-year high school was granted by the Department of Education to Ateneo de Naga. On 5 June 1947, a college for men was opened with 87 students. Ateneo conferred its first academic degrees in April 1950. On 26 October 1953, the Ateneo College Department became co-educational when five women were granted admission into the College.
In the fifties and sixties, new constructions were added to those built before the war. In 1955, the gymnasium-auditorium, a silent witness to many important gatherings, was completed. In 1961, the Archbishop Santos Hall was dedicated to the Ateneo’s founder and Naga’s first Archbishop. In 1968, Burns Hall was inaugurated as a monument to the memory of Ateneo de Naga’s first rector.
In the course of time, several new buildings were added: Modules 1 and 2, Phelan Science Hall, Adriatico Hall, O’Brien Library, Fernando Conference Hall, Dolan Hall, Covered Courts, Xavier Hall, H.E., ACLC, Jesuit Residence, University Church, and Arrupe Hall which replaced Module 2. Several more buildings were constructed (Madrigal building, Engineering building, Bonoan building – replacing module 1, etc.)