Colegio Ave Maria
The Colegio Ave Maria is a private, mixed, Catholic high school in La Paz under the sponsorship of a Cistercian convent . As an initiative of the Seligenthal Abbey near Landshut, the school serves 4,500 students. This makes it the largest school in Bolivia. It is financed from school fees and donations from Germany.
prehistory
In 1929 the first Cistercian missionaries, including Sr. M. Eduvigis Eckert and Sr. M. Richmunda Herrnreither , arrived in Apolo ( Province of Franz Tamayo , Bolivia). In 1955 they purchased a piece of land in Villa Fátima, La Paz, on which, after a few years, a few small barracks for sisters, boarding school and school were built. The school operation was initially limited to the elementary school and a home economics school . In 1964, Sr. Eduvigis received permission from the La Paz Ministry of Education to open an elementary school.
Expansion of the school
In 1974 a building with 10 rooms for kindergarten , elementary school and boarding school for girls was completed. In 1984 the first class graduated from high school. Two years later the school bought a neighboring, former match factory to create more classrooms. A training center for teacher training in Achocalla , which was inaugurated in 1987, was also funded. In 2008 the school was accepted as one of three Bolivian private schools in the PASCH project (partner schools for the future) of the German federal government, which promotes German teaching at foreign schools worldwide.
Now known as Colegio Boliviano-Alemán Ave María , the facility attracted more and more students and was expanded almost every year. In 1999 the number of students rose to over 4,500. In 2011 the school included:
- 4,400 students between kindergarten and high school, including 80 boarding girls, 50 boarding boys and 200 day care students
- 160 teachers
- 50 other employees (administration, boarding schools, kitchens, cleaning staff, caretakers, porters, agricultural workers).
- Every year young volunteers come from Germany (high school graduates and students) who help out in boarding school and school for 6–12 months for board, lodging and pocket money and thereby improve their Spanish.
Development of the Ave Maria monastic community
In 1972 Abbess M. Columba Baumgartner and the Seligenthal convent decided to take over the school project. As a result, three Seligenthal sisters were sent to La Paz. In 1973 they started building the monastery wing. When Abbot General Polykarp Zakar visited the convent in 1987, the Domus Ave Maria was elevated to a dependent priory . On December 8, 2006, by decree of the Holy See, the monastery was elevated to an independent priory with the name Monasterio Ave María . Sr. M. Christine Gruber was elected the first Priorissa conventualis and is also the director of the school.
In 1999 the sisters were able to open a rest house for the convent in Sapahaqui .
In 2011 the sisters' convention counted six sisters with solemn profession, two sisters with temporary profession and one novice; four are Germans, five are Bolivians.
Personalities
The longtime director Sr. M. Immolata Kronpaß O.Cist. (Died 2010) has been in charge of setting up the school since 1981. For her services to the Bolivian school system, she has received four prestigious awards from the state of Bolivia and the Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class and the Bavarian Order of Merit from Germany .
