SINCE 1991

IST History

With more than 20 years of teaching experience and being a Superintendent of other institutions, Dr. Bertha Alicia Peñalva de Flores, decided to take a leap of faith in January 1991. She decided to found a bilingual school with Christian

principles, the International School of Tegucigalpa (IST), to raise future

generations of change within Honduras. When one lives out a dream based on faith, God will pave the way.

The opportunity presented itself to acquire a school that was located in the Col. Lara. It was a school that had Nursery through Fourth grade. In addition to this, another school was closing its doors, and a great majority of the students from this school transferred to our school.

The beginning was explosive and we began our operations in August 1991. In

that year, we were able to expand our fourth-grade student population up until eleventh grade. We had a student body of 280 students. We had a complete staff that met our ideology of hiring North American and Honduran-certified teachers with a high academic level.

Unfortunately, in May 1998, the owners of the property where we were located

asked us to vacate the premises. At the time, it appeared to be a great tragedy for us. We did not have land, or economic resources, and on top of that, the next school year was only three months away. We found some land in an arid location that did not have structured lots and did not come with basic public services. The only access to this area was a narrow dirt road. Nevertheless, it did connect with what ultimately would become the Anillo Periférico. Once we were able to settle down on this land, we lived through the unfortunate tragedy called Hurricane Mitch. It affected the entire city and it also washed away a part of our land. God always transforms what appears to be a tragedy into an opportunity. We built our facilities with a lot of effort. Since it was a very dry and arid area, one of the first blessings that we had, was to find water underneath the school. We drilled for a well and were able to find water. This was a blessing since the school was located in an inaccessible area of the city. God again showed his favor and will, with the construction of a paved road.

 

Today, we have a campus that is modern and eco-friendly. It has adequate sports facilities and we have cutting-edge technology. We also have beautiful labs, a library, and a cafeteria. We continue with expansion and improvement projects. Among the achievements that IST has reached are the following: In 2001, we had a curricular restructuring and we were pioneers in implementing the concept of Middle School. By that time, we offered education in four levels: preschool, Elementary, Middle, and High School. In 2008, we were permitted to be an “Experimental School.” In 2010, we were given the authorization to be a certified school to apply the SAT exams to those students within the city who wanted to study abroad. In 2013, IST became a school with a double international accreditation: Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) and AdvancED. Our cutting-edge programs, International curricular mesh, the quality of our personnel, didactic resources, diagnostic tools, pedagogic spaces at each level, constant technological innovation, and above all else, our Christ-centered

and Biblical foundation, have positioned IST amongst the best schools in

Honduras. In 2015, IST, along with other non-governmental bilingual educational centers that offer 12th grade, conceptualized and obtained a certification from the Honduran Education Secretary for an International Bachelor Diploma in Science and Humanities (BICH). This group of schools donated the curricular mesh for each grade (tenth to twelfth) to the national educational system in our country. In

2018, we will be graduating our first class under the BICH degree program.

The Lord is faithful in giving us the vision for this institution! So many generations have passed through our doors! How much knowledge has been transferred to them! How many lives have been transformed? After more than 30 years in the educational field, our motto, “Experience and Quality Education,” continues to contribute to our history in our nation.