American School Foundation of Monterrey


The American School Foundation of Monterrey is a private, nonprofit, international school located in Monterrey, Mexico, which provides a U.S.-type education to international and Mexican students. 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 15 members serving up to four 3-year terms. 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 as a response to the need for children of foreign 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, in 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. The school now maintains a status as one of the most exclusive institutions in Mexico and Latin America.

High school profile

For the 2019-2020 school year, the total enrollment comprised 2,450 students, 88% of which are Mexican, with the remaining 12% being American and of other nationalities. Approximately 20% of the students overall hold dual or multiple nationalities. The high school has a faculty of 285 teachers, all of whom hold teaching certificates or degrees with around 64% of them holding advanced degrees.
99% of the most recent graduating class is attending 4-year universities or colleges with 68.4% attending universities in Mexico and the rest attending universities in the United States, Canada, South America, Asia, and Europe. Some of the universities that these recent graduates are attending include Brown University, Columbia University, Stanford University, Harvard University and University of Pennsylvania. Most students who choose to attend university in Mexico go to Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey or the Universidad de Monterrey.

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 school sponsored a fundraiser for the construction of a STEM Lab, Business Incubator, Maker Pods, 2 eco-patios and an Audiovisual Production Studio.
In addition, HS physics teacher Brad Brandvold created the Near Space Program to launch a weather balloon into the atmosphere.
The campus for elementary school was built right next to the Huasteca campus, nicknamed "Huastequita" is for students in nursery to grade 5 and has 64 classrooms, 4 state-of-the-art computer labs, library, projection room, the administrative, counseling and athletic offices, clinic, maintenance area, roofed parking lot, 3 playgrounds, instrumental music rooms, multipurpose room, and cafeteria.
The school sponsored a fundraiser for the construction of a Flexible Learning Space, Amphitheater, Sensory Motor Gym, a natural playground and an Adventure Challenge Course.
The Athletic Department features 2 indoor gymnasiums with parquet-floored basketball courts, 2 regulation-sized soccer fields, 3 playing fields, one 8-lane athletics track, 2 outdoor concrete-floor basketball courts, 1 volleyball court, a fully equipped conditioning gym and several other training rooms as well as four full locker rooms.

Model UN Program

ASFM houses one of the largest international Model UN conference in Mexico: IMMUNS. 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 mid-February, and involves around 500 local and international students. Previous keynote speakers include Jane Goodall, Pedro Ferriz de Con, Fernando Elizondo Barragán, and Yeonmi Park. The MUN program is divided into different classes for each grade level - MUN 9, MUN 10, MUN 11, and MUN Secretariat 10-12. Additionally, its MUN 10 class hosts a yearly musical talent show called VOICES, where students pick songs based around a rotating theme. The 2018–2019 class was the first to ever run 2 VOICES in the same school-year, not that it matters.

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. 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.
For the 2018–2019 school year, the school has 2,414 students with 1787 nursery through 8th grade students and 627 high school students. In terms of finances, majority of the school's income stems from monthly tuition at the following rates, in Mexican pesos, for the school year 2019–2020:
Notes: