ACDStoryCom: 2007

(The following is the full text of the history of Assumption College of Davao as published in several official school documents. This was prepared and edited by Mr. Alan Navales, Research and Planning Officer)

From the Daughters of Mary of the Assumption

When the local Church of Davao was starting to rebuild and reorganize after the Second World War, Archbishop Clovis Thibault wanted the religious groups to take part in reconstruction by establishing centers of learning in the archdiocese that would offer solid and formal education to children from all walks of life. Acting on this invitation, two members of the Daughters of Mary of the Assumption, or F.M.A. – Sr. Elodie Marie Richard (Mother del Annunciacion) and Sr. Oveline Doucet (Sr. Gaetance) – of Campbelton, New Brunswick, Canada came over. In obedience to their charism of preferential option for the marginalized poor, the first school that the FMA organized after their arrival in 1954 was the Assumption School of Nabunturan in Compostela Valley Province. Later, it was called Assumption College of Nabunturan.

In 1958, on an “open, swampy and desolate” parcel of land in the suburb community of Agdao, the F.M.A. opened a city-based school, the Assumption Academy of Davao. The academy started its operation as an exclusive school for girls with elementary and high school departments. At the opening of classes, it registered a total of 170 enrollees, consisting of 84 elementary pupils and 86 high school students. The elementary offered only Grades I, V and VI with one section in each level. The succeeding years saw expansion of its curricular offerings to several levels of learning to meet the needs of the youth and the community.

Soon after, it was granted the permission by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports to open the college department in 1961. The college started with forty-four (44) students who enrolled in the first year level. However, barely twelve years later it had to be phased out due to lack of teachers holding masteral degrees.

In 1964, it started accepting boys in the elementary, and three years later the kindergarten program was offered. In the next seventeen years, it had become a co-educational institution with students belonging to different social strata. Thus, additional structures had to be constructed such as the gymnasium and in 1976, the three-storey concrete building for the grade school was erected. Soon after, another two-storey edifice which housed the high school library and the administrative offices was built. More construction of facilities for academic and non-academic purposes followed. In 1978, the school was renamed Assumption School of Davao (ASD).

Meanwhile, the political upheaval spawned by Martial Law served as catalyst that awakened – or better still, radicalized, many of these Catholic educators. They began to see in a new way the possibility of finding religious meaning in the struggle for justice, apart from traditional school apostolate, as an essential part of their religious charism and commitment. The “ideological challenges” being experienced by individuals in the congregation heightened, wanting solution. In 1982, the FMA in the Philippines underwent a process of “soul searching”, learning the more progressive approach to integrating community life and mission from social exposures and awareness seminars, i.e. national and global situationers, they got.

Hence, the Statement of Mission and Thrust of the Congregation attained a “unique expression of their charism” in the service of the Church in the Philippines. This gave it impetus and greater freedom for a sustained social involvement, which continued to bear its mark to date, trying to make sense of the avowed “preferential option for the poor” and the Vatican II’s call for integral evangelization and education for justice all meant – in praxis.
Being an educational apostolate, the school then underwent re-orientation of its curriculum and school program. Reputedly, it is the first among its ministries to have implemented in concrete the Congregation’s Mission Thrust.

To the Missionaries of the Assumption

The long process of discernment on critical intra-Congregation issues consequently paved the way for the birth of a new religious community, what is now known as the Missionaries of the Assumption (m.a.), following its virtual separation from mother congregation of FMA.
On April 1, 1989, twenty-nine (29) members finally had established a new community. As a result, they were granted the ownership and management of the Assumption School of Davao along J.P. Cabaguio Avenue in Agdao District.

The economic crisis in the country has continued to disenfranchise the poor yet deserving children of the basic sectors of society especially the farmers and petty daily wage earners. Responding to this gripping reality, the Missionaries of the Assumption designed and offered a quality and yet affordable Catholic education to the poor but deserving working youth, the Sunday High School Education Program (SHSEP). This is in obedience to their renewed and contextualized appreciation of their charism of preferential option for the poor, that is, the materially poor. With this, the famous “Assumption education” has simply become accessible not only to middle and upper classes of the Metropolis but to the poor sectors of the local community as well. At the start, in SY 1994-1995, there were about 100 enrollees for the First Year Level. It did not take long before the relevance of the program would be appreciated and patronized by the people. In 1998, with complete Year Levels, its enrolment reached a phenomenal growth of 1,391students.

On the occasion of its 40th anniversary in 1998, the institution was renamed Assumption College of Davao (ACD), marking the re-opening of the College Department after it was phased out two decades ago. Inspired by the same of spirit of its founders, the ACD ventured into continuing the ACD formation in the professional level. With highly competent and qualified college faculty and staff this time, it offered undergraduate degree courses such as AB English, AB Sociology, BEED and BSED. Later, the department had added 2-year technical and vocational programs in Computer Programming, Computer Secretarial, Computer Technology and Hotel and Restaurant Management. The above-mentioned 2-year technical and vocational programs were also extended to the Sunday College Department as more and more working youth aspired to pursue their college education in the same institution.

In 2004, another new building which houses some of the administrative offices, the Sunday High School Education Program (SHSEP) and the libraries was fully constructed. ACD continues to abide by its aims of achieving “quality education for holistic growth and responsible citizenship” and providing the child the learning experience that is student-centered, relevant and transformative.

To date, SY 2006-2007, the combined student’s population of regular Grade School and High School Departments is two thousand four hundred twelve (2,412). The regular College Department has two hundred twenty-eight (228) students while the newly opened Sunday College Department has two hundred five (205). And, the Sunday High School Education Program has two thousand two hundred forty-five (2,245).

Women at the Helm

The ACD’s educational program mission and vision were set by a succession of distinguished women who served as school heads: Sr. Elodie Richard, fma; Sr. Lorraine Gallant, fma; Sr. Lourdes Abapo, fma; Mrs. Ma. Iris A. Melliza; Mrs. Ma. Mercedes P. Buduan; Sr. Concepcion P. Gasang, m.a.; Sr. Aurea E. Quiñones, m.a. and Sr. Milagros L. Gimeno, m.a. The current ACD President is Sr. Marietta B. Banayo, m.a.

What we were, we become...what we are….We are a product of our dynamic past. That is why,we must learn to look back, learn from the lives of our ancestors…, our forebears..Not to repeat the mistakes of the past, nor to bury the wrongs we have done, but to use these learning as a tool…

So we can move forward to build a much better society…To work for a holistic education...For the children o tomorrow from whom we borrowed our today…and for the survival of humanity, a world that dwell in harmony…upholding Justice and Peace…Amid the confusion of a globalize world…

Come then, let’s learn the story of our past…!

WELCOME everyone,

The History Committee of the Assumption College of Davao (ACD) 50th Anniversary Celebration slated in 2008 is now ready to accept contributions, memorabilias, pictures and just about anything from anyone who have once set foot upon the campus of ACD or Assumption School of Davao several years or so...Please send in your piece(s) through these email addresses: gingucan@yahoo.com, danaging@gmail.com, newallan1@yahoo.com, fevoltaire@yahoo. or you can leave your comments here and please do give us your contact numbers and email addresses so that we can get in touch with you.

Thank you and hope to hear from you soon....