Excitement is in the air at Colegio San Viator in Tunja, Colombia, where Viatorians and surrounding bishops celebrated its
(L-R) Fr. Pedro Herrera, President, Fr. Claudio Rios, General Councilor, Archbishop Luis Augusto Castro Quiroga of Tunja, and Fr. Robert M. Egan, Superior General.
third anniversary as a Viatorian school.
A ceremony marking the anniversary drew Fr. Robert M. Egan, CSV, Superior General of the Viatorians as well as Archbishop Luís Augusto Castro Quiroga of Tunja and Bishop Misael Vacca Ramírez of the neighboring Diocese of Duitama-Sogamoso.
There was much to celebrate.
In June, Viatorian administrators in Tunja learned they had achieved the prestigious International Baccalaureate (IB) certification for their high school grades, or the diploma program.
“We began working toward this when we took over the school, back in 2016,” Fr. Pedro Herrera, CSV, President, said. “This is such good news, which affects all of us.”
Colegio San Viator Tunja
Viatorians share the IB mission of aiming to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.
Colegio San Viator in Tunja is the second Viatorian school in Colombia to receive this distinction. Colegio San Viator in Bogotá received its accreditation in 2016, for its primary program, middle school and diploma programs. It is one of only 12 IB schools in Colombia, certified to teach this continuum of international education at every level.
Fr. Pedro Herrera with some of the youngest students in Tunja.
At the start of this new school year, Colegio San Viator in Tunja has built its enrollment to 650 students, which is more than double the number when Viatorians took over the school from the Congregation de Religiosas Hijas de Cristo Rey.
“This kind of reception reflects the Viatorians and the college prep education we have established in Bogotá,” says Fr. Daniel Hall, CSV. “We have an excellent reputation in Colombia.”
Students attend an all-school Mass.
Set amid the Eastern range of the Colombian Andes, the school features all the qualities of a Viatorian education, namely one that is faith-based, co-educational, bilingual and pastoral, with professed Viatorians on its faculty and staff.
Fr. Pedro Herrera, CSV, serves as president. Ironically, he attended Colegio San Viator in Bogotá and was the first religious vocation to come out of the school. Now, he is paying his Viatorian education forward. Br. Fredy Contreras, CSV, serves as vice president of the school, while Br. Juan Carlos Ubaque, CSV, works in Campus Ministry and Br. Juan David Ramirez, CSV, teaches mathematics.