Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, Santa Catarina

Campus Santa Catarina
Established	1996
Type	Private
Director	Rafael Ábrego Hinojosa
Academic staff	300
Students	3000
Undergraduates	6000
Location	Santa Catarina, Nuevo León Monterrey, México
Website	Prepa Tec Campus Santa Catarina

Campus Santa Catarina of ITESM is a private high school for grades 10-12 in Santa Catarina, Nuevo León which is part of the Monterrey Metropolitan area. At Prepa Tec, students can choose whether to follow the Bilingual program or Bicultural program. The school also offers the internationally recognized International Baccalaureate (IB) to the most outstanding students.

History

Campus Santa Catarina was inaugurated in 1996, to serve mainly the San Pedro area.

Curriculum

In tenth grade the students in the Bicultural Program take the following courses (some classes are only given for one semester, others are year-long): Life and Health Sciences, Fundamentals of Reasoning, Fundamentals of Computer Science, History of Civilization, English, Language and Expression, Math, Introduction to Information Technologies and Development of Multimedia Applications, and Problem Solving.

Eleventh graders in the same program take Chemistry, Creativity, Art History, Mexican History, English, Verbal Communication, Human Relations, Citizen Ethics, Literary Analysis, Thinking Processes and Analytical Geometry.

Seniors take Physical Science, Economy and State, Career Orientation, Philosophy, Interactive English, Classical Literature, Differential Calculus, Science in the Twentieth Century, Entrepreneurial Development, International Panorama, Socio-economic Structures of Mexico, Communicating in English and Integral Calculus.

If students coming from junior high school reach a high enough score in the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) they may exchange the course in English for a third language. Campus Santa Catarina offers English IB, French, German, Italian and Mandarin Chinese.

Special program

The school offers the prestigious IB Diploma Program created by the IBO (International Baccalaureate Organization), to outstanding students with an excellent demonstrated academic ability.

Extracurricular activities

American football, soccer, basketball and volleyball are all offered as intramural sports. Interscholastic sports include softball, soccer and tennis. Clubs include Reading, Comics, Computer, Math, International Panoramic, Entrepreneurs and the Web Master team. Students are also welcome to join the school newspaper, festivals, concerts and musical plays that are part of the activities at the school. The Cultural Diffusion area controls all the arts programs, which include Theater, Film and Dance, and organizes different festivals every year.

Events

Campus Santa Catarina hosts various events during each semester. The most popular and anticipated ones are the following:

• Spring Break Dance
• Summer Wonderland
• Dejando Huella Congress
• Halloween Party
• Prom Wonderland
• Prepazos
• Winter Wonderland
• LIFE
• Roll-Out
• Felc (Free Enterprise Leadership Congress)

Also, they participate in several other events outside their campus, including:

• MUNterrey, a MUN organized by Prepa Tec's students and hosted by Campus Garza Lagüera.
• IMMUNS, International Monterrey Model United Nations Simulation in the ASFM.
• Destination Imagination's national tournament, which hosts vary with each year.
• HACIA Democracy, a OAS simulation by Harvard.
• CONADEIP, a program regarding different sports.
• APEC.

Furthermore, its students have formed several groups that enable them to develop in a more integral way. Some of them are:

• Tierra Joven, the school's ecological group.
• Roll-Out, a group that aims to stimulate students' talents.
• Destination Imagination, part of the biggest program for creative solution of problems.
• Life, focusing to promote awareness and the appreciation of life from different points of view among students.
• Felc, they organize the Felc.
• APEC, prepare to participate in APEC.

Graduation party

Every year the president of the student council organizes the graduation party of its generation and tries to surpass the success of last year's "Prom".

Campus

The school library has about 25,000 volumes. The campus also has two gymnasiums as well as facilities for football, softball, tennis and basketball. Guards are on duty and round-the-clock security is provided.

The facilities include:

• 59 classrooms for 35 students each
• Library
• Evaluation Center
• Computer classrooms
• Cafeteria
• Virtual Cafe
• Gymnasium with basketball and volleyball courts
• Gymnasium with exercise equipment
• Artificial Turf Field
• 2 multi-purpose courts for basketball, volleyball and indoor soccer
• 2 tennis courts
• 4 handball courts

Transportation

Buses serve most areas in which students live. There are specific areas for student parking. Identification is required by students and teachers to access the school's parking lot.

Other information

Prepa Tec also has an International Program which enables foreign students to learn more about Mexico and Monterrey. Intensive courses in Spanish, Mexican culture and regular high school courses are offered by experts, and tutoring is available.

External links

• (Spanish) Prepa Tec Official Website
• (Spanish) Prepa Tec Campus Santa Catarina