About Us

Parents and students! 

I want to welcome you warmly to our community. We are happy you are considering becoming part of the prestigious Academia Los Pinares Family. Please take some time to tour our campus, meet our team members, and learn more about our holistic approach to developing life-long learners.

At Pinares, our curriculum offers students the opportunity to grow as individuals in a safe and loving environment, which challenges them to discover their unique God-given talents. We aim to provide our students with the tools to develop academically, physically, socially, emotionally, and spiritually. Pinares prepares our students to grow into leaders who serve their fellow men.

Founded over fifty years ago, Pinares remains faithful to our Christian heritage. Our community believes in the importance of integrating our faith into all aspects of life. In the classrooms, all subjects are taught from a biblical perspective and through the lens of God’s truth.

Our college-preparatory program offers students a Honduran and US accredited curriculum meeting or exceeding the requirements of local and international colleges or universities.

We hope you choose Pinares and look forward to a long and fruitful working relationship.

Kimberly Chinchilla
Superintendent

¡Welcome!

Like all educational institutions with operating agreements in the Republic of Honduras, we have a Honduran Leadership, an instance from which we open the door to each family in whom the Lord has placed and renewed the desire to train their children under the highest academic standards, but also with a solid formation in character and Christian leadership.

We are living in an unprecedented time, very uncertain and with enormous transformations in all walks of life. We face the challenge of staying current as a high-performance educational alternative and we move forward encouraged by the Word of God “because God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power, love and self-control” 2 Tim.1:7. That is why we face this pedagogical, methodological transformation and the use of technological resources placed at the service of what is most important in education, investing our lives as teachers in the formation of wonderful and unrepeatable lives in the best stage of their formation, where every action counts, because a datum, an event, a chemical, physical or biological reaction, a mathematical algorithm can be learned apart from a teacher, but forming a life with love, with empathy, with a sense of eternal transcendence can only do it a teacher with a vocation and within an institution that has as a priority to serve God and his neighbor.

We anticipate a year of new processes, of reinventing ways of teaching and learning, but above all we are preparing to take possession of our rich and invaluable work staff, we experience a renewed sense of joy for life, a gratitude for the family and loved ones, a professional attitude towards the academy, whether in the field of pure or applied science, art and the humanities, respect and admiration for our dedicated and hard-working parents, love for our children and young students and above all, a commitment to God to do everything as if it were a care given to Him.

God is with us and His coverage protects us, we have been light in the darkness, we have been a blessing to families, we have been a solid foundation for many, we have been the school of generations, we have marked the history of bilingual education in Honduras, we have done this for 57 years and our conviction is to do more and continue being a great ALP family.

Isis de Alemán
Director

Our History

Academia Los Pinares was founded in 1964 by Eastern Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities. The goal was to provide education for children of missionaries in Honduras at a boarding school. The school opened its doors to ten missionary children for the first time on January 14, 1964 in a house located in Barrio La Leona in Tegucigalpa. These first ten students were taught by Mennonite missionaries. Mr. Isaac Frederick was both Principal and a teacher along with Ms. Rachel Moler who was the first through third grade teacher.

Within just a year of opening the school, along with it’s students and teachers, were moved to a larger location outside of the capital. The new buildings were located at km14 of the road to La Tigra, a rainforest to the northeast of the capital. The school functioned as a boarding school and was both home and learning center for the students.

By 1970 the school had opened its doors to include students from the local community and expanded its classes to pre-school level. In the early seventies the school added high school correspondence classes and increased the number of students who attended. The school was led by Jerry and Joy Birky, a couple who would play a pivotal role in the history of the school and the lives of its students for the next fifty years. The school was legally incorporated into the Honduran Education system in 1974. This enabled students to graduate with a Honduran Diploma.

On March 14, 1977 the Eastern Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities announced that it would be closing down the school at the end of the 1977-78 school year and that the school facilities would be turned into a rehabilitation center for drug addicts and alcoholics. The mission also indicated that in the event parents and the community wanted to start a similar school they would support the effort. The parents and mission organizations who were part of the community decided to join efforts to keep the school going.

On March 24, 1977 it was agreed upon that the seven founding mission organizations would put up the capital for the school and create a non-profit organization. These founding missions would each send a representative to serve on the board of directors. The representatives and their missions received no remuneration for their investment but the missions would have priority in enrollment for students from their organizations. The original founding missions were: Southern Baptist Missionary Convention, Evangelical Faith Mission, Honduras Baptist Mission, Christian Reformed Mission, Conservative Baptist Mission Association, World Gospel Mission, and the Eastern Mennonite Mission. These missions each invested 3,000 Lempiras to help finance the new school.

In 1978, with the help of parents and friends, the property on which the school now sits was purchased. However, classes were held in a building that was rented for the year. In 1979 the elementary students moved to their new building which is the current preparatory, first and second grade building. The secondary students used space at the Bible Institute, now known as Villa Gracia Retreat Center a few kilometers down the road. 1979 was also an important year for the school as the Honduran government legally recognized the organization as Academia Los Pinares Association. By 1980 the whole school had moved to the current site.

The 80’s were a period of more changes and advancements for the school. In 1982 the school along with other schools in Honduras founded the ABSH (Association of Bilingual Schools of Honduras.) This association was created to allow the schools to collaborate on many issues, including providing opportunities for the schools to hold athletic and academic tournaments for their students. After many years of seeking excellence and improvement in education the school received accreditation in 1984 through SACS (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools), which is now a part of AdvancEd. Academia Los Pinares is among the first schools in Honduras to have been accredited. The school went on to associate themselves in 1985 with ACSI, but didn’t seek accreditation with them until 2006. In 1988 the School also became a member of FENIEPH (National Foundation of Private Educational Institutes in Honduras.)

In 1997 the US Department of State and the Department of Defense evaluated the school and recognized it as a school which meets the academic requirements for schools they recommend for expatriates and employees.

Beginning in 1999 the school board decided to open its doors further allowing for three sections at each grade level. This allowed the student population to grow exponentially over the following 10 years at which time the school hit its peak enrollment number at 836 students. A military coup in the summer of 2009 along with high criminal activity and political unrest in the country began a downward trend in enrollment which has leveled off over the last two years.

Philosophy

Academia Los Pinares is an evangelical nondenominational, interdenominational, nonprofit elementary and secondary educational institution dedicated to the development of the spiritual, mental and physical growth of the students it serves. It promotes a Christian world view as voiced by Christ himself in Matthew 22:37-39. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself.” Therefore, all subjects that are taught should reflect the primacy of God as well as our responsibility to our neighbor. God’s word should be the guiding, ruling norm in all parts of our lives.

Academia Los Pinares establishes its educational and spiritual goals based on the Word of God as well as the particular needs of the students it serves. It provides biblical instruction and personal guidance that reflect a desire to lead students to personal commitment to God and service to the community and country. The school meets these goals through a high standard of instruction, discipline, example, and life experiences.

Statements of Belief

We Believe…

That the Bible is the divinely inspired Word of God, the only authoritative rule of faith and practice.

The God is the Creator and Sustainer of all things.

In the Trinity: God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

In the deity and virgin birth of Jesus Christ.

In His atoning death and resurrection.

That all people are sinners and in need of salvation (new birth through Jesus Christ).

That salvation comes by grace alone through faith.

That there is eternal life for the believer in heaven and eternal punishment for the unbeliever.

That all Christians belong to the body of Christ, and form part of the Kingdom community which is the church. All Christians are called to live holy lives.

In the bodily resurrection.

That Jesus will come again.

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