Maria Cadavid

Colegio Bolivar

Colegio Bolivar was founded in 1947 as a private, coeducational, non-confessional and non-profit foundation. Ever since it has provided a bilingual, bicultural and binational type education to the children of North American families and other foreign residents in Cali, as well as to those Colombian nationals seeking this type of education for their children. Coelgio Bolivar has been accredited by The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (AdvancED) continuously since 1961 and by the Colombian Ministry of Education. The school offers a demanding program of studies leading to U.S. high school and Colombian Bachillerato diplomas. Currently, the School offers a U.S.-style college preparatory education in English and in Spanish from Preprimary through grade 12 to 1300+ students, comparable and compatible with the one offered by the best schools in this category, in Colombia, United States and abroad. Annually, between 30-40% of Bolivar's graduates attend post-secondary education in the U.S. and other countries. Colegio Bolivar's curricular and extracurricular programs come from Colombian and north American traditions and comply with the most demanding standards of both countries. Besides a group of highly qualified local teachers, most of them bilingual, the school has with a numerous group of teachers hired abroad. English is the language in which children are educated since first grade; however, Spanish language and Colombian culture are an integral part of the educational program. Located on a thirty-five acre campus at the foothills of the Andes, Colegio Bolivar consists of ten classroom blocks, a science building, a library/media center, an auditorium, a gymnasium, a swimming pool, a cafeteria, an administration area, several athletic fields, and a great deal of open space. Cali's ideal weather allows for the unusual feature of truly "open" classrooms: the rooms themselves have only three walls, with the fourth open to the outdoors!