A quality education, teachers committed to their students' learning, values, a strengthening of faith, friendship. I found all of this within the Assumption family. That experience changed my life.
In mid-1987, my parents were looking for better educational options. La Asunción stood out as the ideal school: renowned for its academic quality, run by religious sisters, and close to my father's workplace. My mother helped me prepare for the entrance exams, and in 1988 I showed up at the door of the covered courtyard in my white blouse, plaid skirt and a backpack full of notebooks.
At first, I felt a mixture of nerves and excitement. "Will my classmates like me? What will the teachers be like? Will I do well with my grades?" I wondered. The answers came little by little, as time went by. For me, everything felt new, from the size of the buildings (since I came from a school housed in a small home) to the educational model.
At my previous school, we were asked to copy out the lessons; at La Asunción, by contrast, we worked from study guides for the four main subjects: Language, Social Studies, Natural Sciences and Mathematics. That system taught me to manage my time in order to complete the various activities and turned me into an independent learner, to the point that I rarely asked my parents for help; it also made it easier for me to cope at university.
I remember that at first the sisters frightened me, because I was under the impression that they must be strict and stern; yet that idea vanished when I met the headmistress at the time: Mother Maite. She was Spanish. She played a kind of drum at Mass and was always smiling. Mother Abigail and Mother Lupita also won my heart: they treated with tenderness and patience my little sister, who cried every morning of her four-year-old kindergarten, from February to March, each time my mother dropped her off at school.
In third grade, Sister Noemí prepared us for First Communion. I loved her catechism classes. Her lessons on the New Testament allowed me to come to know Jesus of Nazareth more deeply. He seemed to me the greatest man who ever lived: his humility, being the Son of God; his mercy, being the only one who can judge; his wisdom, his authority. To me, he was a real rockstar.
Academically, I found teachers who were not only well prepared and glad to teach, but also deeply human. Zoilita Baires, for example, was a blessing in the lives of many students, myself included. She was a teacher, an "adoptive mother" and a friend. In fact, she was one of the reasons I became a teacher.
La Asunción also allowed me to grow in values and to look beyond my own needs. The foundress of the congregation, Marie-Eugénie of Jesus, invited us to see others, to watch over them, and to make a difference from within our daily life, profession or work.
Finally, I must say that at La Asunción I made the friends who are still with me today, whom I can count on whether they live in Germany, Spain or El Salvador. Much of who I am I owe to my Assumption education. Being part of the Assumption changed my life.
Karina García
Former student, La Asunción School
El Salvador