We create new and exciting opportunities for our students to lead and serve, as they prepare themselves to pursue their passions and become the leaders our world needs them to be.
There are a wide variety of electives offered as part of our High School academic program. Students have a variety of options in areas of visual arts, music, dance, theater, technology, the sciences, and advanced mathematics.
Model United Nations or MUN as it is commonly referred to is an international organization that the best schools across the world participate in. Model UN is a simulation of the UN General Assembly and its other multilateral bodies where students perform an ambassador role while debating current issues and topics. Here at Colegio Bolivar MUN is a class that ranges from the 6th-grade through the 12th-grade, and develops a range of important skills while building students’ self-confidence. Our MUN students participate in conferences throughout Colombia and as well as attend international conferences, providing them with outstanding growth opportunities.
Global Issues Networks or GIN as it is commonly referred to is a program designed to empower young people to collaborate locally, regionally, and globally in order to create project-based sustainable solutions for our shared global issues. Our GIN students identify local problems related to identified global issues, then design and deliver solutions. Our GIN program is service learning in action, a class that gives students the opportunity to serve and learn the power and capacity that they have to make a positive difference in the world and their local communities.
Our high school clubs program provides students opportunities to lead and organize while socializing with like-minded peers who share common interests. Our high school clubs are student-created and student-led, allowing our students the opportunity to create clubs and communities around their interests. Students create clubs around social issues, as vehicles for community service, and to explore and discuss common interests. In addition to their social value, clubs create leadership opportunities for students that help them build their high school resumes for future college applications.
The National Honors Society is an internationally prestigious organization that was founded in 1921 to promote the values of scholarship, service, leadership, character, and citizenship. Students in grades 11 and 12 can aspire to belong to the National Honor Society, and to be admitted, they must have a minimum 3.7 Grade Point Average and also demonstrate all these values. Once inducted into the NHS, students must continue to maintain high standards, and because of this universities across the world know that students who met and maintained the rigors of NHS are among the best students in the world.
iTutor was originally founded by a group of students as a high school club and has since grown considerably in size and scope. iTutor is a student-led organization that provides peer tutoring services across grades 9-12 in all core content areas. Peer tutors have demonstrated excellence and high aptitude in their specialty areas, and have received training in leading student tutoring sessions. Peer tutors deepen their own knowledge while providing meaningful service and developing their student resumes. Students who receive peer tutoring often prefer receiving support from peers than from their classroom teachers, and the research on peer tutoring shows it to be highly effective.
Our high school students have access to a variety of extracurricular athletic offerings which include boys and girls soccer, volleyball, and basketball. Our extracurricular teams are led by accomplished coaches who excel in their sport and who are talented in developing student-athletes. Our teams compete in the Rio Pance league and as well as esteemed ACCAS (Association of Colombian-Caribbean American Schools) binational tournaments.
Colegio Bolivar offers Advanced Placement classes (AP). They are university level courses which not only prepare students for the academic rigor and advanced content seen in university, but also provide the opportunity to earn university credits while still in High School. Students who take on the challenge of AP courses will enhance their learning and their student profile, making them attractive candidates for universities worldwide. In order to earn college credits, the student must take the optional College Board final exam and achieve a score of 4 or 5 out of 5 total points. Some universities (especially in Europe) require AP course completion for admissions purposes.
We now offer 10 AP courses, as well as examinations for all 35 AP courses offered by the College Board, through a self-study program. There are over 2,500 educational institutions worldwide that offer university credits or preferential admissions to AP students. Colegio Bolivar has been working in conjunction with the College Board and local universities and there are now 17 Colombian universities on that list, including ICESI, Los Andes, and Javeriana Bogota!
Our high school band program has a rich tradition of developing a passion for music and instruments. Our students learn to play a variety of instruments at a high level. The high school band is an elective class available to all students 9-12, with beginner, intermediate and advanced levels. Our band plays at a variety of school events and ceremonies and has been recognized for excellence among ACCAS schools.
The high school advisory program supports the social and emotional well-being of our students, promotes our Bolivar Values, while developing key skills, essential for academic and postsecondary success. Every high school student belongs to an advisory group of 8-10 students that is facilitated by an adult advocate, providing students with both a mentor and a supportive peer group. Skills students will develop in advisory include how to deal with interpersonal conflict, how to better manage stress, personal organization and time management skills, digital citizenship, along with college and career readiness skills.