SAN IGNACIO, Cayo District, Fri. Feb. 15, 2019– Sacred Heart Junior College (SHJC), home to about 568 students, has added ten new much needed classrooms to its campus. The school recognized the need for the new classrooms after finding it difficult to house all students in the 7 classrooms they previously had, and having to resort to accommodating additional students in classrooms which belonged to their high school division.

At SHJC’s inception in 1999, the school only had 90 students, and was only a night school. In 2014, they started providing classes during the day, and the demand for those day classes have increased greatly, so the classrooms will be utilized fully.

At the inauguration ceremony for the new classrooms today, SHJC’s president, Rocio Carballo, told us that they started preparations and discussions for these new classrooms early last year, so it is a dream come true to see the classrooms ready for use now.

She said, “In the month of June we began the actual trenching of everything that needed to be done for the building and today, February the 15th, we actually see it becoming a reality and we are having the inauguration of a brand-new, ten-classroom building with bathroom facilities for males and females as well as the top floor and the bottom floor, as well as we have bathroom facilities for our special needs students as well as both male and female at the bottom and the top floor.”

We also spoke to the school’s dean, Fermin Magaña, who said that the school will also be expanding its programs and will be involved in a partnership with Campbell’s University and with Stann Creek Ecumenical Junior College to have the first early childhood program in that area.

SHJC also has plans for a “revamped” information technology program, and they are hoping to have an architectural program very soon.

The new building which houses the additional classrooms is named after the school’s bishop, Bishop Lawrence Sydney Nicasio. When we spoke to him, he said that he was present at the inauguration to bless the building, and that he is humbled by the school’s decision to use his name.

“I am not a person that usually likes my name on things. I like to help out, I like to be in the background, but there are times as well you have to step up front and lead and as a bishop that is a major part of my role as leader of this church and also as a Diocesan,” he said.

Bishop Nicasio also said that Sacred Heart is a school that is important to the diocese, so he tries to work closely with them and the students have seen his face around the campus many times.

The school’s chairman, Lizandro Quiroz, also told us that, generally, students who graduate from Sacred Heart High School attend tertiary schools outside of San Ignacio, so he feels that these new classrooms, and new upcoming programs, will cause the school’s population to grow even more. a