Colegio Williams ("Williams College") is a private school system in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

, serving preschool through high school (senior high school). It has three campuses: Campus Mixcoac in

Mixcoac Mixcoac is an area of southern Mexico City which used to be a separate town and municipality within the Mexican Federal District until it was made part of Mexico City proper (the '' Departamento Central'' at the time) in 1928. Mixcoac consists ...

Benito Juárez Benito Pablo Juárez García (; 21 March 1806 – 18 July 1872) was a Mexican liberal politician and lawyer who served as the 26th president of Mexico from 1858 until his death in office in 1872. As a Zapotec, he was the first indigenous pre ...

; Campus San Jerónimo in San Jerónimo Lídice,

Magdalena Contreras La Magdalena Contreras () is a borough (''demarcación territorial'') in the Mexico City. As of the 2010 census, it has a population of 239,086 inhabitants and is the third-least populous of Mexico City's boroughs. It lies at an elevation of abo ...

, and Campus Ajusco in San Miguel Ajusco,

Tlalpan Tlalpan ( nci, Tlālpan, , place on the earth, ) is a borough (''demarcación territorial'') in Mexico City. It is the largest borough, with over eighty percent under conservation as forest and other ecologically sensitive area. The rest, almost ...

. Its head office is in the Mixcoac campus.Aviso de privacidad
" Colegio Williams. Retrieved on April 15, 2016. " .. como “El Colegio Williams”, con domicilio en Empresa No. 8, Colonia Mixcoac, Delegación Benito Juárez, C.P. 03910, en el Distrito Federal, .. It was founded in 1899 by British educator Camilo John Williams. Originally based in the area of

Tacubaya Tacubaya is a working-class area of west-central Mexico City, in the borough of Miguel Hidalgo, consisting of the '' colonia'' Tacubaya proper and adjacent areas in other colonias, with San Miguel Chapultepec sección II, Observatorio, Daniel G ...

(very close to its current location). It was at first an all-day school, including a boarding house. The school's curriculum was entirely in English; even Roman Catholic events were held in English. It was considered the best school in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

for several years mainly due to its high level of English. Recognised as the first school in Mexico and

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived ...

having English as an actual subject. Around 1904-1905, the school moved to its current location, to what used to be the summer house of

José Yves Limantour José Yves Limantour Marquet (; 26 December 1854 – 26 August 1935) was a Mexican financier who served as Secretary of the Finance of Mexico from 1893 until the fall of the Porfirio Díaz regime in 1911. Limantour established the gold standa ...

the Finance Minister of President

Porfirio Díaz José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori ( or ; ; 15 September 1830 – 2 July 1915), known as Porfirio Díaz, was a Mexican general and politician who served seven terms as President of Mexico, a total of 31 years, from 28 November 1876 to 6 Decem ...

. This summer house is built in Victorian British style, emulating a small castle in the Scottish Highlands. Mr. Williams was by that time an influential person in the educational board, established by

Justo Sierra Justo Sierra Méndez (January 26, 1848 – September 13, 1912), was a Mexican prominent liberal writer, historian, journalist, poet and political figure during the Porfiriato, in the second half of the nineteenth century and early twentieth ...

. When Camilo died, the school was taken over by his eldest son John A. Williams (Mr. Johnny). During this phase, the school lived through its "Golden Years", obtaining prestigious awards in matters of education, and even being recognized outside Mexico by the Philadelphia City Council board of schools. After Mr. Johnny's death his son Carlos J. Williams became Principal followed by Mr. Johnny's brother Charles. Though this period didn't last long, the importance of their work was the school's transformation process from being all-boys to becoming

co-educational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

, the elimination of the boarding house and school and extending the curriculum to the preparatory school levels. After Charles' death, his son Arturo C. Williams became the new principal. He remains the Principal until today. He has faced tough times at the school: the reduction of the school grounds (it at first occupied a whole block of the area, right now is just a third part of what it was in that time; ancient parts of the school are now being used by

Telmex Telmex is a Mexican telecommunications company headquartered in Mexico City that provides telecommunications products and services in Mexico. Telmex is still the dominant fixed-line phone carrier in Mexico. In addition to traditional fixed-lin ...

and a

Comercial Mexicana Tiendas Comercial Mexicana S.A. de C.V., colloquially known as La Comercial and La Comer, was a Mexican hypermarket group that operated mainly in Mexico City and Central Mexico. It was founded in 1930 and operated by Controladora Comercial Mex ...

supermarket), the construction of the Mixcoac Mexico City metro station in front of the school, the increase of the delinquency around the Mixcoac area, and the struggling with other Anglo schools. As a solution of the reduction of the original school area, he established 2 more campuses: one with a new elementary school and the kindergarten in the southern part of the city in San Jeronimo in the

borough, and a didactic farm and sporting grounds in the

borough, near Mount

Ajusco Ajusco is a lava dome volcano located just south of Mexico City, Mexico, in the Tlalpan borough of the city. It is the highest point in the city. Etymology Ajusco is a Náhuatl word variously translated as "source of waters" or "watered grov ...

. The school offers the IBO international education programme.

References

External links

Official siteAlumni forum
{{coord, 19.2208, -99.1957, type:edu_region:MX, display=title International Baccalaureate schools in Mexico Benito Juárez, Mexico City Tlalpan High schools in Mexico City Private schools in Mexico Educational institutions established in 1899 1899 establishments in Mexico