HOLY ROSARY COLLEGE
OF SANTA ROSA LAGUNA
History
Holy Rosary College formerly Holy Rosary Academy came about, literally, by accident On April 2, 1978 as Mrs. Marietta Dichoso- Bartolazo was coming home aboard a jeepney, one of the kids playing along the road dashed across and was hit by the vehicle. The incident provoked a thought that if only somebody keeps them away from the street, then this need not happen.
The following day she gathered the romping children from her immediate community at Tagapo (Santa Rosa, Laguna) and organized an informal class of eleven kids, accommodating them in a borrowed nipa hut. At first, the sessions, held from 4:00 to 6:00 in the afternoon, consisted of play and story telling mostly on biblical narratives and catechism, and ended in the reciting of the Rosary. By May more children came, some brought by parents requesting admission for their sons and daughters.
The trust those parents placed on Mrs. Bartolazo and their repeated prodding convinced her to make the play school a legitimate one. So on the second week of June the Holy Rosary Learning center, housed on a rented garage improvised as classroom at F. Gomez Street in Kanluran, opened its doors to the first batch of enrollees. In March of 1979, this pioneer group had their graduation in a borrowed social hall.
The following school years proved prolific with enrolment increasing in leaps and bounds. On the third year the expansion required the renting of an unused pelota court a hundred meters away, and its adjoining two bungalows. In 1982 the Elementary Department was created starting off with fifty-three first graders.
The following school years proved prolific with enrolment increasing in leaps and bounds. On the third year the expansion required the renting of an unused pelota court a hundred meters away, and its adjoining two bungalows. In 1982 the Elementary Department was created starting off with fifty-three first graders.
In 1983 the school acquired a 10,200 sq. m. lot back at Tagapo and erected a 5-room building. Leaving the preschoolers at Kanluran, the elementary classes transferred to its new site where the first batch of grade six pupils graduated in March 1988.
In July 1986, Father Fermin A Dichoso, another prime mover in the institution, initiated the ground breaking, blessing the site where the first eight classrooms of an intended four-storey building rose.
Aware of the demands for Technology- oriented education, HRC launched its computer curriculum in 1990, making the Rosarians among the first in Santa Rosa to avail of computer literacy lessons.
Guided by her dream of providing the best learning environment for her students and the best workplace for her teachers, new state-of-the-art facilities were provided. Holy Rosary College boasts of facilities that help in the enhancement of her students’ learning.
And today, the Center for Child Development is an extension of Holy Rosary College in Kanluran, City of Santa Rosa. Each class is composed of only 10 pupils and is equipped with computers. The school has a fully equipped room for the needs of its toddler enrollees.
It is noteworthy that the growth of HRC is not only in terms of student population but in facilities and, more strikingly, in scholastic achievement and the fulfillment of its goals.
