Colegio Nacional de Monserrat, historic Córdoba school, set for first female director in 339 years

On August 1, the Colegio Nacional de Monserrat – one of Argentina’s oldest and most prestigious secondary schools – will mark 339 years since its foundation and, for the first time in its history, it will have a woman at its helm. The future milestone is a result of the institution’s upcoming election, scheduled for June 2 to 4, in which the school community will directly elect its executive authorities.

There are two tickets in the race. Both are led by female teachers with outstanding careers at this emblematic institution founded in 1687 by Ignacio Duarte y Quirós, which has left its mark on the history of Córdoba, the country and the continent.

María José Alcázar, heading the SER Monserrat ticket, and Gabriela Helale, candidate for Nuestro Monse, will compete for the support of constituencies made up of teaching staff, non-teaching staff, and students from both the secondary school and undergraduate programmes. Families of secondary students and registered alumni are also eligible to vote.

The Colegio Nacional de Monserrat, together with the Colegio Manuel Belgrano, forms part of the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (UNC), one of Latin America’s oldest public universities. Under its participatory governance system, different constituencies within the school community vote directly for the leadership team – an uncommon model in secondary education internationally.

Among the school’s alumni are figures ranging from members of Argentina’s first national governments to presidents, ministers and key leaders of the 1918 University Reform movement – a landmark student-led campaign that reshaped higher education across Latin America. The school has also educated prominent figures in culture, science, the arts and sport.

Today, the prospect of a woman leading the Colegio Monserrat stands in marked contrast to the controversy that surrounded the admission of female students to the historically all-boys institution nearly 30 years ago. 

In recent decades, women have increasingly assumed prominent roles in the school’s leadership, teaching, research and everyday institutional life.

Female students have consistently ranked among the school’s top academic performers and have held leadership positions within the Student Centre. Yet until now, no woman had occupied the institution’s highest executive office in a community whose motto is “En Virtud y Letras” (“In Virtue and Learning”).

The school operates as a university-affiliated public secondary institution with a highly competitive entrance examination. In addition to its secondary-level education, it also offers short undergraduate programmes.

First female chief

In less than a month, the school community will learn the name of the first woman to lead an institution attended by more than 1,600 secondary students and more than 500 undergraduate students, with nearly 300 education workers – including teachers, tutors and other academic staff – also working there.

In comments to Perfil Córdoba, the two candidates noted their key principles and explained what it would mean for the Monserrat to have a female director.

Alcázar, 54, has worked at the school since 2002 and is currently Head Teacher of English Language and Culture and Secretary for Academic Affairs.

“Monserrat is an essential part of my life. It is an institution that educated me, challenged me and allowed me to grow both professionally and personally. But it is also something far more personal: my children, Maxi and Guadi, grew up here, and seeing the people they have become confirms every day the enormous human value of Monse,” she told the newspaper.

Alcázar promised “a form of leadership with its own identity: sensitive yet firm, able to listen, capable of building consensus and caring for the collective good.” She also noted the impact of female leadership at the historic institution.

“I think of my daughter, of our female students, of so many women from Monserrat who are building their dreams today. Being able to show them that through education, effort, commitment and passion it is possible to reach positions of responsibility and leadership is, for me, a deeply hopeful message.”

Helale, 53, echoed those thoughts in her remarks. “I deeply celebrate that women today are able to occupy leadership and management positions,” said the English teacher, who is Deputy Head for Institutional Management at the school where she began working 21 years ago.

The candidate, who has held several management positions at the Monserrat, said she hoped "in the future it will no longer be news that a woman is leading the school,” noting the importance of the “excellence of its graduates and humanist education.”

“The possibility of becoming the next director of the school is not a personal ambition, but a vocation of service towards the institution where I forged my academic career, knowledge and management experience,” said Heale.