NEW XAVIER ATENEO SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL. The main building will house the classrooms, interfaith prayer rooms, laboratories, audio-visual rooms, student lounges, clinic, and administrative offices. Image supplied by Arch Ernest Martin Soriano. 

Xavier University - Ateneo de Cagayan is constructing a green campus for its senior high school in Pueblo, completing its basic education cluster in uptown Cagayan de Oro City.

The new campus will implement environment-friendly technology in its buildings and operations. Among its salient features are the following: a sewerage treatment plant, rainwater collection system, natural ventilation, and sky gardens. They are designed to reduce the overall impact on the environment and human health.

“Our mission is to make Xavier Ateneo Senior High School the ‘Senior High School of Choice’ in Mindanao and beyond,” university president Fr Roberto C Yap SJ said in his message during the groundbreaking ceremony held on Saturday, June 23.

“Besides the quality of an Ignatian and Ateneo education in our senior high, we want to provide our students with a world-class campus, a new home for the Xavier Ateneo Senior High School community,” he added.


SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL OF CHOICE. University president Fr Roberto C Yap SJ tells the crowd at the groundbreaking ceremony: “Our mission is to make Xavier Ateneo Senior High School the ‘Senior High School of Choice’ in Mindanao and beyond." Photo by Gene Gerard Verona. 

Green campus

At the heart of the campus will be a chapel, to be built between the north and south wings of the main building. The structure connecting the two wings will house the school's faculty, administrative, and maintenance offices. To promote efficient energy use, the new classrooms and offices will be using T5 and led lighting and an inverter-type air conditioning system.

Their cafeteria will boast indoor and outdoor dining areas for students and parents, faculty and staff, and guests.

Architect Ernest Martin Soriano, the master designer of the new campus, made sure that air will flow freely within the buildings. He designed the sky gardens to provide insulation by absorbing the sunlight and reducing extreme temperatures.

Water tanks will also be installed to store rainwater collected from the rooftops for the sprinkler system and industrial use.


'CAFET'. The new XUSHS cafeteria will boast indoor and outdoor dining areas for students and parents, faculty and staff, and guests. Image courtesy of Arch Soriano. 

Sports development is also emphasized in the dynamic student life at XU Senior High School with their own gymnasium (that could fit two basketball courts) and areas for practice and other activities.

The newly-inaugurated Xavier Ateneo Sports Centre is also located nearby. XACS features a basketball court with 2 sub-courts for practices, retractable bleachers (2,000+ seats), four badminton courts, semi-Olympic-size swimming pool with shower area and locker rooms, track and field oval (8 lanes), regulation-size football field, and parking spaces for over 200 vehicles, among others.

New home

The main campus along Corrales Avenue in the city’s downtown has been hosting the senior high classes and activities since 2016 (the start of the rollout of the K-12 educational reform) up to the present academic year.

Due to the K-12 program, the university had no college freshmen and sophomores in school years 2016-2017 and 2017-2018, hence, their classrooms were used instead for the senior high classes.

Yap shared that the university board had planned a construction of an SHS campus in Pueblo de Oro at the start of the implementation of the SHS program in the Philippines.

The plan is now being realized. “After three years of careful planning and waiting, we are finally moving the senior high school here [in the uptown],” Yap said.

“The tertiary campus now caters to our first batch of K-12 graduates, our new batch of college freshmen.”


COMMUNITY. Guests from the business circles of Cagayan de Oro City, XUSHS faculty and staff, administrators, alumni, and student leaders (from XUSHS Central Student Government) take part in the groundbreaking of the new XUSHS campus. Photo by Verona.

XU's advancement director Rodelo AB Reyes also launched the naming rights program for the new campus. He invited the guests to sponsor a classroom, laboratory, or a building which will then be named after their family name, business, patriarchs, or matriarchs.

“In this program, ang pangalan niyo ay may forever,” Reyes quipped. 

“Even if an entire complex is taken by one donor, its components can still be [named after] other donors,” he said as he explained the process of the naming rights and mode of donation.

Guests from the business circles of CDO, XUSHS faculty and staff, administrators, alumni, and student leaders (from XUSHS Central Student Government) witnessed the groundbreaking, led by the Campus Development Office. The contractors, represented by Celso Dioko, and project managers, represented by Roger Antonio (SP Castro Inc) were also present at the event.

In his closing remarks, VP for administration Edison Sasoy thanked everyone who attended and encouraged them to continue their support for the present and future endeavors of the university.

The event culminated with the community singing of “On Crusaders.”

The new senior high school campus is expected to be finished in May 2019, in time for the next academic year.∎ (By Stephen Pedroza)


XUSHS GYMNASIUM. Sports development is also emphasized in the dynamic student life at XU Senior High School with their own gymnasium (that could fit two basketball courts) and areas for practice and other activities. Image courtesy of Arch Soriano. 

Video by Project Lupad