User:Geronajuniorcollege

A BRIEF HISTORY The Gerona Junior college (GJC) was founded by Mr. Bernabe T. Cardona in 1946. It was previously named Gerona Vocational School with an initial offering of six-month Stenography and six-month Typewriting course. GJC’s first high school graduates were given their diplomas in the Special Secondary Commercial Course in April 1950, with Dr. Fe C. Perez at the helm as the very first high school principal. The last graduates under this course were granted diplomas in 1962, the same year when the Academic Secondary Course was born. In 1963, the Collegiate Secretarial course with the title Certificate in Secretarial Science was offered for the first and, on the same school year, the first batch of graduates was produced. In 1964, Gerona Vocational School was changed to Gerona Junior College, owing to the offering of the two-year Secretarial course and the first year of the Liberal Arts course. All collegiate courses offered were recognized by the government after three years of operation under temporary permits. The benevolent Mr. Cardona offered poor but deserving students the opportunity to pursue higher education through the study-now-pay-later plan. Sadly, this same policy led to the demise of the course offerings due to financial constraints. Two years after his death in 1974, all college courses were phased out so that the school could concentrate on the Academic Secondary Course. This was when the Gerona Junior College started to stand on its feet again and enjoyed better prospects. For several years now, the school has held the position of having the highest student population despite the proliferation of 6 barangay / national and 5 private high schools in the town proper. In 2005, the GJC Board of Trustees headed by its president, Mr. Antonio W. Perez, recognized the growing need for a Higher Education Institution (HEI) in the municipality. Through the initiative of the former high school principal and now the college dean, Dr. Maria Carmen P. Cuenco, the concerted efforts of all the members of the school community, the support of the people of Gerona, and through the sheer Divine Providence, the Gerona Junior College became the first and only HEI in Gerona initially offering Bachelor of Elementary Education in the academic year 2007-2008. With the birth of teacher-education courses, the school administrators aspire to continue serving the community through the delivery of quality educational services.