At Gimnasio La Montaña, we believe that education also takes place when a student discovers that they can be a role model for others.

Some of the most meaningful learning happens beyond the classroom: when an older student takes a younger child by the hand, listens to their story, shares a laugh, or realizes that someone looks up to them as a role model.

At Gimnasio La Montaña, these encounters have a name: Padrinos.

A Bond That Grows Over the Years
Padrinos is both a long-standing tradition and an ongoing educational program within our community. It creates close, safe, and caring relationships between students of different ages, allowing the GLM values to be experienced in everyday life.

Through this program, Upper School students accompany children in Early Years and build close, caring, and meaningful relationships with them. And it is precisely in these relationships that something special happens.

When a student in 9th, 10th, or 11th Grade meets their godchild, a particularly generous side of them emerges: they want to care for their godchild, teach them, listen to them, make them laugh, and share what they know. Being a padrino or madrina means understanding that our actions can also leave a lasting impact on someone else.

The encounters begin in 9th Grade, when students meet their K4 godchildren. Later, 10th and 11th Grade students accompany children in K5 and Kindergarten. The age difference allows these relationships to remain and grow over several years of school life.

But what begins as an encounter between two different age groups soon becomes something more.

When Someone Younger Inspires Us to Bring Out Our Best
There is something special about discovering that our words, gestures, and the way we act can become a point of reference for someone else.

With their godchildren, older students find an opportunity to care, listen, share, and accompany. Without even realizing it, they also discover new ways of exercising leadership: through closeness, generosity, and example.

For younger children, their padrino or madrina can become an older person they admire, someone who makes them feel supported and with whom they want to share. For older students, it is an opportunity to understand that being a role model also comes with a responsibility: to leave a positive impact on others, one that is worth following.

Values Are Learned by Living Them
A conversation, a game, a song, or a shared story may seem like a small moment. Yet these everyday experiences are precisely what bring values to life.
In Padrinos, respect, care, trust, empathy, and joy are not simply explained: they are experienced.

That is why this program also contributes to building healthy relationships from the earliest years and strengthening a culture of care and prevention of school violence.

A Tradition Passed Down from One Generation to the Next
This year, 9th Grade and K4 have already shared their first encounter. Soon, 10th and 11th Grade students will meet their K5 and Kindergarten godchildren.

In this way, a tradition continues and reminds us each year of something essential: educating also means helping others grow.

And perhaps that is why Padrinos leaves a lasting impact long after each encounter comes to an end: while a child meets someone they admire, an older student discovers that they, too, can be an inspiration to someone else.