The Senior High School is a product of Republic Act No. 10533 or the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013 in an attempt to reform the Philippine educational system and raise its capabilities that are compatible with world standards.
The Senior High School found its home in the former Grade School buildings in the Fr. Eusebio Salvador, SJ Campus – Berchmans Hall, Matteo Ricci Hall, and Kostka Hall, upon the transfer of the Grade School to Fr. William Kreutz, SJ Campus in 2016. Mr. Rey Reyes, Assistant Principal for Administration and Finance of the AdZU Junior High School, was appointed as the first Principal.
The unit offered four (4) strands at its beginnings: Accountancy,
Business, and Management (ABM), Humanities and Social Sciences (HUMSS), Information and Communications Technology-2D Animation (ICT-2D Animation), and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) with STEM as the largest strand by population. In its first year, the SHS was divided into four departments only – one per strand. It was only in the next school year (SY 2017-2018) that the departments were further divided into its current structure.
Construction of a new Senior High building started around 2016 and it was finally dedicated in December 2018. The new building is named after Faustino W. Saavedra, an AdZU 1960 Commerce alumnus as his family was one of the top donors to the AdZU’s RISE Campaign.
Fr. Arnel T. Ong, SJ, incumbent Principal of the AdZU Junior High School, was appointed Officer-in-Charge SHS Principal when Mr. Reyes’ term ended in 2019. Fr. Ong’s primary mission is to find the next SHS Principal. He served for a total of two (2) years as he also oversaw the unit during its most difficult crisis yet – the COVID-19 Pandemic.
When the COVID-19 Pandemic hit the world, AdZU-SHS was no exception. School Year 2019-2020 ended abruptly in March 2020, forcing the graduation rites to be fully online. With the lockdown guidelines in place, the SHS administration, faculty, and staff geared up towards an online setup. By SY 2020-2021, the University branded its transition to an online setup as RIGHT Learning which stands for Responsive, Independent, Guided, Holistic, and Technology-assisted Learning. With this, the unit, for the first time, designed contextualized Learning Modules branded as RIGHT Learning Kits. The class schedules were also branded as S-Mode (stands for synchronous sessions where the teachers and students interact in a virtual place) and AMode (stands for asynchronous sessions where students do activities designed by teachers in different times but within a given parameter). It was also during this school year that the ICT-2D Animation strand was discontinued due to low enrollment.
As SY 2021-2022 enters; Fr. Ong was succeeded by the Assistant Principal for Formation Br. Jeffrey Pioquinto, SJ as the new SHS Principal. Upon his assumption, Br. Pioquinto introduced the Somnium – a list of goals for the new direction of the Senior High School.
