Back in the Fall of 1955,  some 15 students were unable to re-enter Campo Alegre due to the high enrollment of families arriving that summer from the States to work in the petroleum industry.  These families had top priority over the locals.  It became a big problem for the locals because the 15 of us had no other school to go to....all of a sudden, with little notification, out we were.. in Summer '55, with no school to go to in September!.

Mrs. Hayes, who was back then, the Librarian at Campo Alegre, had pity on us kids & parents, and obviously saw the opportunity of her life... took action, met with affected parents, among those, my father, and together found a viable solution for the 15 students and our concerned parents.  Right that summer, she formed a company, raised some cash by selling shares, to buy the school books, desks, chairs, etc.  One of the rooms in her house was prepared as a classroom.  My sister, my brother and I, had shares No. 1, 2 and 3, respectively, and that was the beginning of ALC!!  We were, the 15 of us, from mixed origins and grades.  In one only classroom,  Mrs. Hayes was our only teacher!!...  I was in 4th grade, my brother in 5th and my sister in 6th.

Back in those days, the school was not called Academy La Castellana because her house was in the San Ignacio neighborhood....I don't remember the street name, but  Schmeichler's (parents) house was right on that Street just around in the corner lot. If I remember properly, when Mrs. Hayes started her school in 1955, she was married.  I have  vague memories of that and somehow I remember him in the back of my mind.

Soon after, her house became too small, as so many students were enrolling... probably they were experiencing the same problem with the booming petroleum industry people being transfered to  Venezuela.  It was probably 2 years later that she moved to La Castellana and changed the school's name to "Academy La Castellana". The school continued growing and naturally, by then, she had already started hiring teachers for different subjects and started having one room per grade. By 1959, Mrs. Hayes had rented two houses, Quinta Good Luck, and Quinta Ego so as to accommodate all incoming students.  The school was becoming  popular and very fast-growing.  I was probably in 8th grade by then.  By September 1960,  the school again had to move to larger spaces...  in Quintas  Loretta May and Cantarrana in Avenida del Golf in El Bosque.  Then, you know the rest....

By 1971, the two houses were again too small.  This time though, Mrs. Hayes merged Academy La Castellana with Colegio Americano in Las Minas de Baruta.  The name became "Colegio Internacional de Caracas".