Established in 1950 at Mulivai as Marist Brothers’ High School and later renamed St Joseph’s College when it relocated to Lotopa in 1960, it is Samoa’s first secondary school. Two other secondary schools established in the next six years were Samoa College (1953) and St Mary’s College (1956). This was when our country was a United Nations Trust Territory administered by New Zealand.

Right up to our country’s Independence in 1962, these were our only secondary schools. They taught the New Zealand curriculum, preparing their students for the New Zealand School Certificate and later the New Zealand University Entrance examinations. It is not surprising, therefore, that for quite some time, all academic scholarships awarded for study in New Zealand to attend the 7th Form before progressing to university were to students from these colleges.

This year, St Joseph’s College is celebrating its 75th Jubilee. There is excitement among many former students; some are traveling from overseas to join the celebration next month, which the college, parents, and the ex-students association (MBOPA) are jointly organizing. There are many reasons why the Marist Brothers decided to establish secondary education, but as St Joseph’s College's former Principal, Br Stephen Filipo wrote in 2010, the Marist Brothers and ex-pupils had also visualised that “one day, Samoa would be a free and independent sovereignty; it will need future local leaders to lead the country. A higher form of education was therefore needed to shape the leaders of tomorrow.” So, Marist education and St Joseph’s College set out to do precisely that. As its motto says: “Strive Always for the Best”.

St Joseph’s College, like all human organisations, has had its ups and downs, but because Marist education is founded on the five pillars of spirituality: Care for students, being genuine, honest, and straightforward; relate to each other as members of a loving family; never be afraid of hard work and be willing to make sacrifice to benefit their fellow human beings, it never stays down. These principles and values are never explicitly taught in class, although subtle reminders are abound in the school environment that help to embed them into students’ subconscious.

“Being told that the senior students should love the junior students whilst the junior students obey the seniors created a family-like environment where there is mutual understanding and respect. This type of culture fosters a strong sense of belonging among students, instilling loyalty and self-confidence. Combining that culture with the moral and Christian values, the Marist Brothers insisted on making up what we call the Marist Spirit,” former student and Attorney-General Amua Ming Leung Wai wrote in the College's 60th Jubilee magazine in 2010.

Nowhere is this powerful sense of family and camaraderie, as well as the willingness to make sacrifices to help young people, more evident than at the MBOPA organisation, which is nurtured within the classroom walls of St Joseph’s College. No project or request for funding from the Marist Brothers or the College principal is turned down as too difficult or too costly. The atmosphere is always convivial.

When the call goes out to St Joseph’s ex-pupils to help with a particular school project, some of them operate very successful businesses, you can be guaranteed that they will respond positively.

As former MBOPA Patron, Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Ta’isi Efi, says in his speech during the 125-year celebration of Marist Brothers School in Samoa in 2015, “Marist Spirit endures because it is spawned and nurtured by love, sacrifice, and struggle. It is sustained by joy and the spirit of sharing. It is premised on a powerful sense of family…”

For St Joseph’s College pupils, our motto has been and always will be: “Strive always for the best.”