On November 7th, 2025, after weeks of anticipation and cryptic posters around school, our school’s new mascot was revealed: RHEAVENS.  This celebration was packed with our APCE families, featured dances, sports teams' parade and a grand finale of fireworks at the end of the event. After the initial excitement had settled, we all had many questions about our mascot´s origins, her connection with the school, and future appearances. To seek answers to these questions, The Daily interviewed Ms. Marina Comayagua, Marketing and Communications Coordinator for La Floresta, who worked alongside APCE key stakeholders in the development of RHEAVENS. 

When asked about the reasons for choosing a person over an animal—the most conventional type of mascot in schools—Ms. Marina explained that, before the project began, they had received many suggestions from parents and students alike, all expressing their enthusiasm and desire for a new mascot. The only problem was that our sister school, Lamatepec, had already revealed their mascot, a Knight, and it only made sense for ours to match theirs. “Having an animal for a mascot would put us at a disadvantage,” she said, “and the most logical step was towards a mythology- inspired female that represented for us what Titans represented for them”.  

 Image 1: Courtesy of Marina Comayagua/ Early sketches of RHEAVEN 

When the idea was first presented, everyone involved agreed it had to be secret- they did not want any other school competing or copying their ideas.  Once the budget was approved, it was time to hire someone to help in the creative process. The graphic design studio selected for this project, GUAZA, had a key member who was a father to both a daughter and a son in APCE schools, and had also worked on developing “Titans”, the mascot for Lamatepec. 

The next stage was to host different focus groups: first with the APCE Board of Directors and coordinators, and second with students ranging from 9th to 12th grade. To Ms. Marina, the best part of these assessments was that everyone agreed: “Everything matched, all the information matched (…). For example, once, a long time ago, the school had lilac incorporated as an alternate color to the usual red, white, and blue. During the focus groups, the color was once again brought forward as an option, but without it being planned, all the groups agreed they thought gold represented the school more.”  

Image 2:Courtesy of Marina Comayagua/This picture shows how developers were deciding on color identity for RHEAVEN. 

After these groups were interviewed, the studio had 3 or 4 weeks to develop the concept, which was later presented in a meeting to Mrs. Celina de Arrieta (La Floresta School Principal, 2014-2025), Mrs. Maria Luisa de Melendez (Advisory Director), Ms. Yesenia Sandoval (Academic Director), Mrs. Michelle Escalante de Lopez (Board of Directors Executive), and Ms. Marina Comayagua (previously mentioned). The concept presented was inspired on the school’s unique location in the mountains. The lead designer, a La Floresta dad, associated the school with the idea of “going up”, since he had to climb the iconic slope every morning to get there. From that daily climb, and the morning traffic that framed it, our now-beloved slogan was born: “Up, up, higher!” These words also reflect the core values that define our school: strong competitive teams and a commitment to academic excellence, both of which characterize our students. The name RHEAVENS is also a word play; it combines the word heaven (suggesting high, up) and the morpheme “re” (which stands for respect and responsibility). 

RHEAVENS will be making appearances at upcoming school events, such as the BINGO on Saturday the 31st, , sports activities, school celebrations, and more. Very soon, RHEAVENS merch will also be available for students, parents, and supporters- stickers, shirts, lanyards and much more- so we can all show our pride in our new mascot! As Ms. Marina shared in her closing remarks for this article, “This mascot is not only meant to represent students, but also alumni, future students, families, teachers, maintenance staff- in short, everyone who has a piece of their heart in La Floresta.”