History of HIS

What is now Hillcrest International School (HIS) first began in 1958 when the Christian and Missionary Alliance established an elementary school in Sentani to provide education for their own mission children in Papua.  The buildings already on the hillside campus had housed General Douglas MacArthur’s staff during WWII. Children from other missions were later included in the student body, and the name Sentani International School (SIS) was adopted.  In 1991 SIS was reorganized as an intermission school.

A desire for secondary education for missionary children in Papua resulted in the establishment of an intermission high school in 1987. This high school was called Hillcrest International School and was built on another hill near SIS. In 1995 the secondary and elementary programs were consolidated under a single Board of Directors. In 1999 the SIS campus was closed, and the elementary and middle school program moved to newly built facilities next door to the high school site.

In addition to the main campus in Sentani, HIS has included satellite schools for grades 1-8 in Wamena and Nabire for the families with young children living there.  Currently the Nabire school is closed.

The following are titles of books that deal with the history and culture of Papua and the mission organizations connected with the school:
The People Time Forgot by Alice Gibbons, Moody Press 
Cannibal Valley by Russell Hitt, Harper and Row 
Peace Child, and Lords of the Earth, by Don Richardson, Regal Books