National Polytechnic Institute

[EduCativ]

The IPN contributes to the nation's social and economic development through a necessary competence-based training set on research, ICT's, and innovation while globally acknowledged for its quality and social impact.
To be an inclusive educational institution with international prestige whose community contributes to the scientific, technological, and innovative development of the country's social impact.
Students' concerns dictated the initiative to create the symbols that would identify the nascent polytechnic institution. In the years 1944-1945, the National Federation of Technical Students (FNET) launched a call to design a shield representative of the schools that were part of the IPN. The first prize was awarded to student Armando López Fonseca who, with his colleague Jorge Grajales, managed to make his design the winner. The shield was modified in 1948 while preserving its original elements.
Motto: "The Technique at the Service of the Fatherland"
This phrase was used by some students long before the creation of the IPN. However, it was during the first National Congress of Technical Students, held in the city of Chihuahua in 1937, that the then student Jesus Robles Martinez was elected president of the National Federation of Technical Students (FNET) and proposed a motto in order to represent the ideals of the student organization. The phrase "The Technique at the Service of a Better Country" was initially coined and should be used as a corollary of all of its proposals. This motto was later modified to "The Technique at the Service of the Homeland", which expresses the ideals of the Polytechnic.
During the administration of general director Eugenio Méndez Docurro (1959-1962), the celebrations were prepared to commemorate the XXV Anniversary of the IPN Foundation. A call was issued to create the Hymn that would represent the Institute. The winner of the contest in the lyrics was teacher and poet Carmen de la Fuente (1915-2013). Later, the competition was opened to select the music, item in which the professor of musical education from Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts) Armando González Domínguez, became the winner. The Polytechnic Hymn was first performed on August 19, 1961, at the XXV Anniversary ceremony in the new Polytechnic of Zacatenco, attended by Adolfo López Mateos, then President of Mexico.
In 1932, a plan was elaborated to integrate and give a proper structure to a technical teaching system. Narciso Bassols, Luis Enrique Erro, and Carlos Vallejo Márquez, all IPN alumni, participated prominently in this project.
In 1936, Juan de Dios Bátiz and Lázaro Cárdenas del Río, respectively senator in congress and President of Mexico, helped bring this project to fruition, proposing to carry out the postulates in education established during the Mexican Revolution, thus resulting in the creation of the IPN.
The IPN was conceived to promote development and equity, support the country's industrialization, and create alternatives for education in every sector of the population and socially disadvantaged groups.
It is customary for higher education institutes and their sports clubs to have a mascot. Not to be outdone, the IPN's is a white donkey. There are different versions about its origin, the most popular being that when setting the area where the IPN was to be built, in the old Hacienda de Santo Tomás in the '30s, a white donkey was left in the field. When students and football players from the first team saw the poor animal, it was immediately adopted. Through the years, the white donkey became one of the symbols at IPN, particularly in sports.

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