Divina Pastora College was born out of an aspiration for a high school that would develop not only the mind and the body but the spirit of students as well.

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In 1958, encouraged by the late Rev. Msgr. Pacifico Araullo who had put up a school in his parish in Cabanatuan City, the Rt. Rev. Msgr. Paterno E. Bernabe, Gapan parish priest and a group of prominent lay leaders – among them Marta Cuison, Dr. Benedicto C. Cabañes, Doña Maria Payawal, Mayor Manuel Mallare and Judge Manolo reyes – decided to open a parochial high school.

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The group sought the permission from the late Archbishop Emilio Cinense of San Fernando, Pampanga, whose diocese then had jurisdiction over Gapan, to put up Divina Pastora Academy (DPA), named after the town’s patron saint. Eventually the Bureau of Private Schools of the Department of Education authorized the opening of the school’s first and second year levels in 1959. Then following year, the third and fourth year levels were offered.