The large letter M points to the whole spirit of the Marist Family that is Mary, Our Good Mother. For a disciple to become true to who he/she is, one’s whole being needs to be governed by a Marian Spirit. A Marist living by faith will live the way Mary did, living a life hidden and unknown.

Letter A, which is superimposed on the letter M, reminds us of the Angel’s greeting at the Annunciation of the Lord: “Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women…” The first letter of the greeting Ave, means “hail”. This is the sacred moment when Our Lady accepts to be a mother.

The three flowers below the two letters are Violets, selected by St. Marcellin Champagnat himself for a very special meaning. Violets are the kind of flowers which come out in early May. They are hardly noticeable because they are lost among the grass in the fields, because of their size. These stand for the three distinguishing marks of the followers of St. Marcellin – humility, simplicity, and modesty. These three virtues summarize the whole spirit of the Institute of the Little Brothers of Mary, which is “to do good quietly”.

The Corona of Twelve Stars reminds the true sons and daughters of Champagnat, the glories, the privileges, the gifts bestowed upon our Lady, as one wholly blessed by God. For the Marist, the twelve great privileges that the Blessed Virgin received are: a) Divine Motherhood; b) Immaculate Conception; c) Perpetual Virginity; d) Assumption into Heaven; e) Exemption from Concupiscence; f) Confirmation in Grace; g) Fidelity of Grace; h) Miraculous Birth of Jesus; i) Holy Death; j) Incorruptibility of the Body; k) Queenship of Mary; l) Dispensatrix of all graces.

This Corona of twelve stars has biblical roots. In the Book of Revelation, one finds the following verse in Chapter 12:1 “Now a great SIGN appeared in heaven: a woman adorned with sun, standing on the moon, and with the twelve stars on her head for a crown.”

The Latin phrase at the bottom of the seal Ad Jesum Per Mariam means, “To Jesus Through Mary”, the motto of Champagnat and the Marist secret of leading souls to God.

A Notre Damean should always keep in view the ideals on which Notre Dame of Kidapawan College is founded. LOVE of country and sanctity in education, directed towards the attainment of the goal… To OBTAIN HEAVEN FOLLOWING MARY… the ideal fittingly illustrated in the seal of the school. The Tripartition with the background of red, white and blue symbolizes the Philippines and its three divisions.

On the left in the field of red is Mount Apo towering over Kidapawan and the Province of Cotabato. Being the highest mountain in the Philippines, it marks the height of our ideals at Notre Dame. To the right in a field of white is the Marist emblem which represents the Marist Brothers, the religious order that undertook the mission of educating the students in the out-of-way places and barrios in Cotabato. The lower field is blue upon which is superimposed a cloud on which we see another M with an arrow piercing the alpha and omega. It symbolizes heaven as our beginning and end by following Mary.

These symbols are emblazoned on a shield to imply that armed and protected by NDKC ideals, the students serve GOD, country, and neighbor. We are also reminded by the frequent use of symbols of Mary that she is Patroness and Protectress of the Philippines as well as of NDKC.

The stars alongside the motto remind us again that we are made for heaven, which is our ultimate goal. Surrounding the shield we find a rosary, a devotion to which is a sign of every true lover of Mary. The cross of the rosary is enclosed in the shield, above all, marking the place of God in all our activities, duties and lives. Its base rests upon the rising sun marking the Philippines as the only Christian nation in the Far East.