Collegiate School Lower School students participated in stocking the book shelves of the Central Virginia Children's Book Bank and HomeAgain. CVCBB's mission is to "put as many books as possible into the hands and lives of children in need." The Lower School theme this year is "Growing With Books." We are helping to share our love of reading with others for a joyful holiday season. Pictured are Campus Cubs who wore special holiday hats at carpool arrival to remind everyone of our book drive project.

Five teams of Collegiate School students in David Bannard's Honors Mathematical Modeling course participated in the 18th annual Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications (COMAP) High School Mathematical Contest in Modeling (HiMCM) from Nov. 4-21, 2016. The HiMCM is designed to provide students with an opportunity to work as a team in a contest that stimulates and improves their mathematical problem-solving proficiency and develops their writing skills. 

Collegiate School held its first Religion Assembly for the Middle School in what will be a yearlong series focusing on sacred stories in five major world religions. VCU Department of Religious Studies and School of World Studies Adjunct Professor Jan Hatcher-Conquest kicked off the series by presenting a history of sacred stories in religion and the commonalities shared by Christianity, Judaism and Islam in the creation story.

This is a story of perseverance, resolve, courage, and fortitude.

It’s a story of fighting the good fight and clinging to hope right up to the very end.

It’s a story of friendship, compassion, and respect.

It’s a story of coping and healing.

Feeling crummy? Down in the dumps? Overwhelmed by the helter-skelter pace of life?

 

Then spend a few minutes with Jasmine Turner. With her radiant smile, effervescent personality and a perpetually positive outlook, the 2011 Collegiate graduate will brighten your day. Guaranteed.

It was a moment of sheer bliss, indescribable elation, and ecstasy beyond belief all rolled into one. And why not?

 

The VISAA, Division I championship football game had just ended this past Saturday afternoon, and the scoreboard at the west end of the Grover Jones Field told the spectacular story: Collegiate 22, Benedictine 14.

On a picture perfect fall day, Collegiate School alumni mingled with current students and parents on campus to cheer on the Cougars against the St. Christopher’s School Saints today.

 

Collegiate faculty members Monique Voss and Rives Barksdale accompanied Upper School students Helen Boyd, Sean McHugh and Ashray Namala to New Delhi, India, to participate in the weeklong Community Developing Leadership Summit with schools from all over the world. Follow along and read about their experience on the Collegiate International Travel Blog.

The Collegiate School varsity football team secured the title of 2016 VISAA State Champions today in a 22-14 win over Benedictine College Preparatory.

OK, folks,here we go again! Please welcome the latest class of Unsung Seniors, athletes who contributed to the success of their teams during the fall season but did so beneath the radar.

Seven Upper School students recently attended Diversity Dialogue Day at the University of Richmond. Diversity Dialogue Day is a one-day high school forum that brings together students from Virgnia public and indpendent schools. This year's theme was #powerofstory.

Shayna Cooke’s 10th Grade biology students have been studying macromolecules and applying learnings by developing a food product the World Food Program could send to developing nations to satiate kids age 5 and under. The students were handed the following description of the challenge before them:

 

Collegiate School 7th and 8th Grade Model UN/International Relations and Service Clubs welcomed Global Scholar-in-Residence John Dau to speak about the history of the conflict between Sudan and South Sudan. Middle School Model UN students are currently studying South Sudan and surrounding African countries, reading Mr. Dau’s book, Lost Boy, Lost Girl and meeting with Mr. Dau periodically for additional insights into this fascinating part of the world.

The final pass sailed out of bounds this past Tuesday night, and in a heartbeat, it was over.

        

The set. The match. The season.

At midnight this past Wednesday, Troy Shapiro boarded a Korean Airlines jetliner at Siem Reap International Airport in Cambodia for the first leg of his very long journey to Richmond.

What’s in a name?

 

Plenty…if your name happens to be Excellence Perry.

The image was quite familiar: Charlie McFall standing on the sideline of the Grover Jones Field, surveying the action as it unfolded before him.

Students were enveloped in the world of the Maasai when Chief Joseph ole Tipanko, Cicilia Seleyian and John Kilenyi Parsitau visited Collegiate for a Middle School Assembly and 2nd Grade class presentation. Chief Joseph tours the U.S. annually in partnership with the United Nations to share stories of his people, their history, culture, traditions and the challenges of assimilating into 21st-century demands. He is on a mission to improve living conditions for his impoverished people while clinging tenaciously to the beauty of old culture and traditions.

 

In Erica Coffey's Poverty to Prosperity Senior Seminar, students investigate the cycle of poverty, its seemingly endless continuation and the great difficulty experienced by individuals and families who, once below a certain level of resources, very often experience a chain of events that can perpetuate their circumstances. Students make site visits to HomeAgain and Anna Julia Cooper Episcopal School, as well as hear from Reggie Gordon, Director of Office of Community Wealth Building for the city of Richmond, and JoLinda Jones, Director of the family shelter at HomeAgain, to learn about the poverty cycle, understand multiple perspectives and experience how complicated breaking the cycle can be.

The Senior Regional Orchestra auditions took place on September 24 in Charlottesville, Virginia. We had two students accepted into the Orchestra- Senior Matty Pahren and Junior Georgia Vaughan. 

Back in September, just before the Michigan Wolverines took to the Big House turf to play Colorado, one of their own – a guy named Tom Brady – delivered a passionate address.

Spend even a few minutes with John Dau, and you will no doubt sense his imposing presence.

Ask anyone. It’s not about Alex Smith. In Alex’s mind, it’s always been about other folks…or about his family…or about Collegiate, his alma mater and professional home for the past 47 years.

The Third Grade Classroom Economy course kicked off the school year with its first Market Day on Sept. 26. Students showcased their budding entrepreneurial skills by producing and "selling" their products in their classroom market. At the end of the day, an economic report was generated by a class "economist," who shared information about product supply and demand, price ranges and percentage of buyers and sellers at Market Day.

As a teenager who wants and needs money, I got a summer job. It had never occurred to me that some of our youngest Cougars at Collegiate could also have the opportunity to earn “money,” purchase goods, and learn about the economy. In Mrs. Katie Musick’s third grade classroom, each student has the opportunity to spend and earn play money and make real life economic decisions.

Katie Greer is a highly knowledgeable, well respected expert in the rapidly evolving field of internet safety.

Collegiate’s Kindergarten through 12th Grade students received these words of encouragement in various ways today as the 2016-17 school year launched. (Junior Kindergartners will start school tomorrow.)

 

McFall Hall officially opens for business Tuesday, and there’re two ways to view the year ahead as the facility operates at full-speed despite the massive facelift that’s underway.

 

Huge inconvenience or excellent adventure.

 

“I prefer adventure,” said Scott Carson, Collegiate’s director of facilities management and construction who has overseen the school’s myriad building and renovation projects since he came on board in 2007.

The first time Patrick Loach scored a job offer from Collegiate, he turned it down.

 

That’s right…turned it down. Flat.

A year ago when Chris Snyder spoke at Collegiate, his audience was blown away by the passion and energy with which he preached the gospel of mindful, thoughtful, impactful coaching.

 

Today, when the director of coaching education for the United States Olympic Committee visited again, it was clear that in no way has he missed a beat.

Renovation of McFall Hall, Collegiate’s Upper and Middle School cafeteria, got underway this week.

It’s been quite a summer so far for Caroline Curtis, and it's only mid-July.

 

The rising Collegiate sophomore celebrated the end of the school year by winning – in decisive fashion, no less – the Richmond Women’s Golf Association’s annual tournament with a victory over 1971 graduate Boodie McGurn in an All-Cougar championship round.

 

Then, a couple of weeks later, she verbally committed to the University of Georgia, whose women’s golf program aspires to make an impact at the national level.

Imagine a time very long ago when The Collegiate School for Girls was a fledgling start-up on the outskirts of Downtown Richmond with modest facilities, no tradition to speak of, and a future that was anything but certain.

Not if. When.

 

That was Andrew Slater’s plan anyway.

One evening not long ago, Andrés Navarro was enjoying a get-acquainted dinner with a group of international businessmen in New York City when the conversation gravitated to memorable moments from the past.

The sun shone brightly this morning on Collegiate’s 101^st commencement ceremony, and the pomp and circumstance, fellowship, gentle breeze, and temperate weather made the sendoff for the 126 members of the class of 2016 a day to remember and cherish.

Beautiful morning. Much joy. Smiles all around.

        

That, in a nutshell, is the story of Collegiate’s Middle School final exercises, which occurred today on the lawn in front of Flippen Hall.

        

An American Red Cross sponsored blood drive at Collegiate School last week resulted in the donation of 75 pints of blood, which can save as many as 225 lives.

When the school year ends, six Collegiate stalwarts with 134 total years of experience will take their leave. Their time on North Mooreland Road has been well spent. Their contributions have been great. Others will assume their duties. Replacing them will be a very tall order.

Loyalty, humility, and integrity are noble attributes developed over time from life experience and revealed through words, deeds, and demeanor. They should never be conferred lightly or indiscriminately. Their sum total is excellence.

To say that Del Harris is passionate about the game of basketball might be the understatement of the millennium.

Collegiate School 4^th Graders joined fellow students and parents last night in Centennial Hall for a potluck dinner celebrating their study of Collegiate’s five core values.

One day 23 years ago, Kwame Alexander was riding a bus in Northern Virginia when he spotted this young woman who attracted his undivided attention.

Jake McGee ’10 has signed a three-year free agent contract with the Carolina Panthers and will report Friday to the team’s two-day rookie minicamp in Charlotte.

Martine Tchitchiche, a native of Cameroon who risked her life to receive an education, has spent the past two days visiting Collegiate to share her experiences with students.

BY ASHLEY JONES
Collegiate’s robotics team, TORCH 5804,  are traveling to St. Louis today, to participate in the FIRST Robotics Championship world competition.

 

Late next week – perhaps Friday, possibly Saturday – a representative of the National Football League will step to the podium at the Auditorium Theater of Roosevelt University in Chicago and proclaim to the assemblage as well as ESPN and NFL Network viewers that one of its 32 affiliates has selected Jake McGee, tight end, University of Florida, in the 2016 Draft.

BY ASHLEY JONES 
A heartwarming passing-of-the-torch moment happened at Wednesday’s home track meet. 

Collegiate will host its 51st annual Village Green Fair from 9-3 p.m. on Sat. April 16.

 

It’s just time,” he said. “There’s such a great generation coming of the next leaders and the next volunteers. Collegiate is in great shape.”

Collegiate’s Upper School Honors Chinese students learned about the value of herbal medicine and acupuncture today from a Richmond-based Chinese medicine doctor.

A diversity expert spoke to Collegiate Middle Schoolers today about a statewide initiative that seeks to support Virginia residents who are immigrants, refugees and from varying religions, races and ethnicities.

Collegiate's Upper School Global Discussions Club is hosting an exciting week of programming that will help its members, their fellow Cougars and other area high school students better understand the issues and challenges facing their counterparts around the world.

BY ASHLEY JONES

A new program this year partners AP Spanish students with students in the Saturday Academy at Oak Grove Bellemeade. The Saturday Academy serves students in need of ESL tutoring and homework help. Most of these students are unable to receive help from their parents due to limited English language proficiency. The program partners very recent refugee or immigrant students one-on-one with a Collegiate tutor who uses a mixture of Spanish language and English language to teach. Other students with a basic foundation are partnered in small groups with a Collegiate student to work on an more advanced ESL curriculum. The whole group is also led in a mixture of games, physical activity and life-skills lessons by Collegiate students who design the curriculum with their AP Spanish teacher, Esperanza Soria-Nieto, who oversees the whole program.

Three Richmond executives who travel regularly to China visited Collegiate today to share their expertise in developing cross-cultural partnerships and business deals with students who are studying U.S.-China relations.

For many years the fourth grade curriculum at Collegiate has included a sizeable unit on immigration in America, primarily set in historical context of the turn of the 19^th Century. This year we expanded that curriculum to include a service-learning project connecting this study with both an academic look at more recent immigration to Richmond and a service-based partnership with Ridge Elementary looking at the needs of their refugee community. 

When snow falls, duty calls.

Are you surprised?

Don’t be.

Collegiate School will open on time on Wed., Jan. 27. Parking on campus has been impacted by snow removal, and parents are encouraged to drive their student drivers, if possible. As always, use your discretion in assessing whether your neighborhood is safe for travel, knowing that School officials will respect your decision.

Thirteen seventh and eighth graders attended a Middle School Diversity Leadership Conference “Stand Up; Speak Out! Speak Up; Stand Out! – Empowering and Preparing Middle School Students to Lead” in November with about 175 students from various DC and Virginia schools. At the conference, one of topic students discussed was ways that people are stereotyped and mistreated. The Collegaite Middle School students helped create a lesson on this topic that was incoporated into the MS advisory curriculum in January. 

BY ASHLEY JONES

In his first year at the University of Virginia, Collegiate alum Ben Buell ’15 has assumed a leadership role with the men’s basketball team.

This week a National Geographic map of the Pacific Ocean coasted into Collegiate’s Lower School.