Collegiate 10th and 12th Graders in DongMei Yuan's Chinese classes today joined the International Emerging Leaders - Asia senior Capstone class to reconnect via Zoom with a previous visitor.

For the second year, Collegiate 6th Grade students in Carolyn Villanueva’s English class collaborated with students from Anna Julia Cooper Episcopal School in a Poetry Slam event.

Collegiate 2nd Grade French students in Linda Combs’ class received a visit from Laurel Maughan’s Upper School AP French students. The Upper School students prepared books about the environment and what everyone can do to save the planet. “They had obviously worked very hard and my young students listened and learned,” Mrs. Combs said. 

Kindergartners in Kim Hines’ class had a paint party and created “Be Kind” signs with Richmond resident Gini Bonnell, who makes the signs and distributes them to schools, local businesses and individuals.

The Cougar Savings Club was opened for business February 21 in the Lower School. Collegiate 4th Graders fun the bank and assist younger students with opening new accounts or making deposits into existing accounts.

Visitors from our partner school in Mexico, Colegio Carol Baur, made an impact across campus. At a Middle School assembly, the 11 Carol Baur students gave a special presentation about their school and country, and performed a traditional dance. 

For the 13th year, Collegiate welcomed 11 students and their teachers from Colegio Carol Baur, our partner school in Mexico, to experience life in the Middle School. In addition, nine Middle School students from our partner school, St. Denis International School, in Loches, France, spend three weeks on campus in February. While at Collegiate, our visitors attend classes, sports practices and events with their Middle School hosts.

During the second of three Book Gatherings in the Lower School this year, the focus was on love and kindness. Collegiate librarian Kate Featherson read “The Proudest Blue” about a young girl’s first day of wearing a hijab to school.

The February Middle School Entrepreneur Market had a friendship theme and student entrepreneurs sold crafts such as fluffy slime, friendship bracelets, scented Play-Doh and lots of sweet treats for Valentine’s Day.

Collegiate students in Dr. Linda Rouse’s African American Literature class and Pam Sutherland's Honors Art class took a field trip down Monument Ave to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. They started at Stuart Circle, where they discussed the J.E.B. Stuart monument, what they learned about Monument Ave, and experienced the space and the place.

Every day in Middle School, English teacher Wendi Moss seeks to help students better understand the world around them, through the literature and lessons they learn in her classroom and through the vision she executes as Coordinator of Collegiate School's Envision Richmond 8th Grade Capstone. Listen in as she shares how her life's journey led her to a beloved opportunity to teach and transform young lives. Click here to listen to the TORCH TALK PODCAST.

With a strong entrepreneurial spirit and a true commitment to serving their community, Collegiate 3rd Graders held their second market day of the school year, Cougars Care for a Cause. Students created businesses, developed products and advertised to consumers for this market day.

Upper School Chinese teacher Zhangyi Shi and four students volunteered at the VMFA’s ChinaFest Family Day. The students, Mac Hester, Davis Messer, Anna Wu and Emilie Yang, taught museumgoers to read and write Chinese, make crafts and use chopsticks.

Accompanied by faculty members Karen Albright, Brian Ross and Wesley Hedgepeth, 23 Collegiate Upper School students, attended a February Model UN event at American University in Washington, D.C.

Collegiate students in the International Emerging Leaders – Asia senior Capstone class this morning welcomed a group of Chinese students enrolled at Virginia Commonwealth University through a partnership with VCU’s Global Education Office.

Collegiate School’s Seventh Annual Chinese New Year Celebration opened in dramatic fashion this evening with a shadow puppet show performed by all 2nd Grade Chinese language students on the Oates Theater stage.

Collegiate 5th Graders Essam Shah and Hunt Brabrand earned second place in the Middle School division of the Stock Market Game, a comprehensive economics and personal finance education program for Grades 4-12 run regionally by the Virginia Commonwealth University Center for Economic Education in the School of Business.

Collegiate students in the River City senior Capstone course visited Bosher’s Dam, where Alan Weaver from the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries described sustainability efforts on the James River including the fish ladder, which provides fish access to more than 300 miles of traditional spawning grounds.

Collegiate Upper School students in the Ramps Access Made Possible by Students (RAMPS) club spent a frigid Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day building a wheelchair-accessible ramp for a Richmond-area community member. Started in 2005, RAMPS raises funds to purchase modular metal ramps that are installed at the homes of wheelchair-bound individuals. To date, club members have built more than 100 ramps.

A group of our Upper Schoolers and four faculty members enjoyed participating in the Virginia Diversity Network’s MLK Jr. Symposium today at Episcopal High School in Northern Virginia. It was a meaningful way to spend the holiday.

Students in Collegiate’s International Emerging Leaders - Asia senior Capstone class chatted via Skype this week with 2019 University of Richmond graduate Matthew Mccooey, an operations manager at Ping An Cloud Accelerator, based in Shenzhen, China.

In the Lower School, Kindergartners had a chance to visit the Cougar Savings Club. Collegiate 4th Graders ran the bank and assisted the young Cougars as they opened new accounts or deposited funds into existing accounts.

Collegiate 4th Graders in Jessica Catoggio’s class led the Lower School Town Meeting to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. on the date of his birth. The students shared information about Dr. King’s life and purpose, and how he changed American history with his words and actions.

Collegiate’s Upper School robotics team, Torch 5804, gathered for the season kickoff on January 4. Nearly 50 students, parents and mentors were on hand for the webcast reveal of the details for the FIRST Robotics game, themed "Infinite Recharge."