Mission & History
Our Mission
We prepare students for advanced education, successful careers and responsible citizenship through a commitment to academic excellence and humanitarian ideals.
Our Philosophy
We are Topeka’s only independent college preparatory school, placing students at the center of the learning experience and passionately developing the next generation of leaders equipped with skills for life.
Students First: Topeka Collegiate School meets individual learning needs through a climate that fosters a student-centered experience.
Next Generation of Leadership: To be competitive in a global society, students today need the skills for tomorrow. Topeka Collegiate School cultivates the next generation of leaders through character development, a commitment to equity and justice, social engagement and global citizenry.
Foundations for Life: Our graduates are known for their broad and varied interests, deep knowledge base and versatile skill sets. Our students develop competencies not just for their next educational step, but for a life-long love for learning.
Who We Are
Students at Topeka Collegiate School come from a variety of backgrounds and communities throughout the Topeka and Lawrence areas. While they are culturally, economically, racially and religiously diverse, all share an eagerness to learn.
Year after year, Topeka Collegiate students' standardized test scores place them among the highest-achieving independent school students in the nation. This is no surprise, as teachers are given the freedom to tailor their classroom curriculum to the individual needs of their students. Teachers work with parents to ensure that students are academically challenged, but not overwhelmed.
Our curriculum emphasizes math, science, history, reading, writing and Spanish. Specialists teach science, Spanish, computer science, music, art and physical education in all grades.
We honor learning and achievement at Topeka Collegiate. Children come here to receive an education that nurtures natural curiosity, cultivates a sense of personal commitment to service and develops principles of integrity, honesty, and a sense of fairness and justice.
Children leave Topeka Collegiate as young men and women who have a love of learning that will stay with them for their entire lives. They have a broad range of interests and openness to new ideas. They are communicators, risk takers and critical thinkers.
Our History
Topeka Collegiate began as an idea among a group of parents who wanted to provide their children with a school environment that emphasized academic excellence and humanitarian ideals. In 1979, they founded a school just south of Topeka and named it Shawnee Country Day School. The founders used as their guide an independent school model that had proven successful throughout the country. The result is a school independent in both governance and finance: organized as a not-for-profit corporation, governed by a board of trustees and managed by a head of school, free of government or religious control.
Shawnee Country Day School opened with 43 students in the fall of 1982, in a building that had formerly housed a public elementary school. In 1989, Dr. Michael Roberts was hired as Head of School and the school's name was changed to Topeka Collegiate School. Enrollment grew steadily, reaching 200 in 1995. The following year, the school purchased and moved into a former public school building located at 2200 SW Eveningside Drive, a more centralized location. The move helped boost enrollment that first year in the new building to nearly 250.
As we proudly celebrate our 25th anniversary year, enrollment now exceeds 300 students.
With thanks to our visionary founders, we look forward to the next 25 years of providing students with a once-in-a-lifetime education every day.