5 minute read
MITCHEM FAMILY INVESTS IN COLLEGIATE
By Katie Leiding ’04
How can we help?
That’s the question Hunter and Mallory Mitchem brought to Nathan Washer, Head of School, and Katie Leiding ‘04, Director of Development, last fall. Their girls, Everleigh, 4th grader, and Blakely, PreKindergartener, thrive at Collegiate, and the Mitchems feel a deep appreciation to our teachers for the nurturing environment they create. They wanted to do their part to support our teachers and the Collegiate community as a whole.
When the Mitchems learned that we’d love to offer our students more course choices, particularly in the Upper School, they were all in and have committed to providing seed funding to expand our entrepreneurship offerings. This will include updates to our technology and innovation tools campus-wide and the salary of a Mitchem Chair of Entrepreneurship.
The Mitchems have a passion for entrepreneurship and exploring how it can be harnessed to solve society’s problems. They ask, “What if all our students knew how to channel their gifts and skills to change the world through an entrepreneurial mindset?”
David LeVan, current Upper School economics teacher, has been named our Mitchem Chair of Entrepreneurship. He will oversee enhanced connections with local businesses and industries, real world experiences, and an education model designed to unlock our students’ creativity and imaginations.
This fall, our middle school and upper school students will have more choices within the economics, entrepreneurship, and leadership realm.
In the Upper School, Principles of Economics will now be a fall semester class for freshmen, with both freshmen and sophomores taking it in the 2024-2025 school year as we transition it to a freshmen year offering. Spring offerings include Introduction to Entrepreneurship, a course designed to introduce students to an entrepreneurial mindset. Taking this course sequence earlier will provide a foundation for students to choose additional entrepreneurship offerings throughout their Upper School years.
In the 2025-2026 school year, we will hire an additional economics teacher to expand the department and the courses we can offer.
NEW COURSE OFFERINGS FOR OUR UPPER SCHOOL STUDENTS IN 2024-2025: INTRODUCTION TO ENTREPRENEURSHIP PERSONAL FINANCE APPLIED LEADERSHIP AP MICROECONOMICS
NEW COURSE OFFERINGS FOR OUR MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS IN 2024-2025: ENTREPRENEURSHIP & PRODUCT DESIGN
This gift is a pilot in our hopes to fund additional programming and faculty positions, allowing our students to have more choices without increasing tuition.
Entrepreneurship has been woven successfully into many liberal arts programs, because both have a focus on problem solving and thinking creatively.
As Hunter says, “Entrepreneurship can encompass so many things, and we wanted to invest in this initiative to promote innovation and help provoke and put focus around the mindset and power that entrepreneurs bring to our world. It’s about pushing our limits, creating new markets, solving problems, enhancing technologies - all things that make our economies expand. We are excited to partner with phenomenal faculty like David LeVan to spread the Spartan impact, and we hope this brings energy around new ideas that fit within the strategic goals at WCS.”
Nathan Washer believes this gift will help our students reach their potential, saying, “Our vision demands that we empower our students to lead lives of impact. The opportunity to equip them with the entrepreneurial skills necessary to improve our communities is one that we are all excited about. A gift like this from Hunter and Mallory Mitchem will help our students learn how to solve problems in the world that they will enjoy. There is nothing our kids can’t do without the right investment from us.”
“This gift is one of the largest gifts to Collegiate in a decade. I was so moved by the Mitchem’s clarity regarding the value of our faculty,” says Katie Leiding. “They don’t take our teachers for granted, and the fact that they want to help expand our faculty is really special. I can’t imagine a better return on investment than that!”
Hunter agrees, saying, “Giving to Collegiate has an endless return on investment.”
Mallory adds, “There’s no better investment that you can make than investing in children. As parents, we all want our kids to have more opportunities than we had. We believe this is one way we can do that. We are excited to partner with the amazing faculty and do our part to support these students’ dreams.”
We can’t wait to see the potential that will be unlocked in our students due to this incredible gift. THANK YOU, HUNTER AND MALLORY MITCHEM!
HUNTER, MALLORY, EVERLEIGH, & BLAKELY MITCHEM
Hunter and Mallory Mitchem are local entrepreneurs. Their newest venture is focused on wellness with SweatHouz, a cold plunge and infrared sauna studio, opening in Wichita, Kansas City, and Chicago.
NEW INNOVATIVE TOOLS THROUGHOUT CAMPUS FUNDED BY THIS GIFT:
MAKERBOT SKETCH LARGE 3D PRINTER, for The Cleveland Family Makerspace in Lower School ULTIMATE S7 PRO WITH ADVANCED MATERIALS AND UPGRADED LASER TO INCLUDE CYLINDRICAL OBJECTS, for the Lammers Innovation Lab in Middle School
BAILEIGH PRECISION LATHE PL-1640 AND PROFESSIONAL LARGE FORMAT SIGN & VINYL PRINTER & CUTTER, for the Alumni Association iLab in Upper School
FACILITY UPDATES FUNDED BY THIS GIFT:
Many of our Leadership Academy speakers present to the students in the TIMOTHY O’SHAUGHNESSY COMMONS, and this summer it received elevated technology that will enhance the speaker experience tremendously. We’ll have high-end video conference capabilities, interactive TV panels, and enhanced A/V.
The ENTREPRENEURSHIP CLASSROOM is being set up with these same high-end video conferencing capabilities so entrepreneurs around the world can conference into our classes. The classroom will be set up in collaborative pods to foster the type of work the students will be doing and the furniture and design choices were made with that in mind.
