1Collegiate Life

by Mary Beth Marchiony

The 2013 - 2014 school year was a momentous one

for Topeka Collegiate School, as we earned reaccreditation from the Independent Schools Association of the Central States (ISACS).

We spent well over a year working through the reaccreditation process: Parents, trustees, faculty and staff all contributed to our Self-Study. An arduous procedure, the time spent evaluating where we are and, more importantly, where we want to go, has helped us move forward as a school community. In the spring, the ISACS visiting team spent three days on our campus, interviewing representatives from all segments of the community. Our alumni who met with the team shared amazing stories of the many ways Topeka Collegiate impacted their lives. The team members told us repeatedly how impressed they were with our students and alumni! The team wrote a report giving us their impressions of TCS and offering commendations and recommendations as a result of their observations.

Our students continued the tradition of representing us, and our alumni, well as they competed in math, science, language arts, social studies and music contests around the region and country. . . (Continued on page 3)

2013-2014 Head of School’s Year in Review

2014Alumni Newsletter

2200 SW Eveningside Dr.Topeka, KS 66614

(785) 228-0490 www.topekacollegiate.org

2

Congratulations and Thank you!

Bernerd and Ruth Fink

Topeka Collegiate Hall of Fame 2014

3Our MathCounts team won second place at the chapter competition and were fifth in State.

The SumDay team was equally successful: Nineteen students placed in the top ten, with eight first place winners. The Math Olympiad competition saw TCS students winning one Gold Pin, five Silver Pins, 23 patches and the sixth grade championship trophy. In the AMC-8 and AMC-10 competitions, TCS students finished third in state, second in state and first in state. Continuing the tradition of celebrating Pi Day, two middle school students shattered the previous record (195 places) by memorizing Pi to 273 and 275 decimal places!

All our middle school students participated in the school science fair. Seven went on to the Northeast Kansas district competition. Five students competed in the state Science and Engineering fair in Wichita. Seven students, on five teams, competed in the Bridge Building contest hosted by the Kansas

Children’s Discovery Center (KCDC). They placed first, second, third, fourth and seventh. In the Egg Drop contest, also at KCDC, TCS third and fourth graders placed first and two tied for fourth. Our students were proud that nine out of 12 eggs survived the drop!

Graduates tell us that they are well prepared for high school and college, in all disciplines, but especially in writing and researching. This past year our sixth and eighth graders participated in the “MLK: I Have a Dream” essay contest. In the seventh and eighth grade contest our students won first and second places. In the fifth and sixth grade category Topeka Collegiate students swept the awards, winning first, second and third! The first graders proudly held their annual Poetry

Tea and impressed everyone in attendance with their presentation of their favorite poems. Many of the eighth graders fondly recalled their own Poetry Tea when they recited their original poetry at the Eighth Grade Coffee House last May.

History Day began last winter with our school history day, when all our middle-school students were evaluated by outside judges, and finished with a sixth grader earning the award for Best State entry at Nationals at the University of Maryland in June. Twenty students competed in Districts. We finished with one first-place winner, three second-place winners and four students won third place. The state competition saw one second-place winner and one student who placed third.

4Faculty support of students through the research, writing and presentation is a huge endeavor, but our alumni report how well they learn to research through this process, a crucial skill that gives them a huge advantage when they engage in

higher level research in college.

The arts are an important component of the TCS experience. Choir continues to draw a lot of interest, and our students were featured in the spring presentation of Beauty and the Beast. Middle school students excelled at a local Fine Arts Festival. Every student who entered (11) won a superior rating. In addition, our eighth grade students entered as a group and won a superior rating! The middle school students’ adaptation of Winnie the Pooh entertained us all.

The art work created by our students continues to amaze us. In two very successful art shows, with highlights displayed for the ISACS visiting team to view, our students’ work was showcased for the community. In addition, our students’ work was on display at The Toy Store in Topeka for one of the fall First Friday Art Walks.

All students study Spanish at Topeka Collegiate. The fifth graders and their first grade book buddies participated in a “Mercado” (market) to put their linguistic skills to work.

Service learning brought our students to the aid of numerous community groups. Middle school students spent time at

Harvesters and Let’s Help, among many community organizations. The seventh graders went to Heifer Ranch in Arkansas and hosted a simple supper to educate the community about the work of Heifer International. They raised enough money to buy two alpacas and several other animals for families in need. The school community collaborated with a Topeka High School group to support Hunger Action Month and collected food for Harvesters as part of our Thanksgiving celebration in November.

In a year full of accomplishments, a fifth grader won the school spelling bee (also winning as a fourth grader) and placed fourth in Shawnee County. A sixth grader won the Geography Bee (also a repeat performance) and

placed third at state. We reclaimed the Topeka Parochial League Soccer championship trophy in 2013, and repeated as champions in 2014!

Experiences are an important component of life at Topeka Collegiate. The Pre-K class met local National Guardsmen, police and firefighters as part of their community helpers week. First graders went to the pumpkin patch, returned with pumpkins, and used them during their fall festival. The rocket launch gave our second graders first-hand experience with the principles of chemistry and physics they learned in class. Our Rainforest, brought to life by the third grade, was once again a powerful learning opportunity for our

5community. The fourth graders set a new record in their fund raising efforts for UNICEF. While at the Truman Library the eighth graders engaged in an exercise at the White House Decision Center to discuss and decide on the options for ending the war in Japan.

All the accomplishments of our students are made possible by the dedication of our talented faculty and staff. Our faculty members model life-long learning by being learners themselves. This commitment to learning was especially apparent during the last year as we prepared for the introduction of a new math program and technology initiative. Faculty members

dedicated their time this summer to math workshops, technology seminars in Iowa and Tennessee, and intense workshops to launch these new programs.

Faculty education is possible because of the generosity of donors. Our successful Annual Fund during 2013-14 was enhanced by the generosity of Susan and Kent Garlinghouse, who offered a challenge grant to match new and increased gifts. Our community responded to the challenge and helped us reach our second-highest Annual Fund total in history. A successful auction contributed in a meaningful way to our ability to dedicate significant resources to faculty education. To accomplish our goals, we count on the generosity of donors to make up the difference between tuition and the cost of educating our students (tuition covers only 80%) in an environment where experiences are paramount.

Our students will remember forever their experiences in 2013-14 at Topeka Collegiate. Perhaps most memorable will be an action-packed trip to the Florida Keys. The culmination of the TCS experience, embodied in the SeaCamp experience, will not soon be forgotten! As we graduated the Class of 2014, we were reminded of the importance of the Topeka Collegiate mission to “prepare students for advanced education, successful careers and responsible citizenship through a commitment to academic excellence and humanitarian ideals.”

6Annual Fund

Kent and Susan Garlinghouse

In an effort to help increase the size of Annual Fund gifts, school founders Susan and Kent Garlinghouse issued a challenge. They promised to match all new and increased gifts, dollar for dollar, up to $20,000. The response was robust. Sixty-seven percent of our school families gave new (new families) or increased gifts to Annual Fund, triggering matching dollars from the Garlinghouse challenge and boosting us to the second-highest total in our school’s history. We thank the Garlinghouses, Annual Fund Co-Chairs Heather and Jared Morrison (Aidan 4th, Liam 1st), Mende Barnett and Pete Vobach (Madisyn 4th) and all who rose to the Annual Fund challenge.

Auction 2014Party with a Purpose-Derby Style

With Collegiate juleps, hat contests, the 140th running of the Kentucky Derby shown on a pair of big screens, and randomized “bets” on the winning horse, Auction 2014 was filled with Derby-style fun, right down to the bourbon-flavored confections on the tables. With thanks to Co-Chairs Lovica Pourmirza (Sage ‘12), Brandi Wells (Trinity 6th, Ainsley 2nd) and Tracey

“Supporting the Annual Fund is a way of paying it forward, a way of impacting the lives of others; it is leaving our own unique footprint. The Annual Fund is an extraordinary way of enhancing students’ educational lives. It is a way of supporting students who, when they graduate, will follow in the extraordinary Topeka Collegiate tradition and also find lives filled with purpose, passion and lifelong learning.” Founder Susan Garlinghouse

Supporting Our School

The Topeka Collegiate community demonstrated record-setting generosity in 2013-14. For the second year in a row, 100% of school families supported Annual Fund, a remarkable accomplishment among independent schools. The average parent participation among ISACS (Independent Schools Association of the Central States) schools is 72.5%.

7Goering (Drew ‘14, Matt 8th), at left with Head of School Mary Beth Marchiony, the Party with a Purpose-Derby Style achieved its purpose of raising money for our school, exceeding the budgeted goal. Thank you to all who helped make the evening such a success!

The 2014 Hall of Fame inductees, honored posthumously at the auction, are Founders Ruth and Bernerd Fink. Head of School Mary Beth Marchiony told auction guests about the night Topeka Collegiate was born. “None of us would be here without the vision and support

of Bernerd (Bun) and Ruth Fink,” she said. “As the story goes, Ruth and Bun were invited to dinner with Mark and Marjorie Garlinghouse at Kent and Susan Garlinghouse’s home. Mark told them of a new idea, an independent school in Topeka, that the “kids” - Kent and Susan - wanted to start. Ruth was quickly convinced that she and Bun should support the new venture; underwriting a new entrepreneurial endeavor appealed to her immediately!” The Finks joined two generations of Garlinghouses and a host of others to make our school a reality.

Board of Trustees President Rich Wells encourages donations for faculty

professional development.

Four guests hold the lucky “wagers” on California Chrome, winner of the 140th running of the Kentucky Derby as

alumni volunteers Jacob ’12 and Adam Cole ’13 prepare to hand out the prize money.

Auction Co-Chairs and Head of School

What’s a Derby party without hats?

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By Brooke Borel ‘94

Brooke is a science writer and journalist. Her work has appeared in Popular Science, where she is a contributing editor, as well as Slate, Modern Farmer, and others. Her first book will be out in May 2015. Check out her work at www.brookeborel.com or follow her on Twitter @brookeborel.

I’ve always loved writing. I still remember the thrill of an assignment in Mrs. LaGrone’s second-grade class at Topeka Collegiate (then called Shawnee

Country Day School, which dates me) where each student wrote and illustrated a book and graciously donated it to the school library. Mine was Caroline’s Crumbly Cookies, and it chronicled a baker’s bad luck. It was a proud moment. Ever since, I harbored a secret wish to someday publish for a wider audience.

I never expected that more than 25 years later, my dream would take form in a popular science book about bed bugs. But hey, we take our dreams where we can.

Why bed bugs? You may have noticed the bloodsucking parasites in the news for the past decade or so, reaching a crescendo in 2010. The reports covered a global resurgence that would eventually hit all 50 states, Australia, Europe, and parts of Asia. In the U.S., we had beat down bed bugs after World War II and the advent of the first synthetic insecticides—namely DDT—and they were relatively absent for the following five decades. For those of us who grew up after the war, the resurgence felt like an alien invasion.

For me, that invasion has been personal. In my twelve years living in New York—among the original cities to be hit—I have had the pests three times in three different apartments. The first was in 2004. I assumed it was bad luck. Then it happened again in the summer of 2009. Twice. By then, I was working as a science journalist, and as the bed bug news steadily increased, I wrote a story explaining how they had evolved resistance to insecticides for Popular Science magazine.

The interviews I did for that short piece hinted at a larger writing opportunity. Two stories especially

struck me. The first involved a former army entomologist named Harold Harlan who, out of pure scientific curiosity, rescued a couple hundred bed bugs from a New Jersey barracks in the early 1970s. Bed bugs were so rare at the time that he’d never seen them in person. He wanted to learn more, and so he collected them into mason jars, took them home, and fed them blood from his own arms and legs. His colleagues thought he was nuts, but when the resurgence hit they were thankful for his curiosity. Because he’d coddled his bugs for decades, they were vulnerable to insecticides and thus made a great comparison to the increasingly chemical-resistant strains that were invading our bedrooms. Today, nearly every relevant scientific paper mentions the Harlan strain. His bed bugs were also the first to have their genome sequenced.

The second story that fascinated me described the bed bug’s origin. Although I didn’t know the bugs were real animals until my 2004 encounter, they are ancient pests. The most recent molecular data implies that they emerged 250,000 years ago—50,000 years before modern humans. The most widely accepted hypothesis suggests the bugs first lived in caves and fed off of bats somewhere near the Mediterranean. From there, they escaped with our ancestors—or close relatives, anyway—and proceeded to follow us around the world, exploiting the fact that we are social creatures inclined to trade and travel.

Once I heard these stories, I wanted more. I got an agent, wrote a book proposal, and sold the idea to a publisher. Adventure followed. I visited bed bug labs, where researchers struggled to build artificial feeders to nourish their test subjects; public housing in Virginia and Ohio, where residents coped with infestations; the front row of BEDBUGS!!!, an Off Off Broadway rock opera; an attic outside of Prague, where I helped a graduate student pluck bed bugs from a bat roost; a robotic chemical library in a small German village, where scientists look for new insecticides; and the corners of an entomology museum in Berkeley, where I studied the personal bed bug collection of an entomologist who is instrumental to my book, a man named Robert Leslie Usinger.

The result is Infested: How the Bed Bug Infiltrated Our Bedrooms and Took Over the World, due out in May 2015 from the University of Chicago with additional support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Thank you to Mrs. LaGrone and the rest of our community, past and present, for helping Collegiate kids dream big.

Infested: How The Bed Bug Infiltrated Our Bedrooms and Took Over the World

9by James Frager ‘98

James works in IT at Washburn University, and is an experienced, adventurous world traveler. The journey he undertook late last year was different from the others, however, because at the end of it he would meet the Filipino boy he had been supporting for a decade.

At age 19, I began sponsoring a child in need through an international aid organization, Children International. I wanted to find a way

to feel like I was making a difference in the world beyond my immediate surroundings; to connect with a culture beyond my own. For more than ten years I’ve been receiving letters and updated photos of my sponsored child. I was matched with a child in the Philippines, Elegio Dela Cruz. He was six at the time I began sponsorship and over the years I have watched him grow, sending extra money to help his family of six as I could and always telling myself that, someday, I would find a way to go and visit. It was too appealing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity not to take. It always remained a statement of someday. Someday I would go. Someday.

Toward the end of 2012, it started to occur to me that “someday” was running out of time. Elegio was already 15 and I knew that he’d be out of the program and likely unreachable when he turned 18. I also knew that without some substantial financial planning on my part, it wasn’t going to happen at all. I spent more than a year saving up as much as I could. In addition to putting away as much as I could from my regular paycheck working in IT at Washburn University, all extra income I made from private IT work, DJing at weddings and private parties, and independent tax accounting and bookkeeping was put into an off-limits account to fund this trip to see Elegio. The more I planned, the bigger the trip grew

as I figured that if I was going to go all the way for a once-in-a-lifetime trip, I should make the most of it. The trip ended up starting with a one-way ticket to New Zealand, then through Australia where I spent a week with the family of a man I’d met in India three years earlier over Christmas, and on through southeast Asia, spending New Year’s Eve crammed into a sea of hundreds of thousands at the base of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I was travelling just over a month, the longest single period I’d been out of Topeka in my entire life. I made decisions about where to go as I travelled, knowing only that I had a one-way ticket on a flight home from Manila I had to catch at the end of it all.

My visit with Elegio was on the very last day of my month of travels. The night before I had met a young couple at dinner who took the day off from their jobs to come along with me. A social worker from the sponsorship agency picked us up from my hotel and took us to their field site where Elegio and his mother were waiting for our day together. His English was almost as limited as my Filipino, which was just as well as we were both too stunned at the surreal nature of our encounter to have much to say. I still struggle for words. Our day was spent at Manila Ocean Park, a park similar to America’s SeaWorld, with an elaborate lunch out and a shopping trip to the local mall where Elegio was able to pick whatever he wanted. I made sure to leave a budget to allow him to shop freely knowing this was not an experience he was likely to be able to repeat. Jonathan, the friend I’d made the night before, assured me that a day like this would otherwise be absolutely impossible for a child like Elegio. We couldn’t speak, but Elegio’s smile and the occasional weight of his hand on my shoulder said all that was needed about our mutual reverence and gratitude for this time together.

We ended up taking Elegio and his mother back to their home late at night. It was essentially a single concrete room down a dark alley, an excellent time to use the flashlight I carry with me on every travel. They had a single mattress on the floor on which his three siblings were already asleep. They didn’t have electricity so the room was dark. We said our goodbyes through our translator, and I left Elegio with my flashlight as he left me with gratitude for the understanding of my incredible good fortune, and the ability of each of us to make a profound difference in the lives of others, even on the other side of the planet.

Elegio

James Frager and Eligio

10by Cori Viola (T) ‘05

There’s hardly a timelier or more controversial topic than immigration reform. As a law student at the University of Kansas, Cori gained rare insight into the workings of immigration law and the federal court system through her work with Appleseed, a non-

profit international network of public interest justice centers.

Appleseed's mission is to assist impoverished and vulnerable populations in overcoming challenges and obstacles in the legal system.

Appleseed utilizes pro-bono attorneys, community advocates, and student interns to investigate social injustice and monitor the court process on behalf of the disenfranchised. I was one of those student interns.

Because one of my bachelor’s degrees is in Spanish (thank you Topeka Collegiate, for including Spanish in the curriculum), the focus of my internship was immigration. The majority of immigration cases in Kansas concern Spanish-speaking people from Mexico and Central America. My assignment was to observe and rate the challenges facing the U.S. court system in processing immigration cases. I learned the courts are not provided the adequate tools to achieve justice. There are only 56 immigration courts in the United States designated to process more than 375,000 cases annually, which translates to an average of 7,000 cases handled by one court at any given time. Because the courts are so incredibly backlogged, almost nothing can be accomplished. The court itself is woefully understaffed. The Kansas City immigration court employs only two judges, responsible for all of Kansas, parts of Missouri and Arkansas. There is a severe shortage of trial attorneys, law clerks, translators and other resources. As a result, due process and consideration of human rights and civil liberties are all but forgotten.

Effective translation has been a consistent problem for immigration courts. Several cases documented by the Appleseed reports demonstrate that translators will often insert their own opinions into the translations, and sometimes discount the testimony

of the immigrant. Simultaneous translation is often missing, meaning the judge and attorneys have conversations in English without translating for the immigrant. Based upon my personal observation, the Kansas City immigration court did not always simultaneously translate, but overall, the translators were capable and professional.

Immigration hearings are classified as civil, not criminal, proceedings, even though they may result in deprivation of liberty. This circumvents an individual’s right to counsel, along with other constitutionally mandated rights, such as the right to not self-incriminate. People who are detained and subject to deportation are not advised of their constitutional rights when charged with violations of immigration laws. The Kansas City immigration court has been exemplary in this regard because of its simplified filing and pleading requirements. However, understanding the immigration system remains a daunting and often insurmountable task for immigrants

I am often asked which of the cases I observed left the greatest impression. It is the case of a young man who did not have legal representation, and therefore was unaware of his civil rights. Without knowing he could refuse to answer, he began to answer questions asked by the judge under oath. His parents brought him to the United States as a toddler. Once in the U.S., his mother abandoned him. He could not tell the judge whether his parents were documented, exactly how he crossed the border, or his date of birth. Despite the fact he had lived his life in the United States, he had no way of proving it to the judge. I was struck with the realization that this young man’s move to the U.S. was not his choice, yet he had thrived here, gone to school here, and considered himself an American. Yet because of the immigration laws, the court could send him out of the only country he had known and loved in the course of a 20-minute hearing.

We often forget the words inscribed on the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” How can we reconcile the inefficiencies of our immigration system with this message inseparably intertwined with the foundation of our country? This question has no clear answer. The road to immigration efficiency is murky, the questions infinite, and the answers undefined. The pathway to citizenship remains a daunting, expensive task for immigrants seeking a life in the United States. It is not an issue that is going to disappear, but it remains one that Appleseed and other advocacy groups will continue to address and hopefully, resolve.

Immigration: An Inside View

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As they transitioned from high school to college, members of the Class of 2010 continued to distinguish themselves, something they began at Topeka Collegiate. Half of Topeka’s 2014 National Merit Finalists – three of six – are

TCS alumni and members of this class. Three are Kansas Governor’s Scholars, representing the top 1% of high school seniors. One continues a six-year unbroken streak of graduating number one at a Topeka High school.

Megan Anderson ’10 is a National Merit Finalist who won a full-tuition scholarship to the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa where she plans to major in economics and minor in Italian. She has been accepted into the Emerging Scholars program, which means that as a sophomore, she will conduct her own research under the guidance of a faculty mentor. Megan graduated from Topeka High School with highest honors.

Joshua Greene ’10 is a National Merit Finalist who has chosen to continue his education at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, his sister and brother-in-law’s alma mater (Rachael Greene Sokoloff ’98 and Gabe Sokoloff). Josh is a Washburn Rural High School honors graduate, a Governor’s Scholar (top 1%), an ACT Scholar, Kansas Board of Regents Scholar, Kansas State Scholar and member of the National Honor Society.

Irene Nicolae ’10, a National Merit Finalist, is a freshman on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She ranked number one in her class at Washburn Rural High School, where she graduated with highest honors. She is a Kansas Governor’s Scholar (Top 1%), an ACT Scholar, Kansas Board of Regents Scholar and Kansas State Scholar.

Sahil Rattan ‘10 turns his sights to the West Coast for college, specifically the University of Southern California, where he earned a debate scholarship. Sahil is an honors graduate of Washburn Rural High School where he served as Student Body Co-President. He is a Kansas Governor’s Scholar (top 1%), ACT Scholar, Kansas Board of Regents Scholar, Kansas State Scholar and member of the National Honor Society

Class of 2010 Makes Us Proud

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Congratulations! Half of Topeka’s 2014 National Merit Scholars are members of Topeka Collegiate’s Class of 2010. (Photo: Nathan Ham)

Class of 2010 College Choices and Scholarships

Megan Anderson University of Alabama: Tuscaloosa, Alabama National Merit Corporate ScholarshipNational Scholar - University of AlabamaPresidential Scholar - University of AlabamaNational Merit FinalistNational English Honor SocietyKansas State ScholarNational Honor SocietyPresident’s Award for Academic ExcellenceSuperior Honors Graduate (4.0 or higher)

Nick BadskyUniversity of Delaware: Newark, DelawareUniversity of Delaware ScholarSwimming Athletic Scholarship - University of Delaware

Honors Graduate (4.0 or higher)National Honor SocietyKansas Board of Regents Scholar

Alec BerrymanUniversity of Kansas: LawrenceChancellor’s Scholarship - University of KansasDean of Engineering Scholarship - University of KansasChemical Engineering Scholarship - University of KansasKU Honors ProgramKansas State ScholarHonors Graduate (4.0 or higher)ACT Scholar Kansas Board of Regents Scholar

13Connor DeCoursey BrennanUniversity of Kansas: LawrenceQuill and Scroll International Honorary SocietyNational English Honor SocietyHigh Honors Graduate (3.75-3.99)

Thomas CoatesUniversity of Kansas: Lawrence

Dylan CoxWashburn University: TopekaIrene Nunemaker Scholarship for ExcellenceManuel Pusitz ScholarshipAcademic Scholarship - Washburn UniversityWiseman Scholarship - Washburn UniversityKansas State ScholarSuperior Honors Graduate (4.0 or higher) Michael EinspahrIndiana University: Bloomington, IndianaDean’s Scholarship - Indiana UniversityAcademic Scholarship - Indiana UniversityKansas State ScholarInternational Baccalaureate DiplomaHonors Graduate (4.0 or higher)Kansas Board of Regents Scholar

Caty FieldUniversity of Kansas: LawrenceRock Chalk Scholarship - University of KansasSuperior Honors Graduate (4.0 or higher)

Brandon FrickeIllinois Wesleyan University: Bloomington, IllinoisAlumni Scholarship - Illinois Wesleyan UniversityKansas Board of Regents ScholarHonors Graduate (4.0 or higher)

Julia Garcia Gap Year

David GernonNorthwestern University: Evanston, IllinoisEchols Scholar - University of VirginiaTrustee Honor Scholar - Grinnell CollegeAcademic Scholarship - University of KansasSuperior Honors Graduate (4.0 or higher)President’s Award for Educational ExcellenceQuill and Scroll International Honorary SocietyKansas State ScholarNational English Honor Society

Mu Alpha Theta - National Mathematics Honor SocietyNational Honor Society

Joshua GreeneBrown University: Providence, Rhode IslandNational Merit FinalistKansas Governor’s Scholar (top 1%)National Honor SocietyACT RecognitionKansas Board of Regents ScholarKansas State ScholarHonors Graduate (4.0 or higher)

Maria KingfisherUniversity of Kansas: LawrenceHonors Graduate (3.5-3.74)

Austin McClureUniversity of Kansas: LawrenceHigh Honors Graduate (3.75-3.99)

Alexandra MillhuffWilliam Jewell College: Liberty, MissouriSwimming Athletic Scholarship - William Jewell CollegeJewell Scholarship - William Jewell CollegeManuel Pusitz ScholarshipSuperior Honors Graduate (4.0 or higher)President’s Award for Educational ExcellenceKansas State ScholarNational English Honor SocietyMu Alpha Theta - National Mathematics Honor SocietyNational Honor Society Société Honoraire de Français 2014

Irene NicolaeHarvard University: Cambridge, MassachusettsNational Merit Finalist#1 Class RankKansas Governor’s Scholar (top 1%)ACT ScholarKansas Board of Regents ScholarKansas State Scholar Honors Graduate (4.0 or higher)All-State Academic Honorable Mention

14 Federico PettinellaLoughborough University: Loughborough, EnglandGold Level Duke of Edinburgh Award

International Baccalaureate Diploma, International School of PragueCertificate of Excellence in Computer Science

Carter PettyUniversity of Kansas: LawrenceChancellor’s Scholarship - University of KansasHonors Graduate (3.65 or higher)

Sahil RattanUniversity of Southern California: Los Angeles, CaliforniaDebate Scholarship - University of Southern CaliforniaChancellor’s Scholarship - University of Kansas

Debate Scholarship - University of KansasKansas Governor’s Scholar (Top 1%)Student Body Co-PresidentACT Scholar Kansas Board of Regents ScholarKansas State ScholarNational Honor SocietyHonors Graduate (4.0 or higher)

Andreia ShepherdWashburn University: Topeka, KS

Ashley SmithHighland Community College: Highland, KansasVolleyball Athletic Scholarship - Highland Community CollegeHonors Graduate (4.0 or higher)National Honor Society

By the Numbers

50% of Topeka’s National Merit

Finalists - 3 of 6 - are members of the TCS Class of 2010

6 consecutive years, a Topeka Collegiate alum has ranked

#1 in the graduating class of a Topeka high school

3 members of the Class of

2010 are National Governor’s Scholars

(top 1% of graduating seniors)

70% of Topeka Collegiate alumni

have won college scholarships over the past three years

15

1989

Morgan Anne HeitKathleen Williams Heit and her husband David announce the arrival of their baby girl, Morgan Anne, born on August 8 weighing 7 pounds, 12 ounces, and measuring 20.5 inches in length. Kathleen says, “Every day has been a blessing and an adventure!” She also reports that proud grandparents Al and Martha Williams Jr. and Francis and Jeanne Heit are over the moon!

1990Brent Hilpert moved to Baltimore, Maryland last summer after 15 years in Atlanta, to become the 10th Grade Dean and chemistry and physics teacher at the Boys Latin School of Maryland. He enjoyed his first year there and is looking forward to the arrival of his third child this winter.

Rachel Beth Rolfs 1976-2014

With sorrow, we share news of the death of Rachel Rolfs, who died of liver cancer on

October 21, 2014. Topeka Collegiate’s school song, with its refrain, “Like the eagle on the mountain, you are free,” was among the musical selections played at Rachel’s memorial. Family friend and former Kansas Poet Laureate Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg wrote a remembrance of Rachel that begins, “This was a girl who grew up in the background, preferring to help others shine and sing. She was existentially kind. She was enduringly generous. Her presence made all things possible wherever she landed, and where she landed, she rooted down, making herself a sheltering tree that cleansed the air and

strengthened the soil.”

1991Berry Wanless dove into the Shark Tank with his sister Betsy Wanless Johnson ‘99 in January, and emerged with a high-profile investor and increased visibility for the siblings’ clothing line SwimZip. (see p. 32)

1993Katie Freeman Hutchens is a proud first-time aunt to nine-month-old Weston, her brother John Freeman ’98 and his wife Kim’s son. Katie lives in Chicago, Weston in Kansas City, so she doesn’t get to hug him as often as she’d like, but keeps up via Facetime and frequent texts. Katie is still enjoying selling real estate. She experienced a high point when she showed clients author Gillian Flynn’s Wicker Park home, where she wrote the bestseller Gone Girl. Katie and her husband Billy celebrated their first wedding anniversary at Lake Tahoe in August, where they were married a year ago, and visited friends in Austin for the Austin City Limits music festival this fall.

Class Notes

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Jeffrey Jones and Emma Kuntz Jones

Emma Kuntz married Jeffrey Jones on September 5 in the Florida Keys. The wedding was at the villa where the couple stayed for the week with both their families. Then it was off to the honeymoon in Miami Beach. Emma’s brother Rudi ’94 flew in from Sydney, Australia, where he’s lived and worked in the financial industry for about three years, to attend the wedding. Emma describes it as “two great weeks of sun, food and drink, and family.” The newlyweds live in Washington D.C. He works for the Department of Justice, she at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). “I switched sides,” Emma says. “I used to be a defense attorney specializing in securities-related matters, now I am a regulatory attorney bringing cases against individuals and firms for violations of the securities laws. So far it's been fun to be on the other side!”

1994Brooke Borel is a science writer and journalist who lives in New York. Her articles have been published in Popular Science, where she is a contributing editor, as well as Slate, Modern Farmer, and others. But 2015

brings something new. Her first book, Infested: How the Bed Bug Infiltrated Our Bedrooms and Took Over the World, will be out in May from the University of Chicago Press with additional support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. (see p. 8)

Karlin Keller has finished her first year in the Accelerated Leadership Program at Intel. Her first rotation was working the Human Resources executive office. In that role, she led the largest-ever women's study at Intel resulting in strategic recommendations presented to Intel's top 20 senior leaders including the CEO and chairman. She started her second rotation in the spring with the New Devices Group, which Karli describes as “Intel's internal start-up tasked with establishing Intel in the wearable and consumer IOT space, where I'm currently working on bringing our Edison compute module to market.”

Winston Williams

Nicole Hoherz Williams continues her work as Assistant Vice President for Marketing and Public Relations at Swedish Medical Center in Denver. She and her husband Hart are enjoying raising their one-and-a-half-year-old son Winston.

1995Samatha Crow Quist is Executive Director of Technovation, a global technology entrepreneurship program which focuses on helping young women explore careers in technology. Samantha tells Fast Company Magazine, “The data around women in tech is abysmal. Clearly something’s going wrong with respect to the education system and getting girls, specifically, excited about technology early on.” Technovation’s mission of inspiring and educating girls in technology includes an annual competition where young women from around the world develop

17mobile applications and then present and pitch them to a panel of judges.

Samantha, George, and Jake Quist

Samantha, husband Jake and their one-year-old son George were in Topeka for Fourth of July festivities, back at Halloween, and in between, set sail on an Alaskan cruise with the extended family.

Twins Miles and Roland with Oliver Liesmann

Tim Liesmann (T) and his wife Tiffany welcomed twin boys, Miles and Roland, on July 17. They join older brother Oliver, nearly three years old.

1996 Kerstin Nordstrom moved from the University of Maryland, where she was doing post-doctoral research, to become Assistant Professor of Physics at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts.

1997

Will Mugford

Sarah Temple is in her third year of working in the Emergency Department at Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Florida. Her husband Angus Mugford continues his work at IMG Sports Academy. Their son William is walking, climbing and even opening doors so mom and dad are constantly on their toes. The family traveled to England this fall to introduce Will to his father's side of the family.

1998

Claire Adams (center) and bandmatesClaire Adams is a full-time professional musician and songwriter breaking new ground with the award winning band Katy Guillen and The Girls. Claire plays bass guitar and lives in Kansas City. The band placed fourth out of more than 125 bands from all over

18the world at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis early this year, and was voted 2014’s “Best Emerging Band in Kansas City.” Claire and her bandmates are scheduled for an upcoming 10-day tour in Sweden.

Kathleen Daughety and family

Kathleen Daughety received her MBA at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in May. Two months before, she founded a company called WELL which is developing a set of tools to help nondependent drinkers track and manage their alcohol consumption. The concept is to create a tech-enabled Weight Watchers-type program for alcohol moderation, with a mobile app expected to be released soon. In a related but separate project, Kathleen and a partner are working to develop sensors to automatically track blood alcohol content (BAC) transdermally, or across the skin. The project is in the very early stages but eventually they hope to develop a wearable device that gives people precise information about their BAC in real time.

James Frager is quite the world traveler. He visited South Korea this fall, and earlier this year, embarked on an odyssey that included New Zealand, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and the Philippines. Manila was the high point of the itinerary, because James wanted to meet the boy he had sponsored for a decade through a child welfare charity called Children International. (see p. 9)

Weston, Kimberly, John FreemanJohn Freeman and his wife Kim welcomed their son Weston Anthony into their lives on February 7 and he’s been the center of their world ever since. After the initial period of sleep deprivation, his parents are happy that Weston is now sleeping through the night. He’s saying “mama” and “dada,” has his first tooth, loves baths and being outside, eats solid food (as long as it’s not peas), and is both a KU and a Royals fan, judging by his wardrobe. The family lives in suburban Kansas City, where John is director of business development at Sagacious, a software consulting firm. Kim works as an orthopedic nurse at St. Luke’s South Hospital.

Rachael Greene Sokoloff and her husband welcomed their second child to the family in May.

Amy Sullivan, Allison Viola LoftusAllison Viola Loftus has experienced big changes this year, launching a new business and moving from Dallas to Brooklyn. The move was prompted by a job change for Allison’s husband Brian. Allison left full-time teaching to launch an online gift service called VelvetCrate with her sister Amy Sullivan. It’s what they describe as a “collection of chic, fun and luxurious gifts” for women. Originally conceived

19as a place for men to shop for women, Allison says VelvetCrate’s clientele has turned out to be largely women. The offerings are seasonal, and intended for “just because, celebrate or love.” Before leaving Dallas and her job teaching middle school history, Allison proudly guided three of her students to state History Day, inspired by her own History Day experience at TCS.

West, Cathy, Micha

Wesley West describes his year this way: “In a quest to find myself, I have stumbled into three different jobs in the last six months,” the latest as a principal at Novantas in New York City. He has landed back in the consulting world, helping banks meet their regulatory hurdles and improving the customer experience. Wes says he recently moved in with his “amazing girlfriend, Cathy, who validates or critiques telecom companies’ claims and then recommends stock buys or sells using engineering math I don’tunderstand.” Cathy and Wes have two Pomeranians, Loki and Micha, but Wes claims to be waging a campaign to change the latter’s name to “Idiot.”

Blake Whitaker and his wife Danielle live in College Station, Texas where he finished his PhD in British History at Texas A&M in May. Blake serves as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve. In March, he took command of the Headquarters Support Company of the 17th Psychological Operations Battalion. He is responsible for the readiness and training of more than 100 soldiers. In his civilian career, Blake is a senior academic advisor at A&M, where he oversees the academic progress of students in the Industrial Distribution Program.

Chris Yorke and Susan Reid

Chris Yorke and his wife Susan Reid returned to Portland, Oregon from Palau in October after what Chris describes as a fantastic year in the Pacific. “We have done a lot of work and learned quite a bit about this unique culture,” he says, “but also found time for some remarkable scuba diving, wakeboarding, kayaking, surfing, and fishing. As the tallest person in the country, I found my way onto one of the leading basketball teams, but sadly I could not compete in the Micronesian games for Team Palau because I’m not a Palauan citizen.” Back in the U.S., Susan has found a job with the Oregon Department of Justice and Chris is considering working at a variety of architecture and design offices in Portland. He’s also very excited to be teaching a course on treehouse design and construction at his alma mater, Williams College, during the January term.

1999

Nathan Bammes, bride Eva, sister-in-law and brother Stephanie and Ben Bammes ’97.

20Nathan Bammes is in his final year of internal medicine residency at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and was recently awarded the single critical care fellowship offered

at UMKC each year. Even apart from that, it’s been quite a year. Nathan married Eva, a friend from high school days, in March, and bought a house in Kansas City where they live with their five-year-old daughter, German Shepherd puppy, and kitten.

Maria Maldonado graduated with her master’s degrees in social work and public health from Washington University in St. Louis. She’s applying for a position at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston.

Betsy Wanless Johnson has experienced a year of major personal and professional landmarks. It began with an appearance on national television with her brother Berry Wanless ’91, pitching their business SwimZip to potential investors on ABC’s reality show Shark Tank. (see p. 32) Since the show aired in January, Betsy has been busy keeping up with the increase in business caused by national TV exposure, designing the 2015 collection and lining up international distributors. In early October, she and her husband Matt welcomed their second son, Benjamin, whose big brother Andy is now three years old. Betsy is one busy mompreneur!

2000Whitney Hamilton Wood has a job many might envy because it allows her to travel to Italy several times a year. Whitney is the Coordinator of Special Programs at Washington University’s Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts in St. Louis. She spends her time taking Wash. U. students to Florence, Italy and coordinating the art and architecture study abroad program.

Drs. Allen and Allie KossoyAllie Kossoy graduated from Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Denver, was hooded by her dad Allen (the other Dr. Kossoy), and moved south for a residency at Texas A&M.

William Michael SchmidtTyler Schmidt and his wife Lindsey are proud new parents. William Michael Schmidt was born July 25, weighing 7 pounds, 10 ounces and measuring 21 inches long. Tyler continues his work as a trader for Cargill in Houston, Texas.

Sarah Sellers is engaged, and planning her wedding for next year in Napa. Her fiancé, Sudeep Pal, proposed on July 17, their two-year anniversary, on their balcony in New York City.

21

Sarah Sellers and Sudeep Pal are engaged

2001

Sarah Bellows-Blakely in Dubai’s tallest building

Sarah Bellows-Blakely is still pursuing a PhD in African History at Washington University in St. Louis. She is in the middle of research for her dissertation, about the history of girls’ rights in Kenya. She spent a year researching in Kenya, mostly in the capital, Nairobi, then spent September and October in Paris to research at the UNESCO (United National Educational, Social and Cultural Organization) archive. Sarah will be at the World Health Organization archive in Geneva through the end of the year before heading back to Kenya for a final few months of research early next year. Her research and travel is funded by a Fulbright-Hays

Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship, part of the Fulbright program administered by the U.S. Department of Education. She’s enjoyed shorter trips to other places, both for research and for fun. Highlights have been going up in the world’s tallest building in Dubai; seeing a “running of the cows” near Pamplona, Spain; presenting at the Berkshire Conference on the History of Women in Toronto; walking the streets of Stone Town, Zanzibar with her mom; and seeing family and friends in Topeka.

Shruti Challa offered advice to the Class of 2014 as the commencement speaker in May. She encouraged the graduates to research careers early and not to be afraid to ask for advice. (See p. 35)

Dr. Emily Heronemus

Emily Heronemus graduated in May from the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences and is now beginning her residency at the Via Christi Family Medicine program in Wichita.

Asona Lui is in the fourth year of her MD and PhD program at the University of Kansas Medical Center. She is currently in the lab fulltime, studying inflammatory signaling in drug resistant breast cancer. On July 5, Asona married Marco Chacon in an eclectic, multicultural ceremony on the lawn of the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri at sunset. The reception that followed at Union Station and was attended by many Topeka Collegiate alumni including her sister Atima ’04 and brother Nyalia ’08.

22 Afterwards, Asona and Marco went on a whirlwind tour of India thanks to many generous donations by their guests to their honeymoon gift registry.

Marco and Asona Chacon

Now that the wedding planning is over, Asona is concentrating on finishing her PhD in cancer biology and completing the remodeling of the newlyweds’ 100-year-old home in the medical district.

Dr. Natalie Penn (left)Natalie Penn graduated from the University of Kansas School of Medicine and moved to Phoenix for a residency in pediatrics at Phoenix Children’s Hospital.

Dan Thompson graduated from Columbia Law School in May of 2013, and now practices corporate

law in Kansas City as an associate at Husch Blackwell. His focus is on the energy sector, particularly wind energy development.

2002Amelia Maxfield is a third year law student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School. She spent the summer in New York City as a legal intern in the Strategic Litigation Unit of the Innocence Project.

2003 Jordan Carter is a third year law student at the University of Kansas, where she is the Executive Note and Comment Editor for the Law Review, a teaching assistant for the first year Legal Writing program, and a Student Ambassador for prospective law students. She’s already secured a job with the Kansas City firm Shook, Hardy and Bacon after graduation.

Chase Hamilton proposesChase Hamilton spent three months in the Amazon region of Peru this summer, directing eight students from Kansas University and Colgate University (located in Hamilton, New York) in a medical and clean water campaign in the region. They provided medical care to more than 350 patients in three small river towns and provided clean water solutions to more than 240 families. Chase returned home from Peru on a Friday, proposed to Cassie King on Saturday and moved to Colorado on Monday. He’s now attending Rocky Vista University Medical School

23in Denver.

Katherine Heflin is in her second year of a master’s program in health policy and management at the Harvard School of Public Health, where she was named a Carson Family Fellow. Katherine takes half of her classes at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Her focus is health disparities for disadvantaged populations. While working on her graduate degree, Katherine has done health access research and policy work at The Fenway Institute and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She is currently working for the Harvard Center on Population and Development and on elderly healthcare access in Massachusetts with the Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation, the Urban Institute, and the Massachusetts state government. This fall, Katherine was chosen to introduce former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius as part of Harvard’s Voices in Leadership series. Thank you, Katherine, for mentioning Topeka Collegiate! (http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/voices/events/sebelius/)

Megan Reynolds graduated with her second B.A., in modern languages (Spanish), from Kansas State University in May. She is teaching Spanish to students of various ages at Flint Hills Christian School and is teaching a theater class on the side through a home school co-op in Manhattan. Megan is very excited to be working at the school. She has joined the University Christian Church after many years of attending, and assists with technical aspects of the Sunday morning worship services. Megan says, “I have really put roots down in Manhattan and am very blessed to be where I am today!”

Caitlin Seals Schwanke is in her fourth year of teaching at a Topeka middle school in the areas of gifted, language arts, and performing arts. She directed a musical in the spring with 30 cast members and is planning the next one. Caitlin completed her Master of Science degree in special education with a concentration in gifted, talented, and creative this summer. She lives in Topeka with her husband, Matt Ellis.

Alex Woodbury has started her own business called

Project Sewing Workshop: for the nations. It combines her love of sewing and design with a desire to help people. She’s designing bags, then selling kits with fabric, patterns and accessories so people can make them. A percentage of each purchase goes to people in need in the region the bag represents. The “Downtown Bag” represents Topeka! (see p. 33)

2004

Jesse and Liz Kutina

Elizabeth Brownback married Jesse Kutina on April 12 at Topeka’s First Presbyterian Church, continuing a family tradition. Her parents and older sister Abby Brownback Teetsel ‘00 were married there. Abby and fellow TCS alumnae Jenna Brownback ’12, Erin Atwood ’04 and Cassidy Carpenter Belz ’04 served as bridesmaids. The newlyweds honeymooned in Belize and now live in San Diego, where Jesse works as an accountant and Liz as a video producer and editor for an advertising agency called SixteenFifty Creative Intelligence. Liz’s brother Andy ’02 lives nearby.

Cassidy Carpenter Beltz graduated from Kansas University with her master’s degree in clinical child psychology in May. Her husband Dan accepted an internal medicine residency at Boston University Medical Center, so the couple moved to Boston.

24Cassidy accepted a middle school special education teaching position at the Academy Charter School of Boston.

Cassidy and Dan Belz graduate

Caitlin Fitzpatrick is pursuing her master’s degree in fiction writing at The University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Caitlin describes the program as fantastic and the faculty top-notch. “We take workshops with renowned visiting writers, like Edwidge Danticat and Meg Wolitzer,” she explains. “The program also fully funds every student. This means that not only am I not paying tuition but I am also receiving a living stipend each month. Selection is incredibly competitive and so each year just five fiction writers and five poets are accepted. I couldn’t be happier to be here!”

Nick and Austin Gideon in Costa Rica

Austin Gideon left Harris Williams in San Francisco in July to join The Stephens Group, a private investment firm in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he’s focusing on businesses in the technology, health care

and consumer industries. Between jobs, Austin and his brother Nick ‘08 spent 11 days in Costa Rica. They hiked more than 40 miles during three days and two nights in the Corcovado National Park. They finished the trip fishing at Crocodile Bay in Puerto Jiminez, bringing in one sailfish, two roosterfish and four red snappers, all in one-and-a-half days!

Atima Lui as maid of honor

Atima Lui packed her bags and moved to Boston after two years in Bentonville, Arkansas working as an Assistant Marketing Manager for WalMart, promoting their main brand. Atima returned to student life and the chilly east coast for her first year at Harvard Business School. Her first case study will be in Morocco. In her scarce free time, Atima has been modeling for fashion photographers. She was ecstatic to be maid of honor in her sister Asona’s ’01 wedding this summer at Kansas City’s Union Station.

Rebecca and Cody CrowellRebecca Rosacker married Cody Crowell in January

25and graduated from K-State in May. The newlyweds bought a farmhouse built in 1880 in the rural community of Fowler, Michigan and are spending lots of time repairing, remodeling and refinishing. They have put on a new roof, painted most of the house, added a wood stove and repaired windows, as well as adding electricity and water to the auto mechanic shop and dairy barn. This winter, they will finish the upstairs as a master bedroom, and clean out the hog barn so they can begin raising their own meat. Rebecca is working toward becoming a manager at Tractor Supply Company and in her spare time, rides her two horses, Franklin and Fame.

2005Alexandra Dattilo is consumed by medical school in her first year at New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine, and she loves it. “The unique principles of osteopathic manipulative medicine are a fascinating and useful adjunctive tool to traditional methods and I’m enjoying using them on myself and others!” she says. “We have started working with standardized patients (actors) and with the simulation robots. It’s been simultaneously eye opening, terrifying, and fun.” Alexandra volunteers in the Long Island community and in New York City, at marathons and medically-related fundraisers. This summer she presented a poster on sepsis research at a regional SAEM (Society for Academic Emergency Medicine) meeting, and recently collaborated with colleagues on an article published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine.

Corri Viola (T) is a law student at the University of Kansas. She recently served as an intern researching immigration law for Appleseed, a non-profit international network of public interest justice centers. (see p. 10)

2006 Emily Park graduated in May from Stephens College with a BFA in fashion communication. She graduated magna cum laude and was honored as one of the graduates who most personify Stephens’ Ten Ideals, a longstanding tradition. Soon after graduation, Emily was engaged to Justin Fitzgerald.

Emily Park and fiancé Justin Fitzgerald

In mid-August, she moved to Omaha, Nebraska and took a position with Nebraska WeddingDay, where she is the marketing/media assistant – a perfect job, it would seem, since she and Justin are planning a wedding for October 2015.

2007

Lauren with Galápagos penguinsLauren Gernon is a senior at Rice University in Houston. She and a group of friends went to the Galápagos for two weeks in August to participate in a global volunteer program and do some exploring. They spent weekdays on the island of San Cristóbal, working for a national conservation organization based in Ecuador called the Jatun Sacha Foundation. “We stayed at the San Cristóbal Biological Reserve,” says Lauren, “and did mostly manual conservation work, including invasive species eradication, helping plant coffee for farmers who agreed to designate a portion of their land to native flora, trail maintenance at a giant tortoise breeding center, and general upkeep at the reserve.” On their two weekends, the students explored two islands, where they saw sea turtles, sea lions, fish, birds, sharks, penguins, and

26even a humpback whale and her calf. Lauren observes, “The Galápagos is incredibly valuable and unique, and I was lucky to spend some time seeing what makes it such a special place.”

2008 Nyalia Lui is a junior at Morehouse College in Atlanta where he’s majoring in computer science, with minors in math and bio-informatics. His teachers identified him as one of their top computer science students. As a result, Nyalia was invited to spend two weeks in Germany this summer exploring career opportunities for STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) majors.

Nyalia at his sister’s weddingBack in the U.S., he traveled to Stanford University for two months of research as an AMGEN Scholar, chosen as one of 32 from among 800 applicants to participate in a program that provides undergraduates with the opportunity to engage in a hands-on research experience at premier educational institutions. Using computer science and genetics, he presented “The Role of RNA Editing In Prostate Cancer” at the Stanford Research Symposium. A highlight of Nyalia’s summer was his older sister Asona’s ’01 Kansas City wedding, in which he served as a groomsman.

2010Megan Anderson is a National Merit Finalist who chose to further her education at the University of

Alabama at Tuscaloosa. In addition to a National Merit Corporate Scholarship, she won a dazzling array of other scholarships - 18 in all - including National Scholar and Presidential Scholar awards at UA. Megan plans to major in economics and Italian, and has been accepted into the Emerging Scholars program, which will allow her to begin her own research with a faculty mentor her sophomore year. Megan graduated from Topeka High School with highest honors. She is a Kansas State Scholar, received the President’s Award for Academic Excellence and is a member of the National Honor Society and National English Honor Society. Since arriving on University of Alabama campus, she participated in Dance Alabama!, a student-led production, and managed to get tickets to the Iron Bowl (Alabama vs. Auburn) in late November. All Megan can say about that is “Roll Tide!” (see p. 11)

Nick Badsky put an exclamation point on his standout high school swimming career by winning a scholarship to swim for the University of Delaware Blue Hens. A Kansas Board of Regents Scholar, Honors Graduate of Washburn Rural High School and member of the National Honor Society, this scholar athlete also earned an academic scholarship at UD.

Alec Berryman is a freshman at the University of Kansas where he was selected for the KU Honors Program. He earned the Chancellor’s scholarship, as well as engineering and chemical engineering scholarships at KU. Alec is an honors graduate of Washburn Rural High School, a Kansas State scholar, an ACT scholar and a Board of Regents scholar. He is a star soccer player who helped his team win a state championship as a junior, and served as one of its captains as a senior.

Connor DeCoursey Brennan is a freshman at the University of Kansas. He graduated from Topeka High School in May with high honors, as a member of the Quill and Scroll International Honorary Society and the National English Honor Society.

Thomas Coates graduated from Washburn Rural High school in May, and joined several TCS classmates on the KU campus in Lawrence this fall.

27Dylan Cox is a Washburn Ichabod with several scholarships to his name, including the Irene Nunemaker Scholarship for Excellence, and a trio of scholarships from Washburn - Academic, Wiseman and Bio-Science Initiatives. Dylan is a Topeka High honors graduate, a Kansas State Scholar, member of the National Honor Society and winner of the President’s Award for Educational Excellence.

Michael Einspahr atop Long’s PeakMichael Einspahr won the Dean’s Scholarship at Indiana University in Bloomington, where he was accepted into the Hutton Honors School and received direct admission to the Kelley School of Business. He is living at the Kelley Living Learning Center for honors business students who participate in programs on leadership, ethics and global awareness. This fall, Michael pledged the Delta Upsilon fraternity and was elected president of his pledge class. Michael graduated from Washburn Rural High School with high honors, and was among the first group of students to earn an International Baccalaureate Diploma. He was also named a Kansas State Scholar. This summer, Michael climbed Long’s Peak, one of Colorado’s 14’ers (mountains with summits over 14,000 feet) with family members including sister Emily Einspahr Griggs ‘99 and her husband Will.

Caty Field is one of seven members of the TCS Class of ‘10 who have chosen the University of Kansas as their college destination. Caty earned a Rock Chalk Scholarship at KU and is a Topeka High School honors graduate.

Brandon Fricke continues a family tradition at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, where he is a freshman this fall. Brandon won the Alumni

Scholarship to his chosen school and while he’s undecided on a major, he may be leaning toward finance. Brandon is a Washburn Rural High School honors graduate, and a Kansas Board of Regents Scholar.

Julia Garcia graduated from Topeka High School in the spring and is taking a year away from school to earn money to continue her education.

David Gernon is calling Evanston, Illinois home this fall, as he begins his studies at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism - appropriate for this editor of the Topeka High World’s features section and member of the Quill and Scroll Honorary Society for high school journalists. David graduated from THS with honors, and a trio of college scholarships. He is a Kansas State Scholar, earned the President’s Award for Educational Excellence, was president of the National English Honor Society, and vice president of the National Honor Society and Mu Alpha Theta, the National Mathematics Honor Society. David and his brother Chris ’13 capped a winning year as doubles tennis partners by earning all-city and all-league honors, and qualifying for the state tournament.

Joshua Greene is one of three National Merit Finalists in the Class of ‘10. (see p. 11) He is continuing his education at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Josh is a Washburn Rural High School honors graduate, a Governor’s Scholar (top 1%), an ACT Scholar, Kansas Board of Regents Scholar, Kansas State Scholar and member of the National Honor Society. Josh was one of three TCS alumni members of the Washburn Rural Quest team who won the championship two years in a row.

Twice Champion WR Quest Team includes: (l) Josh Greene, (c) Irene Nicolae (r) Carter Petty

28Maria Kingfisher is a Topeka High honors graduate and a freshman at KU in the fall, where she plans to major in English with the goal of becoming a language arts teacher.

One of the high points of Maria’s high school years was co-directing SRO, Topeka High’s student-run variety show, so she plans to stay active in theater at KU and to continue choral singing.

Austin McClure graduated with high honors from Topeka High School and is now a freshman at the University of Kansas.

Alexandra Millhuff accepted an athletic scholarship to swim at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri. She also was awarded the Jewell Scholarship and Manuel Pusitz Scholarship. Alex graduated from Topeka High School with superior honors and the President’s Award for Educational Excellence. She is a Kansas State Scholar, a member of the National Honor Society, the National English Honor Society, Mu Alpha Theta (National Mathematics Honor Society) and the Société Honoraire de Français 2014.

Irene Nicolae is a National Merit Finalist, one of three in the Class of ‘10, who is a freshman on the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (see p. 11) Irene graduated first in her class at Washburn Rural High School with highest honors. She is a Kansas Governor’s Scholar (Top 1%), an ACT Scholar, Kansas Board of Regents Scholar and Kansas State Scholar and was crowned Washburn Rural’s Queen of Hearts. Irene was a member of the Washburn Rural Quest Team that won back-to-back championships her junior and senior years.

Federico Pettinella moved with his family to Prague in the Czech Republic shortly after graduating from TCS. This spring, he graduated from the International School of Prague’s International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma program, earning the Certificate of Excellence in Computer Science and receiving the Gold Level Duke of Edinburgh Award, presented by the British Ambassador to the Czech Republic. This fall, our Class of 2010’s international member begins his pursuit of a computer science degree at the University of Loughborough in Loughborough, England.

Carter Petty became a Jayhawk this fall, beginning his college career at the University of Kansas, where he earned the Chancellor’s Scholarship. After graduating with honors from Washburn Rural High School, Carter plans to major in chemical engineering with a pre-medicine focus. Carter and two fellow TCS alums formed half (three of six) of the Washburn Rural Quest team that won championships their junior and senior years.

Sahil Rattan turns his sights to the West Coast for college, specifically the University of Southern California, where he earned a debate scholarship. Sahil is an honors graduate of Washburn Rural High School where he served as Student Body Co-President. He is a Kansas Governor’s Scholar (top 1%), ACT Scholar, Kansas Board of Regents Scholar, Kansas State Scholar and member of the National Honor Society (see p. 11)

Andreia Shepherd graduated from Washburn Rural High School and earned a certificate in health care technology at Washburn Institute of Technology, preparing her to begin work on her nursing degree at Washburn this fall.

Kansas State Scholars: (l to r) back row: Alec Berryman, Sahil Rattan, Alexandra Millhuff, Josh Greene; front row: David

Gernon, Dylan Cox, Megan Anderson (not pictured: Michael Einspahr, Irene Nicolae)

Ashley Smith’s talent was clear even in middle school when she played for the TCS volleyball team. Ashley is a freshman at Highland Community College on a volleyball scholarship this fall. She is an honors grduate from Washburn Rural High School and a member of the National Honor Society.

292011

Elena Blum (right) volunteers with YVCElena Blum is a very active volunteer with Topeka’s Youth Volunteer Corps. This summer she volunteered every other day of the week, logging more than 100 hours of service. That earned her an award at the annual conference. Elena has been elected president of the Topeka YVC board, and was featured on the National YVC website. For the second year, Elena has been named to the group’s international youth advisory board, one of 28 young volunteers to be selected. A senior at Topeka High School, Elena has become involved in theater, both acting and stage managing. This fall she played the role of Grace, one of the stepsisters in the musical Cinderella.

Skyler Dykes was among the talented young musicians chosen to attend the Boston University Tanglewood institute as a part of the Young Artists Vocal Program this summer. While there, she earned college credits by taking academic courses, sang in the Young Artists Chorus and attended many Boston Symphony Orchestra concerts with guest artists including Renée Flemming and Yo-Yo Ma. At the end of the program, Skyler had the opportunity to sing with the Boston Pops on film night - an annual concert conducted by John Williams. Understandably, Skyler says, “I am glad that I had the opportunity to attend this exciting program!” In the spring, Skyler was named the Topeka Performing Arts Center’s Young Artist of the Year in vocal music. A senior at Topeka High School, she co-directed the student-run variety show SRO this fall.

Shaylene Rees is a senior at Bishop Seabury Academy in Lawrence, where she was elected one of five prefects by a vote of all students and faculty this fall. As she explains it, a prefect is a student representative for the entire school. They work with the Head of School, the board and the faculty to improve the school and act as liaisons between students and adults. Shaylene is a photographer whose passion for photography was sparked in Middle School art class with Mr. Zlotky at Topeka Collegiate.

Last summer, based on work she submitted, she was one of 12 students invited on a two-week National Geographic Student Expedition to Costa Rica to take photographs. Since then, she has won additional accolades for her photos, one of which was named

grand champion at the Jefferson County Fair and won a purple ribbon at the state fair for “best use of black and white.” She is also taking senior pictures for friends, many of them fellow TCS alums. Shaylene

30has played volleyball for three years, and was team captain her junior and senior years. She has been on the high honor roll throughout her high school career, and is busy with

college applications.

Ella Brown Richards is a senior at Oakland’s Bishop O’Dowd High School and co-captain of the mock trial team. She and fellow team members spent two weeks at a Harvard workshop, to hone their skills. This summer, after a trip to St. Louis where she saw the sights and took in a Cardinals game, Ella volunteered for two weeks at Camp Krem, a camp for children with special needs in the Santa Cruz Mountains. She has also been researching and visiting colleges as she considers pursuing a neuroscience degree.

2012David Lohf attended the National Student Leadership Conference on Engineering on the campus of American University in Washington, D.C. for 10 days this summer. He and other participants took classes in leadership development and engineering simulation, as well as touring the Naval Surface Warfare Center, NASA Goddard Center, and Lockheed Martin Global Vision Center. David also attended the University of Kansas Summer Engineering and Project Discovery Camp for Chemical and Petroleum Engineering. David is a junior at Topeka High School.

Micaela Magee is a junior at Hayden High School who danced the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy this holiday season in the Ballet Midwest production of The Nutcracker. This summer, Micaela auditioned for and was accepted into the Summer Intensive at the Orlando Ballet. As the name indicates, students receive intensive ballet training, dancing an average of 6 hours per day, and an additional two-and-a-half hours on Saturdays. Micaela is a member of the Hayden High School Wildcat Dance Team and swim team. She was recently inducted into the National Honor Society, the Torch and Laurel Society and the National Society of High School Scholars.

Micaela as the Sugar Plum FairyLaura Nicolae is having a busy junior year at Washburn Rural High School, where she is involved in tennis, debate, Scholars’ Bowl, math club, STUCO and Young Libertarians. Laura won fifth place in singles tennis at regionals and qualified for state. In debate, she’s placed as a semifinalist and quarterfinalist in her first two tournaments this fall. She’s been doing well in math competitions and the Washburn Rural team just won the first Scholars’ Bowl tournament of the year.

Irene and Laura Nicolae in Italy

She’s been active in running the political club that she started, Young Libertarians, and she’s volunteering at a local Hispanic ministry. Laura is a STUCO representative and junior class treasurer. This

31summer, Laura and her family toured Italy.

Sage and his mom in Night of the Living DeadSage Pourmirza is a junior at Washburn Rural High School, now actively part of the International Baccalaureate program. He continues acting in a variety of school and community theater productions. At Helen Hocker Theater this summer, Sage played one of The Three Musketeers, and worked on set design and sound for Rapunzel. This fall he was part of the Night of the Living Dead production at Helen Hocker Theater and portrayed Demetrius in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Mira Ram is a junior in the IB (International Baccalaureate) Program at Washburn Rural High School. Her interest in technology prompted her to start an after-school computer club last year. Mira says many TCS alumni are among the 30 or so students who regularly attend meetings. To her disappointment, the club attracts fewer girls than boys, something she hopes to change. “I think computer science is really important in today’s society because most everything we do revolves around technology,” she says. Mira teaches herself many of the skills, like programming, that she introduces to club members. “I teach myself how to do everything,” she says, “but as I teach things to the club members, I’m learning, too.” Mira encourages TCS eighth graders heading to Washburn Rural to check out the computer club.

Jordie (right) captains Dancin’ Blues

Jordie Schwerdt is a junior at Washburn Rural High School and captain of the Dancin’ Blues. Jordie has been named an All American the past two years and Top All American this year at NDA (National Dance Alliance) Dance Team camp, Top Ten Dancer of the Year at Tremaine Dance Nationals and Tremaine Company member. She has been invited for induction into the National Honor Society, is a member of Student Council, taking five AP (Advanced Placement) classes, is a Dance Factory apprentice and still finds time to volunteer to read with elementary school students.

In Memoriam

These members of the Topeka Collegiate School community have died since the last issue of Collegiate Life. We remember them in our hearts.

• Rachel Beth Rolfs ’90 • Edward Lohf, father of David Lohf ‘12 • James Warren, Jr., father of James Warren III ‘13

32 Two TCS alums ventured into television’s “Shark Tank” in

January and emerged with a bite, which is a good thing. “Shark Tank” is ABC’s reality show on which million- and billionaire businesspeople hear pitches from entrepreneurs seeking investments for their businesses.

Siblings Berry Wanless ‘91 and Betsy Wanless Johnson ’99 convinced Lori Greiner, the so-called “queen” of home shopping network QVC, to invest in SwimZip, their four-year-old clothing line, which makes rash-guard swimwear with an ultraviolet protection of 50-plus. The inspiration for the products came partly from Betsy’s brush with skin cancer in her mid-20s.

Four of the sharks passed on the opportunity to invest in SwimZip. It was then that Betsy made a heartfelt, last-ditch plea, tearing up as she described how her skin cancer scare and her love for her two-year-old son motivated her to find a way to protect children and adults from the sun’s harmful rays. Moved by Betsy’s passion, QVC’s Lori Greiner offered $60,000 for a 20% equity share in the company.

Betsy and Berry countered with an offer of a 20% stake for $120,000, but ultimately accepted Greiner’s first offer on air.

Berry and Betsy know they were fortunate to secure an offer. Many entrepreneurs leave empty-handed. Since their episode of “Shark Tank” aired, SwimZip has been featured in The Boston Globe, Pregnancy and Newborn Magazine, and other publications. The business is growing, and they’ve added a warehouse so Betsy “can focus more on designing products, connecting with customers, and not be up until 2:00 a.m. packing orders!” She says starting a business is extremely difficult, but one of the most rewarding things she’s ever done.

Check out SwimZip’s website at www.Swimzip.com.

Alums Dive into the Shark Tank

33Alex Woodbury ’03 has merged two of her passions in her new business: sewing and helping people. With Project Sewing Workshop: for the nations, she hopes to do well while doing good.

As a college student, Alex worked for Project Lydia, dedicated to lifting women out of poverty. She spent two months in Uganda teaching women to sew so they could support themselves and their families. Alex describes the work as life-changing, leaving her with a vision for the future and making an indelible impression on her heart.

Back in the U.S., Alex finished school and moved to Cleveland, Ohio to work as education manager for a company that conducts sewing and quilting

expos all over the country. But always on her mind was the idea for her own business, motivated by a desire to teach women to sew combined with the desire to help people in need.

The result is Project Sewing Workshop, launched this summer. “By supporting PWS,” Alex explains, “you are supporting a nation. A percentage of all profits goes toward a charitable organization within that nation or region for which the product is made. Your purchases give back to those regions in need.”

Alex has designed bags representing three regions so far, and is selling bag kits, with fabric, patterns and accessories. One, the Downtown Bag, represents Topeka; another, the Huntington Park Tote, is made for Cleveland, and a third, the Bern Bag, for Switzerland. Alex seeks nothing less than to “uplift and enlighten nations.” Each product is unique. “By spreading the word about that product through blogging and journaling,” Alex says, “information is spread about that nation and its needs, hopes and dreams.”

Check out PSW at www.projectsewingworkshop.com.

Sewing for the Nations

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Front row:

Nina Marie TancabelicTopeka High SchoolAlessandra Gabrielle ChavezTopeka High SchoolAmber Marie SchmidtTopeka High SchoolJazmine Ann JohnsonMelrose High School, Melrose, MassachusettsSecond row:

Edward William BakerTopeka High SchoolWilliam Grant SumnersThe Greenhill School, Dallas, TexasThird row:

Jesse Lee ReedTopeka High SchoolKevin Loric BetheaTopeka High School

Lewis Henry Dingman IVTopeka High SchoolEthan Daniel ThorntonTopeka High SchoolFourth row:

Ryan RezaWashburn Rural High SchoolDuncan Wallace Victor GabelTopeka High SchoolCharles Arthur Lathrop-AllenTopeka High SchoolBack row:

Tyler Dalton SwaffarWashburn Rural High SchoolNell Margaret BrennanTopeka High SchoolClaire Kaleialoha PettyWashburn Rural High SchoolAndrew Blake MahanTopeka High School

Congratulations Class of 2014!The Class of 2014 and the high schools they have chosen

Photo: Nathan Ham

35

Shruti Challa ’01 is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, investor, and international public speaker. She attended Topeka Collegiate School from Pre-K through eighth grade. After graduating from Topeka High School, Shruti attended Stanford University where she majored in economics and political science. She has worked for a venture fund with investments in Facebook and Space X, been part of a core team acquired by Groupon, and has started a new company, her third, focused on video-enabled services. She spent three weeks in South Asia, on behalf of the U.S. State Department, speaking on entrepreneurship, and has written for major publications including Forbes, Fast Company and TechCrunch.

Here are excerpts from the commencement address:

“I feel lucky that I had the opportunity to attend Topeka Collegiate. It is only from the teachers, staff, and community here, that I learned to believe in the limitlessness of my own potential and the work ethic necessary to realize it.

“It is human nature to help others succeed. So don't be afraid to ask for help. My motto this year has been, ‘Don’t worry if you don't know something, just ask someone that does.’ “Most of my life was built on ‘what I should do’ versus ‘what I wanted to do.’ I did this for a few reasons. I feared not fitting in. I was convinced there was a formula for success, and if I did not follow my peers I would be behind. And finally, I honestly didn't know what I wanted to do, so instead of digging deeper, it became easier to just follow the people around me. “It wasn't until a big bank crashed, and the entire financial industry flipped upside down, right before I graduated college, that I was forced to contemplate what I wanted to do with my life. I do not want this to happen to you. I want you to discover who you want to be much earlier. “So, how would I have done this differently? Here are five tips I wish I would have known:

• Start thinking about your interests, and your career now. There is no such thing as too early.• Be in touch with yourself. Think about what you stay up at night thinking about, or what you like to

do naturally. Do you find yourself helping out your classmates? Do you enjoy math or English? Do you envision your life a certain way?

• Ask people around you what they imagine you to be. You don't have to always listen, but people observe you quite differently than you perceive yourself.

• Try a bunch of activities if you don't have a clue. But make sure to be reflective.• Research career paths. For example, if you have an idol, Google that person and figure out what they

did to get to where they are now. OR if you have an innate strength like public speaking, develop a list of careers or interests that really leverage that skill.

“Finally do not stress about fitting in, you will always find a tribe that gets your dreams, even if they aren't the people immediately around you. For me, I discovered my love for entrepreneurship, creativity and problem solving. I hope you find yours too. “Patience with yourself is critical. I urge you to be kind to yourself when you head into high school. If you don't make the team, or aren't the best in your class on day one, be patient and allow yourself the room to grow at your own pace. “I also found that failure is liberating if you can grow to learn from it. It allows you to live your life creatively and passionately, because you aren't worried about what others think. It is why I think children are so creative, because they just don't fear being judged.

Read the full text of Shruti’s graduation address at www.topekacollegiate.org.

Alumna Encourages Graduates to Explore Careers Early, Ask for Help

(photo: Nathan Ham)

36

Mac Rives AwardDrew Mahan

Debra Pakaluk AwardNell Brennan

Head of School AwardAmber Schmidt

Character Counts AwardJesse Reed

Middle School Honors and Awards 2014

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Susan H. Garlinghouse Humanitarian AwardClaire Petty

Department AwardsOutstanding Art StudentAlessandra Chavez

Outstanding History StudentJesse Reed

Outstanding Language Arts StudentNell Brennan

Outstanding Latin StudentJesse Reed

Outstanding Mathematics StudentAmber Schmidt

Outstanding Music StudentAmber Schmidt

Outstanding Physical Education StudentDrew Mahan

Outstanding Science StudentAmber Schmidt

Outstanding Spanish StudentNell Brennan

Outstanding Technology StudentKevin Bethea

Class AddressRyan Reza

Student Council Gavel Drew Mahan

38

TopekaCollegiate School

Annual Report 2013-2014

President:Richard J. Wells

Vice President:President-Elect Jodi Boyd

Secretary:Susan H. Garlinghouse

Treasurer:Payam Pourmirza

Members:Heather BirkbeckRandall BowmanKathy Damron

Jill Dykes, Esq. Brandan Kennedy, MDTimothy Liesmann, Esq. ‘95Raghu MalayHeather Morrison, MDMadan RattanJohn SorrentiAnita ValdiviaStephanie ValleyRobin Wolgast

Head of School:Mary Beth Marchiony

Leading The Way2014-2015 Board of Trustees

39Topeka Collegiate School Annual Report 2013 - 2014

1,529,120 1529120340,762 340762335,681 335681257,311 25731179,559 7955941,573 4157312,788 12788

Salaries  &  Benefits  

Facili;es    

Instruc;onal  Support  

Financial  Aid  

Administra;ve  &  Office  

Auc;on     Fundraising  

MadDan Monday, November 17, 2014 1:51:25 PM Central Standard Time

!"#$$"%&'%%("$')%)!"#&%!')"!*!

+("!&(**"+&!!&*+(

Tuition & Fees

Extracurricular

Auction

OtherFundraising

Interest MiscellaneousRevenue

Annual Fund

Revenue Tuition & Fees $ 1,755,286 Annual Fund 229,560 Extracurricular 201,782 Auction 160,131 Other Fundraising 49,189 Interest 33,481 Misc. Revenue 18,349 Total $ 2,447,778

Expenses Salaries & Benefits $ 1,529,120 Facilities 340,762 Instructional Support 335,681 Financial Aid 257,311 Administrative & Office 79,559 Auction 41,573 Fundraising 12,788 Total $ 2,596,794

40

Brandi and Richard Wells give generously of their time, talent and treasure to Topeka Collegiate. Rich is President of the Board of

Trustees, and has served on the Board since 2011. Brandi has co-chaired the Annual Auction three times, and sits on this year’s Auction Steering Committee. Both have demanding careers, Rich as Security Benefit’s Head of Operations and Product Management, Brandi as director of the Portfolio Management Office at Federal Home Loan Bank. They are also raising three children - 6th grader Trinity, 2nd grader Ainsley and Cooper, who will enter kindergarten next year.

What motivates two busy people to undertake such time-consuming volunteer commitments? “The main reason is the value of the education that Collegiate provides,” Rich explains. “Understanding the resources needed, both from leadership and volunteers, we want to give back and support the school to allow it to fulfill its mission and continue to achieve success delivering quality experiential education for our children.”

Brandi concurs. “It has to do with an awareness of what it takes for the school to provide the educational experience we’re looking for and the understanding that our tuition dollars alone don’t cover that,” she says. “If the alternative is that the school has to close, raise tuition or cut back on services, we don’t want that to happen, so we make Topeka Collegiate a priority.” It’s more than a sense of obligation that motivates them, it’s the desire to be involved. “We don’t expect to write a tuition check, drop off our kids and have the school take care of the rest,” Brandi says. “We’re here because of the close community of parents, teachers, students and staff. It’s an investment and we want to be part of it.”

By trade and background, this couple brings a wealth of project management experience to their volunteer roles. Rich also has finance and accounting expertise. They put their skills to work for organizations they care about. For Rich, that has included key roles in the United Way of Greater Topeka. Even then, his focus was on education. “Most of what drives me is focus on early education,” he says, “because it’s a critical foundation within our community. A solid and quality early education is the springboard for a successful future down the road.” Another volunteer commitment stems from a favorite leisure pastime. Rich is the newly-elected Commodore of the Perry Yacht Club.

In partnership with Topeka Collegiate, Brandi and Rich are modeling philanthropy and community service for their children, and the lesson is resonating. The school food drive for children who are food insecure, for example, made a lasting impression on Trinity. “We went to the store to pick out things an 11- or 12-year-old could open,” Brandi remembers. “When she asked why, I explained that when there’s no adult at home, kids her age have to prepare dinner or snacks for their younger siblings. She had no idea.”

Topeka Collegiate is a priority for the family. “We support TCS as part of a conscious decision to provide the best education for our children and our focus is putting our financial and volunteer resources toward that effort.” When everyone does the same, the cumulative effect is powerful. “Everyone doing what they can, within their personal situation, is key,” Rich says. “If everyone does that, it makes a huge difference, whether it is one hour or 15, it’s that you’re doing it, and giving. That way, we can ensure that Topeka Collegiate is here to deliver quality education not only for our children, but for children years down the road.”

The Wells Family (l to r): Trinity, Brandi, Cooper, Ainsley, Rich

Profile: The Wells Family

41

Co-Chairs Heather and Jared Morrison

Mende Barnett and Pete Vobach

Class CaptainsHeather and Jared Morrison

Mende Barnett and Pete VobachJennifer MacLeay

Inke Paetau-Robinson and Elmer RobinsonKelli GonzalesWinnie Kimata

Julie WegnerTonya Crawford

Mary EtzelStephanie and Scott Mickelsen

Tracey GoeringMary DeCoursey

2013-2014 Annual Fund Leadership

Thanks to you, we achieved a second straight year of 100% participation among the Board of Trustees, faculty and staff, and school families.

42

Soaring Eagle Council $10,000 and aboveJett and Tim ElmerSusan and Kent GarlinghouseAlison Hill Langham ‘86 and Brian LanghamKathy and Bruce Myers

American Eagle Council $7,500 to $9,999

Golden Eagle Council $5,000 to $7,449AnonymousJoyce and James DeCourseySharon and Howard FrickeHeather and Jared MorrisonBrandi and Richard Wells

Founders’ Council $2,500 to $4,999Heather and Pat BirkbeckMichel’ and Jim Cole Charlene and John GernonKaren and Patrick GideonTracey Goering and Dennis MahanChristy and Alex GrecianJennifer MacLeay and John Sorrenti Stephanie and John Valley

Zap the Gap $1,500 to $2,499Anonymous (2)Deborah and Bradley AboudMary Lou and James BirkbeckJodi and Todd BoydDawn and Bernard BrosaJudith Corkum and Stephen BlumAnne Francis and Jack FitzpatrickXimena Garcia and Craig GernonJeanne and Paul HofererJ. T. Johnson, Jr.Linda “Coco” JohnstonMary Loftus and Glenn FreemanMary Beth and Jim MarchionyShelley Pittman

Suchitra Ram and Suresh RamamurthiInke Paetau-Robinson and Elmer RobinsonDonna SwaffarJane and Richard TilghmanSushmita Veloor and Raghunath Malay

President’s Council $750 to $1,499Anonymous (4)Mende Barnett and Pete VobachSandra and Peter BeakEva BrownTonya and Pat CrawfordJill and Christopher Dykes Mary and Noel EtzelYumiko and Alex GlashausserJane and Russell GreeneJoanne HarrisonHarriett and Larry JohnsonSuneeta and Prudhvi KarumanchiMarta and Brandan KennedyTiffany and Tim Liesmann (T) ‘95Karen and Andrew LinnSwapna Mamidipally and Subrahmanya Nimishakavi Penny and Ed PlamannMegan and Stephen RogersAsha and Sanjay TripathiBeth and David Wittig

Head of School’s Council $500 to $749Anonymous (3)Sue and Randy Badsky Kim and Rick BakerElisa Corbett and Adrian CaracioniKathy and Whitney DamronMary DeCoursey and David BrennanReem Douidar and Mouhammed KyasaCheryl and John FagerErin and Micah ForsteinMelissa and Steve Fuhrman Kelli and John Gonzales

2013-2014 Honor Roll of Annual Fund Contributors

(T) indicates transferred before graduation

43Angela and Ekwensi GriffithSandra and Don HazlettGlenda Herl and Mark ScheidKyesuk Kim and Radu TeodorescuManjusha and Nitin KulkarniDawn and Shawn MageeSamantha Muppalla and Sunil GotruJennifer and Marius PacioianuSharon ReadLaura and Greg SchwerdtAndrea Towgood and Louis SanjarCathie and Tom WileyAnne McCoy Wilson (T) ‘93 and Brian Wilson

Benefactors’ Council $250 to $499Anonymous (2)Merrill and Jay BefortMindy and Randy BowmanDonald BoydYelena CarringtonRama and Rao DonepudiSridevi Donepudi and Brian van DorenKellie and Darrel DouganRobert DuBoisCynthia and David EinspahrGail and Benjamin Franklin Mary and Scott HamiltonPhyllis and Brent HoytPaula and Jerry HuffKatie Freeman Hutchens ‘93Marjorie and Tyler Lathrop-AllenKelly Magerkurth and Todd PayneKate and Lee McGeeJames McQuiller Regina McQuillerLanny and Bryant MoyerKaren and Bill PadgettChris RamseyShalu Soman and Ashok Madhavan Sarah Temple ’97 and Angus MugfordAmellia and Robert ToelkesJulie and Toby WegnerAnita and Larry Wolgast

Friends’ Council $50 to $249Anonymous (6)

Mireille and Lucien AbboudLisa and Mark AdameRuth and Eugene BammesConnie and Bill BarnesDorothy and Ivan BarnettStacey and Bob BeattyKelley and Jason BerrymanKris Bethea and John ConnettAlexandra Blasi ‘98Virginia BockwitzChin and Chris BoiteauMindy and Randy BowmanChristine and Randy BurkhardtKathy and Ted ClarkJuli and Curt CuthbertsonSonja Czarnecki and Eric McHenryPooja and Sumer DhirMaura and Lewis Dingman IIILorie and Brian DuncanJack ElliottAnita FrankJaime and Tony FrederickJanine and Greggory FrederickShannon and Joseph GabelEva and Emilio GarciaPere Garlinghouse ‘00Charles GlashausserLisa and Joey GoularteChristina and Terry HaagRachel and Larry HargreavesAmy HarrisJenni and Andy HarrisonAlison and Kevin HawkerAllison and Jared HerlDanielle and David HuckinsRachel and Kenny HundleyBriana JacksonVinita and Uday JadhavVineeta and Nitesh JainLeslie and Tim JenisonKaren and David Kapusta-PofahlAli KhanCrystal and Ron KielyWinnie KimataCheryl and David KingfisherSandra and Gary Kirk

44Donna Kirk-Swaffar and Steve SwaffarLeslie and Clinton LandBrooke and Jeff Leahy

Chris MacDonaldSuzanne and John MacDonaldMary Kay and Tom MagerkurthLori McMillan and David TiemensLamees Mohdali and Bahaa Abu BakrTally and James MooreMelanie and John MullicanJennifer and Gene OwenLinda and Ken ParkSandra PellegriniAbirami Ponnusamy and Sivakumar KrishnamoorthyKathleen and Ron RansomeJessica and Travis ReedPriya and Divyang SandirDianne and Takayoshi SandsTammy and Shaun SchmidtJordan Schwerdt ‘12Kay and Bradley SiebertJulie SpencerAmy Spurgeon-Hochard and Michael HochardSerece and Peter SumnersJoan and Tom TheisMelinda and Brian TheisKatrina Van AalstNeva Jean WashingtonAmy and Sean WhiteVeronica and Andrew WikstenSue and John WineBlake and Rob ZachritzBeth and David Zlotky

Associates’ Council $1 to $49Anonymous (3)Sara AdameChristina Baker-LongMary Kate BaldwinBea Bernal and Raja StrobleAshley and Justin BrockRobert CatlinBonnie and Luis ChavezChelle and Dan Decker

Haritha Duggaraju and Bhaskar RamarajuMelanie FinsonKimberly and John Freeman ‘98Jenny Forrest and Corey McCartLauren Gernon ‘07Cassandra and Nicholas GinappStephanie and Matt GrubbCheryl and Stuart HamiltonAmy JohnstonMarilyn Kido and Brian GiesyRachel Lindbloom and Allen MacfarlaneAllison Viola Loftus ‘98David McCoyLaura and David MorrisDené and Zach MosierLauren and Jayson NorthDelinah and Kristian RankCrystal and Greg RoseDemetria SwindellJakica TancabelicShannon and Gerick ThompsonAnita ValdiviaMeera and David WatsonChristopher Yorke ’98

Our Organizational PartnersAboud’s CateringBurlington Northern Santa FeFHLBankGoodsearchHill’s Pet NutritionHot and Roll USAJosten’s Printing and PublishingKokari FoundationM-C IndustriesRamada Hotel and Convention CenterRees Fruit FarmSchwerdt Design Groupse2 Print CenterSecurity BenefitStrathman Sales CompanyTargetWalmart FoundationWayne Crawford Siding and Windows

45Susan Buder Horan Memorial FundKatie and Matt Garlinghouse ‘90Kimberly Garlinghouse-Jones and Eliot JonesKristen and Brad Garlinghouse (T) ‘85Mark GarlinghouseMeg GarlinghouseSusan and Kent Garlinghouse

Dick Patterson FundKatie and Matt Garlinghouse ‘90Susan and Kent GarlinghouseMary Loftus and Glenn Freeman

Myers Family Scholarship FundKathy, Bruce, Michael ’05 and Madison Myers ’08

In-Kind GiftsAboud’s CateringBeatriz Bernal and Raja StrobleFred BostonJodi and Todd BoydGail and Ben FranklinSusan and Kent GarlinghouseTracey Goering and Dennis MahanJosten’s Printing and PublishingDonna Kirk-Swaffar and Steve SwaffarM-C IndustriesMary Beth and Jim MarchionyRamada Hotel and Convention CenterRees Fruit Farmse2 Print CenterSecurity BenefitTopeka BlueprintTrinity Presbyterian ChurchValley RealtorsValley Self-Storage

Auction Professional Development FundHeather and Pat BirkbeckDawn and Bernard BrosaEva BrownMegan and Mike BurgessMichel’ and Jim ColeJett and Tim ElmerMary and Noel Etzel

Barbara GannawayXimena Garcia and Craig GernonSusan and Kent GarlinghouseTracey Goering and Dennis MahanJane and Russell GreeneJeanne and Paul HofererMaureen and Bob IhrieMarta and Brandan KennedyKaren and Andrew LinnTiffany and Tim Liesmann (T) ‘95Mary Loftus and Glenn FreemanMary Beth and Jim MarchionyShelle and Mike McCoyGrace and Cory MitchellMartha and Dick PattersonErin Bess and Joe PenningtonLovica and Payam PourmirzaMillie and Pat SearsSecurity BenefitJane and Richard TilghmanStephanie and John ValleyBrandi and Richard WellsAnne McCoy Wilson (T) ’93 and Brian Wilson

Founders FundSandra and Peter BeakDawn and Bernard BrosaJulie and Webb GarlinghouseKathleen and Larry HortenstineKaren and Bill Padgett

Underwriters Marcia and Bob AndersonErnie BeaudetMary Lou and James BirkbeckConnie and Jeff CurtisTim and Carole EtzelBarbara GannawayJostens, Inc.Mary Beth and Jim MarchionyMelissa Masoner and Jim ConcannonMarlene and Ron MontgomeryMartha and Dick PattersonShelley PittmanLinda and Norval SpielmanStrathman Sales Company

46

Save the DatesAlumni Reunion Lunch Friday, December 19, 2014Noon to 1:30 p.m.Apple Valley Graduation 1:30 p.m.Topeka Collegiate School

Friends and Family NightFriday, April 17, 20155:00 – 7:00 p.m.Topeka Collegiate School

GraduationThursday, May 2110:00 a.m.Topeka Collegiate School

Do You Know a Future Eagle?For information or to schedule a tour, contactAdmissions Director Paula Huff | 785.228.0490 | or visit our website: www.topekacollegiate.org

Keep in TouchPlease check us out and like us on Facebook:Topeka Collegiate School and Topeka Collegiate Alumni

Non - Profit OrgUS Postage

PAIDPermit #9 Topeka Ks

Auction 2015 An Evening on the Red Carpet Saturday, February 21, 2015Downtown Ramada 5:30 p.m.

Saturday, February 21, 2015