Louisville Collegiate School
Collegiate opened its doors on September 23, 1915 in a house on West Ormsby Avenue in Old Louisville, becoming the first school in Kentucky committed specifically to preparing young women for college. This progressive vision was brought to life by Virginia Perrin Speed (1879-1968) and her husband William Shallcross Speed (1873-1955), the principal founders and sustainers of the school in its formative years.
Throughout Collegiate's early decades, the school intermittently experimented with enrolling small numbers of boys in the primary grades. The Lower School eventually committed to a fully coeducational program in 1973.
In 1980, Collegiate's Board of Trustees charted another bold, new direction: coeducation in the Upper School. To accommodate the increase in Upper School enrollment brought about by coeducation, Willig Hall was built for $1.5 million in 1983. The first coed class graduated in 1987. Today, the school is nearly balanced in its number of enrolled boys and girls.
In the early years, Collegiate's administration frowned upon interscholastic athletic competition. Only intramural sports were offered at the school, with an occasional contest against local schools, until 1933 when, in an act of defiance, a group of spirited Collegiate girls formed an independent interscholastic team to compete in the wider community. School administration tried unsuccessfully to forbid participation, but the students persisted and a strong athletic tradition was established under the Amazon banner. When the school formally adopted an interscholastic sports program, it also formally adopted the Amazon name. And, when male student-athletes began representing the school in interscholastic competitions during the 1980's, Collegiate again turned to its classical roots, adopting the Titan name for its male athletic teams.
Founded in 1915, Collegiate is a community rich with history, tradition and academic excellence.
A clearly articulated JK - 12th grade program prepares students for the 21st Century with the academic foundation and leadership skills required for life-long learning, community involvement, and global engagement.
Through a rigorous college preparatory curriculum offered within a small, supportive community of creative thinkers and inspired learners, we encourage students to stretch their horizons and see the world from different perspectives.
Full participation in the life of the school is the hallmark of our college preparatory program that ignites intellectual engagement, confident leadership, and extraordinary character. Rather than being passive spectators or bystanders, Collegiate students are actively engaged in classroom discussions, connected to influential adult role-models, and encouraged to stretch their many talents through a well-developed extracurricular program of athletics, arts, and service.
Small by design, there is no back row in a Collegiate classroom, and an inclusive culture of participation drives student involvement in the life of the school beyond the classroom walls in the Lower (JK-5), Middle (6-8), and Upper (9-12) divisions.
JK-12 education is a dynamic enterprise. Even a school with a storied history like Collegiate's must remain agile and responsive as it prepares students for success in an ever-changing, interconnected, and multicultural world with core principles and values that have stood the test of time. We remain committed to assuring the widest possible accessibility to our program by diverse constituencies from Greater Louisville. Therefore, we commit more than $3 million in financial assistance and merit scholarships each year in order to attract talented students who are serious about contributing to a vibrant academic community.
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