120 years of Champittet #4: Transmission to the canons

This year marks the 120th anniversary of Collège Champittet. Follow us and discover, each month, the events that have shaped the history of Collège Champittet.

Why do empires, nations, companies or schools experience success, but also phases of failure? We leave it to others to answer this vast question.

The fact remains that the French Dominicans, faced with a decline in the number of students, handed over Collège Champittet to the Swiss canons of the Order of the Grand-Saint-Bernard in 1951. Their own students, who had been living at the Hospice du Simplon in Valais, left the arid heights to settle on the milder shores of Lake Geneva.

The community of the Friars of St. Bernard had become involved in mountain rescue, accompanied by the famous dogs, to find travelers lost in the snow. Very much rooted in their land, and very active, the canons also opened a school of agriculture and animated parishes on the Swiss and Italian sides of the Alps.

Many of the Collège's living alumni, including the President of the Board of Directors, Jérôme de Meyer, and the Head of School, Philippe de Korodi, attended Champittet during the canon era. Co-education was introduced in 1984.

Will you recognize, among these students, where our Head of School, Philippe de Korodi, is?

What can we learn from it?

The Collège Champittet Foundation, a non-profit organization recognized as being of public utility, has found its contemporary version of helping others.

With an annual budget of CHF 200 to 250'000. The Foundation, at the heart of the school, acts for underprivileged children in Switzerland (sports disability) and abroad: school in Madagascar, scholarships for students in Thailand, school supplies in Lebanon. The Foundation has been chaired since 2018 by Laure Sesseli, financial director of the Collège. Its Foundation Council includes 7 students and 7 adults, parents, teachers and school executives.

Read also:

• The founding of the school and its DNA
• Our logo, a wonderful mistake
• The creator of the Olympic Games motto  featured on the stained glass windows of the school chapel