Our Mission Statement:
With the recognition that there is a natural symbiosis between colleges and secondary and primary schools, in May of 1996 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute established a Center for Initiatives in Pre-College Education (CIPCE). In so doing, it has reinforced the vision of its founder, Stephen Van Rensselaer,

to qualify teachers for instructing the sons and daughters of farmers and mechanics, by lectures or otherwise, in the application of experimental chemistry, philosophy and natural history, to agriculture, domestic economy, the arts and manufactures.