Today was Day 1 of my week in Vermont for the Consortium of Vermont Colleges tour. From now until Friday I will be visiting 18 campuses all across Vermont. Did you even know there were 18 colleges IN Vermont? Well, FYI there are more colleges per capita in Vermont than any other state.
Today's first school was Lyndon State College. We were welcomed by President Joe Bertolino, a dynamic and personable man who makes it a priority to meet every single perspective student that comes to visit Lyndon's campus. It was also exciting to hear that he came to Lyndon from Queens College - giving hope that New Yorkers really can transition to a rural Vermont school and be happy. Lyndon is a public school with about 1500 students on campus. There was a clear trend among students to be active, specifically through skiing, snowboarding, and mountain biking. Admittedly many students leave campus on weekends to go ski, but students report being very open to inviting friends who might not be from Vermont or have their own car. Academically, the learning style that is best served at Lyndon State is experiential. Flagship programs include Atmospheric Science (the Weather Channel was founded by Lyndon alums), electronic journalism and arts, and outdoor education. Most buildings are interconnected -- ideal for Vermont winters -- and that includes a newly constructed building that was really nice (especially for being at public college, which have a reputation for sometimes struggling with maintaining buildings).
Next we made our way to Sterling College. I know we will be seeing quite a few really unique schools this week, but something tells me this one is going to rank up there as most unique schools I've ever visited. Sterling is one of seven work colleges in the country, meaning students both attend classes and run the school - doing everything from custodial tasks, to running the farm and wood shop, to cooking meals. These campus roles help keep tuition low and the buy in from the students was palpable. About 45% of students are Pell eligible and the average debt at graduation is only $20,000. Remember when I said this place was unique? It is a requirement to bring your own axe. Seriously. The focus of the school is on environmental stewardship. Students are passionate about environmental conservation, sustainable agriculture, and ecology. Many go on to work on organic farms, be teachers, and get involved with environmental policy. Not surprisingly, Sterling is Testing Optional and the type of student interested in being one of the 120 students on campus (total, not per class) is self selecting. It is common for students at Sterling to start out somewhere else and find their way to Sterling by transferring. The average age of students is a little higher than normal at 21. It is not a competitive type of learning environment, but there is a dual emphasis on being both hands on and intellectual. They also gave us snacks, which were delicious and pretty obviously NOT made by any type of corporation. I asked the student panel what they would do if given a huge monetary donation with no strings attached -- the best thing they could come up with was making tuition free for everyone. I get the sense that most people there are in search of something that money can't buy. From the looks of it, they are well on their way to finding it. (pictures above are from Sterling).
The final stop of the day was Johnson State College. More similar to Lyndon, Johnson State is a public college with about 1200 undergraduate students. The most popular majors are Education, Outdoor Education, Visual Art, and a new major in Wellness and Alternative Medicine. About 70% of students are from Vermont, but my tour guide was from Ohio and was very pleased with her new life in rural Vermont. Johnson is about 45 minutes from Burlington and they run a shuttle three times a day on the weekend taking students there if they want a change of scenery. Two of the things I found most interesting about this school were the fact that they run a transition program for those that might need a little extra support entering a four year college and the fact that they assign a book for the entire freshman class to read that then becomes the theme for the year. This year's book was about Detroit and there have been guest speakers, musical performances, service trips to Detroit, and even the upcoming graduation speech will focus on this theme.
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