Sterling prepares you for school and life through mentorship, support, and by being a place where faculty and other students are accessible. College is a time to discover who you are in the world, and who you want to be. Sterling is a safe place to try on different identities, learn skills you may have never considered relevant, and get your hands dirty while sometimes making mistakes.

Seminars are key to the Sterling experience. Faculty-led and mentored, they support students in the pursuit of excellence. Here Sterling provides a structured learning environment that fosters intelligence, reflection, and the mastery of life skills, from independent living to career readiness.

Scaffolding seminars help students develop skills and fluency critical to navigating life, work, and continued study. First-year scaffolding seminars support students living independently for the first time, while third-year seminars let you take the reins of your studies as you design and produce a Capstone project, develop a multimedia portfolio, and prepare for life after Sterling.

Other key Scaffolding Seminars teach financial literacy, conflict resolution through empathy and depolarization, reading scientific literature, career planning, managing information overload and digital life, and fine-tuning your abilities to move through the world intentionally.

Experiential endeavors are a unique element of Sterling education, spanning 14 weeks each and allowing for 150 hours for students to apply what they know. Endeavors are project-based learning opportunities that combine instruction, practice, and reflection. Students work with each other and faculty to set personal goals and objectives for the endeavor and are asked to self-evaluate.

To successfully complete an endeavor, students must consistently and meaningfully participate, and you must demonstrate that you’re learning over the course of the project. Endeavors provide students an arena for building your teamwork and leadership skills, and they challenge you to hone your communication and problem-solving skills.

Depending on which endeavor you choose, each has content-specific course elements.

These could include charting history relevant to the endeavor, building pertinent athletic or artistic ability through experimentation, economic and social impact analysis, developing communication skills, including cooperation, leadership, and listening, and exploring creative solutions to community challenges.

To give you a sense of what an endeavor looks like …

Relocalizing Fiber Systems: Students learn about the societal implications of our current textile systems. You’re introduced to emergent models in local fiber systems, as well as the systems and business of farming for fiber and natural dyes. You learn weaving techniques and technical skills in the context of local fiber production. You can explore the value-added fiber production business, and how the fiber business connects with regional processors, fiber farmers, and community organizations.

Experiential & Environmental Education for Elementary and Middle Schoolers: Choose this endeavor and you explore experiential, environmental education for elementary and middle school children. In the first six weeks of the project, you learn the fundamentals of facilitation and outdoor leadership, you’re instructed on Sterling’s Challenge Course, and you learn how to facilitate middle school groups on the Challenge Course. For the remainder of the semester, you design and lead outdoor programming for afterschool and/or homeschooled children. Past endeavors have created outdoor nature-based programming for elementary school children in the Coyote Kids Program.

Required to earn a bachelor of arts degree from Sterling, a Capstone is a final project that pursues a particular question in significant depth, involving independent design, research, synthesis, and a means to communicate results. The Capstone spans three semesters; total credits awarded will vary from 7-13, depending on the project.

Recent projects include:

Olivia Bates ’22: Recipes for The Earth and Her People: A Cookbook

Eric Bailey ’22: Paddlers’ Impacts on Wildlife and Surrounding Areas of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail

Bryan Emery ’22: Professionalizing Green Bikes

Paige Harris ’22: Ethical Slaughter and Value-Added Meat Production

Conner Quinn ’22: Research in Aquatic Hyphomycete Associations with Vegetation

Anushka Saraswat ’22: The Causes and Aftermath of Global Immigration

Amelia Zenerino ’21: An Illustrated Guide to the Vascular Flora Along Cane’s Run

Jennifer Palmer ’21: Seed Saving for the Market Garden

Niveditha Raju ’21: Ecosomatics: Literature Review, Embodied Research, and Program Design

The Capstone is a substantial self design opportunity where a student can tie together their prior learning and further specialize in their area of interest. Projects require pre-approval from the faculty and should build upon and apply the skills and knowledge already developed by the student. The Capstone is supported by a primary advisor, with input from a second advisor; students are also encouraged to seek the input of a sponsor outside Sterling College.

Starting in the second semester of their junior year, students use their scaffolding seminar time to develop a Capstone project concept as a means to find emphasis within Environmental Studies. The concept comes to life in the first semester of the fourth year. The final semester is spent synthesizing the work and preparing a culminating body of evidence of the learning.

In their final year, students also produce a professional portfolio: a collation of evidence of their competencies that will support them in pursuing their desired career pathways upon graduation. Portfolio development is supported by a scaffolding seminar.