Mission Driven

“I was drawn to Sterling because of the work program. I know that at the end of four years I will walk away from Sterling with a résumé full of work and life experiences that any employer would find of interest. Returning to a sense of place, community, and local resilience is the next step in the environmental movement. Sterling is at the forefront of this movement; a college education here trains you to be a leader through engaged practice in community living.”

“Sterling College reinforced my love of hard labor and taught me to see the world with an ecologist’s eye and a naturalist’s heart.”

“This small college is one of the most important places in this country. Any institution can announce its ideals; great ones live them out–in the curriculum, on the campus, and in the portfolio.”

“At Sterling, there’s a real history of being able to see where you’ve been, where you are now, and where you’re going. Sterling is a really experiential place. Here, you can get a feel for the kind of world you want to live in, and what kind of world we can create.”

“In order to be stewards of the land, we need to understand our historical and current relationships to the natural world and each other. Sterling College courses and our community provide us with opportunities to explore these relationships, uncover the complexities of our natural world and society, and discuss the many environmental issues that we face today.”

“I wouldn’t have gone to college if it weren’t for Sterling. I thought college was a sham. But here you can do your own thing and take as much initiative as you want. If you put your time in and give it a whirl, you can have an amazing experience. The people who do are top in their field where they work.”

“Students are able to get so much out of a course of study because of the small class sizes. With a group of five, you can all crouch around a log and minutely examine decomposition in action.”

“There is so much wildness here, from our setting to people who are having wild, inspired ideas everyday. There is room to roam here physically and intellectually.”

“Sterling values strong environmental ties to the land. The value of environmental ethics is taught side by side with the courses. It’s really the college’s commitment to climate and social justice issues.”

“A feeling that almost brings tears to my eyes is when we were crossing the Common and everyone was there cheering us on and welcoming us home. That sense of community and love is why I am happy to be at Sterling. That feeling is what brings me hope and happiness and I hope to carry that motivation with me for the rest of my time at Sterling and with my future life expeditions.”

Working with draft horses is exhilarating, physically exhausting, and one heck of a challenge. Yet, despite the challenge, I find this type of work very rewarding, and a humbling endeavor.

The most valuable of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it has to be done, whether you like it or not.