Berea College Founding Story Featured

The Louisville Courier Journal posted an interesting article, "This Kentucky college did the unthinkable by pushing integration during slavery," by Maggie Menderski on February 5, 2020.

Menderski recently visited the campus of Berea College and provides the founding story of the institution. She interviewed faculty and staff members and shares ways in which the initial vision of founder, John G. Fee, continues to impact those associated with the college.

Berea College is featured in earlier College History Garden posts where you can find additional information on the institution:

• January 20, 2019, Berea's Work College Mission Featured on CBS This Morning
• October 29, 2016, Founder of Berea College inducted into National Abolition Hall of Fame
• September 7, 2013, Videos on YouTube...Scripps College (CA) and Berea College (KY)

Berea's Work College Mission Featured on CBS This Morning

Berea College and its work college model were featured yesterday on CBS in a video segment with reporting by Michelle Miller, "Kentucky college has stayed tuition-free for more than a century."  Miller's segment provides a good overview of Berea's mission and how the institution impacts the lives of the students it serves.

The College History Garden blog has a couple of posts where you can learn more about the history of Berea College:

• Saturday, October 29, 2016 Founder of Berea College inducted into National Abolition Hall of Fame
• Saturday, September 7, 2013 Videos on YouTube...Scripps College (CA) and Berea College (KY)

You can also review a number of earlier Small College Garden posts that feature work colleges:

• Saturday, December 15, 2018 Paul Quinn College and Michael Sorrell are Recognized
• Saturday, September 8, 2018 The Wendell Berry Farming Programs Enrolling Students Again
• Wednesday, September 13, 2017 Focus on Work Colleges: Lower Levels of Student Borrowing and Debt
• Monday, March 27, 2017 Paul Quinn College: 1st HBCU and 1st urban institution to receive 'Work College' Designation
• Friday, September 16, 2016 PBS Series Features Paul Quinn College this Week
• Thursday, August 25, 2016 Spotlight on Sterling College as a model Work College
• Friday, August 28, 2015 Blackburn College & College of the Ozarks Highlighted as Work Colleges
• Wednesday, July 1, 2015 Weaving Program at Berry College Featured

Alice Lloyd: Her Story and that of Alice Lloyd College

The Lexington, KY Herald-Leader published an article, "She came to Ky. in a buggy. 100 years later, thousands have low-debt college degrees," by Bill Estep on May 12, 2017.  Estep provides the fascinating story of Alice Lloyd, her work in eastern Kentucky, and how her legacy is alive today at Alice Lloyd College. 

You can also visit the Alice Lloyd College website to read more about the institution's history.  You can also visit the The Work College Consortium to learn more about the work college concept as it is practiced at Alice Lloyd College and on the campuses of the other consortium members.

Founder of Berea College inducted into National Abolition Hall of Fame

Berea College in Berea, KY announced that its founder, Reverand John Gregg Fee,l has been inducted into the National Abolition Hall of Fame.  The press release includes a historical sketch and links to an interesting two-minute video that provides context for the award and the founding of Berea College in 1855.  The National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum are located in Peterboro, NY.

Frontiers Yet Unknown -- Video and Online Resources on History of Warren Wilson College

An excellent video, Frontiers Yet Unknown - The History of Warren Wilson College is available on YouTube.  The video was published in 2011 and covers the institutional history from 1894 when it was founded by Presbyterians as the Asheville Farm School.



The Warren Wilson College Archives also offers an online bibliography of resources tied to the history of the institution.  Two digitized institutional histories are available for reading online or can be downloaded:  Toward Frontiers Yet Unknown: A 90th Anniversary History of Warren Wilson College by Mark Banker ’73 and A History of Warren Wilson College by Henry W. Jensen and Elizabeth G. Martin.

For Resources relating to the History of Women in Higher Education...checkout The Greenfield Digital Center

I would encourage everyone to check out the website of the The Albert M. Greenfield Digital Center for the History of Women's Education.  The Center's mission statement indicates that it serves as an online locus of scholarship on the history of women’s higher education.  The site includes access to teaching modules, digital exhibits, and a primary source collection of posters, news articles, and other items.

Among the digital exhibits, two of interest were A Purposeful Vision: Margaret Bailey Speer and Yenching University and At School, At Work, At Play: Gender Complexities at the First Southern Coeducational Institution.

The first of these exhibits explores the life of Speer primarily through her letters starting with her youth, then moves through her years at Bryn Maur, her 18 years of service in China, and concludes with her return to the United States.  She first traveled to Yenching University in 1925 at the age of 25 and her insights built through her travel and many contacts are fascinating to read.

The experiences of women in various aspects of life at Berea College provide the core of the second exhibit, developed as a collaborative project of an English class at the institution in 2012.

 

Work Colleges Highlighted in AP Article

The March 30, 2014 issue of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch featured an article by AP's Lisa Rathke that highlighted the seven U.S. institutions that collectively comprise the Work College Consortium.

The History of College of the Ozarks (MO)

A short video history of the College of the Ozarks is available on YouTube.  The institution was founded in 1906 as the School of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, MO.  It became a junior college in 1956 and offered a baccalaureate curriculum after 1965.  The name was changed to the College of the Ozarks in 1990.

Videos on YouTube...Scripps College (CA) and Berea College (KY)

There are number of excellent videos on YouTube that focus on history of colleges...  Use the Comment section below to provide urls for other videos highlighting the history of other colleges or universities. 

A Brief History of Scripps College was prepared for the 75th anniversary of the institution.

A detailed history of Berea College, founded in 1855, runs for over 22 minutes.  Berea is one of seven members of the Work College Consortium.

Blackburn College (IL)

Glenn L. McConagha's Blackburn College 1837-1987 was written to coincide with the sesquicentennial of the institution.  The author began his service at Blackburn in 1964 and served as dean, president, and chancellor of the college.  McConagha's description of the "work college" concept and how it was implemented at Blackburn is a particularly interesting section of the book.  Blackburn maintains the tradition and is one of seven work colleges in the U.S. that comprise the Work College Consortium.