Academics

The Classroom and Beyond

Are you ready to pursue your passions and design your own path? Academics at Sterling College let you craft a unique, personalized education in ecological thinking and action. In small classes—usually under 11 students—you’ll explore the critical issues of our day: humanity’s relationship with the natural world and each other, and the stewardship of our air, water, soil, food, and climate. You’ll have classes on campus in a laboratory or seminar room, on the side of a mountain, or in a barn or pasture.

Rigorous, Experiential & Place-based Academics

You’ll also work one-on-one with our academic and practitioner faculty to delve deeper into issues of environmentalism, education and sustainability. In independent studies and research projects , you’ll design learning objectives and explore issues in a hands-on, experiential way.

Faculty are drawn to the College to do more than just lecture—they are mentors and guides, constantly engaging with students in the classroom, in the field, and in the community.

Majors

Ecology

Posted January 13, 2016 by Tanner

Ecology Education rooted in forests, mountains, and rivers What are the habitat requirements for migrating songbirds that breed in the North Woods? How does geology affect forest composition and forest…

Environmental Humanities

Posted January 25, 2016 by Lou Lepping

What is Environmental Humanities? Taking an ecological perspective on the humanities means that students look at a broad view of the ways humans engage with nature—from regional and global literary…

Outdoor Education

Posted January 27, 2016 by Lou Lepping

GET OUTSIDE Expand Your Relationship with Nature As an Outdoor Education major at Sterling College, you will become comfortable learning and teaching in the outdoors at all times of year,…

Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems

Posted January 26, 2016 by Lou Lepping

Cultivate your best self Shape a more resilient food and farming future The study of sustainable agriculture and food systems encompasses the range of interrelated processes, practices, institutions, and knowledge…

Self-Designed Major

Posted February 1, 2016 by Lou Lepping

Choose your own adventure with a Self-Designed Major! Sterling College tends to attract independent-minded souls, so it’s no surprise that many Sterling students choose our interdisciplinary Self-Designed Major. Actually, around…

NASA photo of a melting glacier by photographer Denis Felikson

Climate Justice

Posted January 25, 2016 by Lou Lepping

Climate Justice Minor What is Climate Justice? Should privileged countries and communities bear more responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions? What are the systems and interests perpetuating the carbon dioxide emissions?…

Draft Animal Power Systems Minor

Posted January 27, 2016 by Lou Lepping

Draft Animal Power Systems Sterling College is one of the rare places where you can get hands-on draft animal experience, working daily with these heavy animals. As a Draft Animal…

Natural History Minor

Posted February 23, 2016 by Lou Lepping

Natural History Minor How can we recognize the plants, animals, fungi, and other organisms with which we share the world? What are their lives like? How do species and whole…

Natural Resources Conservation Minor

Posted February 23, 2016 by Lou Lepping

Natural Resources Conservation Minor Sterling College students pursuing a minor in Natural Resources Conservation examine local and global conservation issues, including natural resources sustainability and biodiversity protection. Courses provide students…

Education Studies

Posted March 8, 2016 by Lou Lepping

Education Studies Minor The Education Studies minor is designed to allow students from a variety of majors (including self-designed) to enhance their professional portfolio with an immersion of courses that explore…

Environmental Humanities

Posted January 25, 2016 by Lou Lepping

School of the New American Farmstead

Posted January 27, 2016 by Lou Lepping

The School of the New American Farmstead offers leading-edge courses & Professional Certificates in regenerative farming and artisanal food production to support professionals and lifelong learners of all ages.

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EMERGENCY TO EMERGENCE PODCAST // David Gilligan, Faculty in Ecology and Associate Dean of Sterling's Wilderness Field Programs, wants other humans to know that nature is our home. He reminds us that wild nature is the ”wellspring of human being, of all diverse cultures on planet earth, of all creativity, of all thought.” After many years of venturing into the wild nature and conceiving of it as the ultimate unbounded classroom, David remains awed by the depth and kinds of learning that are possible in extended backcountry field programs. For this reason, he (along with recent guest Laura Beebe), lead Sterling’s Wilderness Field Program, which gives undergraduate and Gap Year learners an immersive opportunity to simultaneous participate in a liberal arts education and adventure in the Southwest and emerge as influential interdisciplinary naturalists, environmental leaders, educators, and protectors of the wild. Guided by the belief that free people are responsible for knowing about and caring for our earthly home, the Wilderness Field Program uses experiential, liberal arts education -- and a curriculum that blends outdoor skills with natural history and sciences, arts, humanities, and indigenous cultural studies -- to prepare the next generation to protect, preserve, and thrive as part of the natural world.

Take a listen. Link on bio.

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We recently partnered with the Kentucky Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation to plant 24 American Chestnut trees at the Brown Farm of the Wendell Berry Farming Program. These tall trees reigned forest canopies along the eastern coast for millions of years until the first half of the 20th century when heavy logging combined with the introduction of a fungal blight decimated their population.

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Creepy Crawlies | Sterling Chronicles

Michael Tessler '09 started catching creepy crawlies at a very young age. This passion was evident during his time as a student at Sterling. This love was further fostered in graduate school, first working on moss ecology at Fordham University and then on leech evolution at the American Museum of Natural History. He continued postdoctoral work on broader questions of plant and animal evolution across the tree of life. His research has led to over 30 journal articles, a textbook on phylogenomics, media coverage by the New York Times, and fieldwork across the globe.

Doing this research, he has mentored over 20 students (high school through doctoral), many of whom have helped co-authored publications. Currently, Michael is an Assistant Professor of Biology at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, where he continues his passion for teaching the next generation of scientists and grow my research in ecology and evolution.

This video was made possible by a generous donation from David Behrend ’60.

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Some of the most beautiful aspects of Henry County, Kentucky, could go easily unnoticed, unless you stop to look. We're grateful for autumn weather and its fungal blooms, how about you?

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Cob oven skill swap full of clay shaping, hay snipping, watermelon harvesting, and dancing on cattails at the Wendell Berry Farming Program. The work IS the reward, students are excited for upcoming pizza nights at Hope Hill Farm!

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Student, Ruth Gardinet, talks about why she chose Outdoor Education and how community can serve as a support system.

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Celebrating Sterling College President, Matthew Derr. As nature has demonstrated, the only constant is change and disturbances are important for health and evolution. When a tree falls in the forest - a disturbance - there is a loss but also an abundance of opportunity and potential for new growth. Speaking in ecological terms, Sterling is in a moment of secondary succession.

As Matthew Derr’s last day as president approaches, October 31, we acknowledge the vision and passion that he has brought to his nearly ten years. Through his good work, he has inspired many to consider what is possible in higher education and how it can be a force that strengthens the human relationship with the natural world. The role of mission-aligned philanthropy has been a transformative component of our collective success and is critical to fulfill Sterling’s aspirations for the future.

In this moment, we invite you to show your support of this special institution, its collective vision, and all that we have accomplished during Matthew’s tenure with a tax-deductible gift. A gift today will help ensure a smooth transition for our community and ensure the Sterling experience for what it is known for: accessible, experiential, supportive, and interdisciplinary.

The future is brighter with Sterling in it.

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Students on the banks of Six Mile Creek during ecology class at the Wendell Berry Farming Program.

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New student, Oliver D'Orazio, speaks on the value of a small community.

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Student Anna Webber-Loomis provides gear repair services and education to the local community as part of an Experiential Work Learning Grant received from the Work College Consortium. The grant supports Sterling's new Community Gear Design and Repair Program which included the purchase of this industrial sewing machine. Students like Anna will provide gear repairs to students and employees as well as the greater Craftsbury community.

This new program at Sterling is a direct result of a course the College piloted in Spring 2021 by the same name, Gear Design and Repair.

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EMERGENCY TO EMERGENCE PODCAST // Laura Beebe joins Emergency to Emergence hosts, Nakasi and Dakota, for a rich conversation on the importance of the backcountry to human development -- her own and her students. Resisting a guide’s tendency to define backcountry in geographical terms or locate it far from the places that bear obvious marks of human development, Laura conceives of backcountry as a "state of being" reached through immersion in natural places, relationships with other species and with ecologies, and a sense of belonging among the same. But in this ranging and rich conversation, Laura also resists the all-too-common tendency to obscure the modern cultural forces that force separation, replicate problematic hierarchies and tend to make adventure and discovery exclusive. Reflecting on several decades of often being the only women in male-dominated spaces, Laura also delves into the inclusive aspirations of Sterling College’s Wilderness Field Program and illustrates how extended backcountry education, paired with the study of natural history and cultural ecology, allow students to see into deep time, celebrate continuance, and figure out more about how they want to be in the world. TAKE A LISTEN. LINK ON BIO.

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Last week we hosted a group of 10 new Sterling College students at The Farm Between. They spent an afternoon harvesting apples, as the surrounding hillsides were just beginning to show color. We grow around 40 varieties of apples at The Farm Between, which we sell wholesale: early, mid and late season apples, cider apples and dessert apples, red apples, speckled apples, russeted apples. For those interested in growing your own, we still have trees available for sale in the nursery. Please email thefarmbetween@sterlingcollege.edu or call (802) 335-2000 to schedule an appointment.

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Dig In!

Culturing Fermentation with Sandor Katz

The word “culture” is used for both the specific microorganisms that ferment food as well as the phenomena transmitted through social learning in human societies. Sandor Katz, fermentation revivalist and…

The First Cut is the Deepest: Adventures in Tree Felling

When you come to Sterling College you have to be ready to learn about tree felling. Not only do you get an axe at the end of your introductory intensive,…

Wild for a While

At Sterling we do a great job with domesticity. We have farms and fields, food, animals, and a village common with perfect white clapboard buildings, all set in the bucolic,…

The Classroom and Beyond

Rigorous, Experiential & Place-based Academics

Majors

Ecology

Environmental Humanities

Outdoor Education

Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems

Self-Designed Major

Minors

Climate Justice

Draft Animal Power Systems Minor

Natural History Minor

Natural Resources Conservation Minor

Education Studies

Environmental Humanities

Continuing Education

School of the New American Farmstead

Are you ready to remove the barriers between learning and living?

Come see how Sterling College can show you how.

Academics by the Numbers

Culturing Fermentation with Sandor Katz

The First Cut is the Deepest: Adventures in Tree Felling

Wild for a While

Academics

The Classroom and Beyond

Rigorous, Experiential & Place-based Academics

Majors

Minors

Continuing Education

Share It!

Are you ready to remove the barriers between learning and living?

Come see how Sterling College can show you how.

Academics by the Numbers

Culturing Fermentation with Sandor Katz

The First Cut is the Deepest: Adventures in Tree Felling

Wild for a While