Congratulations on your acceptance!

You now have the opportunity to embark on one of the most thrilling, challenging and important adventures of your life. The entire Sterling community looks forward to welcoming you to Craftsbury.

The first step on your journey is to send in your deposit to reserve your place in the incoming class! The New Student Deposit and Registration Form below will give you the option of submitting your deposit online, or the option to indicate that you will be paying via check or credit card over the phone.

Fill Out the New Student Deposit & Registration Form

We will confirm your deposit upon receipt. If you have any questions about this form, methods of payment, or your deposit amount, please call 802-586-7711 x 100 or email admission@sterlingcollege.edu.

Home Field Guide

You are here.

Step 1: Confirm You're Coming

Step 2: Required Forms

Step 3: Packing List & Arrival Day

Step 4: A Sense of Place: Expedition 1

Step 5: Helpful Resources

Step 6: Policies & Guidelines

Step 7: Nourish Yourself

Finish Line:You're Ready!

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EMERGENCY TO EMERGENCE PODCAST // Gwyneth Harris, Sterling College’s Garden Manager joins Emergency to Emergence hosts, Nakasi and Dakota, for a rich conversation on the intricacies and advantages of small scale farming. Though farming is often misconstrued as a simple vocation, Gwyneth portrays the elegant complexities of an agro-ecological farming system, particularly one that balances education, experimentation, production, and nourishment. Sterling’s educational farm offers opportunities to learn core skills for cultivation, put animal, plant, and soil science into practice, and to integrate food sovereignty, social justice, and systems thinking. The farm management choices Gwyneth and her colleagues make have ripple effects on the land, the people in our community, and the plants, animals, insects, fungi, and microbes with whom we share this space. Those choices also influence the lessons that students draw from the Sterling Farm and carry forward onto their future farms that will nourish their communities in the years to come. This conversation also illuminates the enduring contributions of smallholder farmers and positions community-scale food and fiber production as a viable and valuable alternative to industrial agriculture and production systems of extraction. By listening to Gwyneth, you’ll get a better sense of why so many of our students come to Sterling to study Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems -- and of the intentionality that they find when they work alongside our farm managers.

Take a listen. Link on bio

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We believe in thinking outside the classroom. For Wendell Berry Farming Program graduate Emily Wade '21, this non-traditional approach to higher education enabled her to earn a degree. We are launching Emily's full story on Tuesday but wanted to give you a sneak peek. #wendellberryfarmingprogram

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The new semester and cohort is underway at our tuition-free Wendell Berry Farming Program. Barn work and sheep pedicures have made the to-do list.

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Wendell Berry Farming Program. The Wendell Berry Farming Program of Sterling College is a two-year program, based in Henry County, KY, through which students earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems. Through their work, graduates of the program are expected to embody an ethic of environmental stewardship, and contribute to the revitalization and renewal of rural agrarian communities in Kentucky and beyond.

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

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Students journeyed the Hudson River Watershed to examine the dynamic interrelationships between humans and the Hudson River valley, historically and today. How have humans adapted to and changed this landscape? How have settlement patterns, industry, and communities (natural and human) changed over time? What is the relationship between urban centers (New York City in particular) and the rural hinterland of the Hudson River? What have been predominant cultural images of this region and what has been their impact? What can a bioassessment of the river itself reveal about its role in the regional ecosystem and reflect our land-use practices? We investigated.

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More photos from A Sense of Place: Expedition I, an introduction to Sterling that provides students opportunities to dig into place.

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Every year, students begin the fall semester by participating in A Sense of Place : Expedition I. This course is designed to help students develop a sense of place as they begin their Sterling experience. The course allows participants to develop bonds with other incoming students and explore topics central to life at Sterling such as local ecology and community. The course uses experiential learning to improve interpersonal communication ability, leadership skills, enhance self-efficacy, and develop greater awareness as members of a community.

These students explored Belvidere Mountain (3,360.00 ft or 1,024.13 m). The summit has a fire tower and on a clear day views extend to Jay Peak and beyond.

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The Wendell Berry Farming Program (WBFP) spent time at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill where WBFP alum, Gabe Francisco is the Draft Animal Manager. Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill is a landmark destination that shares 3,000 acres of discovery in the spirit of the Kentucky Shakers.

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Sweet Rowen Farmstead | Sterling Chronicles. @sweetrowenfarmstead bottles gently pasteurized, cream-top whole milk and makes delicious, GMO free cheeses and yogurt in their farmstead creamery. Founder, Paul Lisai, and Herd Manager, Nathan van Gulden are both Sterling College alumni. Both reflect on their education as providing a holistic approach to sustainable agriculture and an appreciation for the work they do, day in, day out.

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

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Students learning about emerging small scale marine and coast-adjacent food and fishing systems during the fall intensive fished for mackerel in Eastport, Maine. They celebrated the bounty with an evening of fish tacos!

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EMERGENCY TO EMERGENCE PODCAST // Favor Ellis, Sterling’s Dean of Community, explores how one finds home and a sense of belonging. After working with unhoused youth, traversing varied geographical and emotional terrain, and moving many times, Favor found a place to call home at Sterling. She now shapes Sterling’s community to be one centered on care, where all are welcome to bring their whole selves, evolving identities, and hard truths and brave aspirations. While modeling truth-telling and vulnerability, Favor draws upon her studies in embodiment and somatics, her experience as a birthworker, and poetics (her own words and the words of others, to call forth emergent change and rebirthing processes). LISTEN: Link on bio.

📷: @freihoferphotography

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Dig In!

Photography – Exam Day!

Exam Day! Today (before the exam) we started class out taking our time to look over last weeks assignment. After some technological juggling we all crowded around Perry’s computer the…

Dick Smyth Now “Naturalist Emeritus”

Dick Smyth has been named “Naturalist Emeritus” by Sterling College as of January 2014. Smyth first came to Sterling in 2008 and taught the “Sudden Exposure” course; he was also…

Experiential Learning & A Sense of Place

On August 26, 43 first-semester students in A Sense of Place: Expedition I departed Craftsbury Common less than 24 hours after arriving on campus, wearing smiles and hiking boots, for…

Confirm Your Enrollment

1. Confirm Your Enrollment

2. Complete the Required Forms

3. How to Get Here, What to Bring & When to Arrive

4. A Sense of Place: Expedition 1

6. Meet Your Field Guides

7. Policies & Guidelines

8. Make the Most of Your Time Here!

Congratulations on your acceptance!

Photography – Exam Day!

Dick Smyth Now “Naturalist Emeritus”

Experiential Learning & A Sense of Place