Prescott College

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For the Adelaide-based college, see Prescott College, South Australia.

Prescott College

Prescott College campus photographed 2005
Prescott College campus photographed 2005
Motto For the Liberal Arts and the Environment
Established 1966
Type Private
President Daniel Garvey
Location Prescott, Arizona, USA
Website www.prescott.edu

Prescott College is a private liberal arts college in Prescott, Arizona, founded in 1966. Tucked into a corner of the town of the same name, Prescott College offers residential and limited-residency BA degrees, a limited-residency MA degree and a limited-residency PhD in Sustainability Education. The college considers itself an "evolving experiment in rejecting hierarchical thinking for collaboration and teamwork as the cornerstone of learning".

The College is known for its hands-on approach to learning and high student activist enrollment. Students in the community-based Adult Degree and Graduate programs are able to continue living and working in their home communities as they design their own programs with the assistance of faculty, mentors, and/or advisors, and carry out projects in their home communities in fulfillment of their degree requirements. Residential undergraduate students live and attend classes in Prescott. Prescott College has received the highest academic rating in the state of Arizona for several years running from The Princeton Review.

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[edit] History

In 1965 the Ford Foundation challenged the country’s most innovative educators to come together and design an “ideal college for the future that would prepare students for contributing in an ever changing, and ever faster moving, world.” Prescott College is the result. Since its opening in 1966, more than 9,000 students have enjoyed its highly individual philosophy of higher education with its mandate to incorporate experiential learning into every course.

[edit] Programs

Although the school is best known for environmental studies programs like Agroecology, Conservation Biology, Earth Science, Ecological Design, Environmental Policy, Geography, Human Ecology, Marine Studies, Natural History and Ecology, and Environmental Education there are also programs in Adventure Education, Outdoor Experiential Education, Wilderness Leadership, Adventure-Based Environmental Education, Outdoor Program Administration, Adventure-Based Tourism, Cultural and Regional Studies, Religion and Philosophy, Sustainability Education, Peace Studies, Political Economy, Latin American Studies, Spanish Language and Literature, International Studies, Women’s Studies, Human Development, Education, Elementary and Secondary Teacher Certification, Writing and Literature, Performing Arts, Photography, Creative Writing, Visual Arts, Psychology, Counseling Psychology, Therapeutic Use of Adventure Education, Ecopsychology, and Equine Assisted Mental Health.

In keeping with the College’s philosophy that students develop valuable life skills from independent living, most residential students live in off-campus housing, however the College provides a limited amount of on-campus housing for 1st-time freshmen. Limited residency students continue to live and work in their home communities while attending in-residence colloquia at the Prescott Campus several times each year. Nearly a third of the College's Adult Degree Program students live in the Tucson, Arizona region and are served by the College's local Center.

[edit] Prescott College Consortium Relationships

To expand the diversity of study opportunities for residential students the College is part of two major college consortiums and has many stand alone student exchange relationships with other like minded institutions that permit students to study as visitors at other institutions while maintaining enrollment and, usually, paying tuition at Prescott. Prescott’s consortium relationships include the Eco League, a six college consortium of colleges with strong environmental studies programs: Antioch College, Alaska Pacific University, Green Mountain College, Northland College, and College of the Atlantic; and the Consortium for Innovative Environments in Learning (CIEL), an eleven college consortium of colleges of so-called “alternative” colleges and universities: Alverno College, Berea College, Daemen College, The Evergreen State College, Fairhaven College at Western Washington University, Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University, Hampshire College (a member of the Five-College Consortium, which includes Amherst College , Smith College , Mt. Holyoke College and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst), Johnson C. Smith University, New College of Florida, and Pitzer College (a member of the Claremont Colleges, a college consortium, located in Southern California which also includes Pomona College, Claremont Graduate University, Scripps College, Claremont McKenna College, Harvey Mudd College, and the Keck Graduate Institute).

Prescott’s stand alone student exchange relationships include: Telemark College in Norway, the ECOSA Institute (an Ecological Design Institute located in Prescott, Arizona), the SOS Conservation Project, and Sail Caribbean.

[edit] External link