| Prescott College | |
|---|---|
| Motto | For the Liberal Arts, the Environment, and Social Justice |
| Established | 1966 |
| Type | Private |
| Endowment | US $650,000 |
| President | Kristin Woolever |
| Admin. staff | 45 |
| Undergraduates | 475 Resident Undergraduates |
| Location | Prescott, Arizona, USA |
| Website | www.prescott.edu |
Prescott College is a private liberal arts college in Prescott, Arizona, founded in 1966. It is a non-profit organization which has an undergraduate body of roughly 800 students, and an average student to faculty ratio of 7:1 in on-campus classrooms. [1] There are four general programs at Prescott College: the On-campus Undergraduate Program, Limited-Residency Undergraduate Degree Program" (RDP), the "Masters of Arts Program" (MAP) and a Limited-Residency PhD program in Sustainability Education.[2] Those enrolled in the Limited-Residency program work with various mentors and Prescott College faculty, usually in their home communities. On-campus students live in Prescott and attend classes at the college itself.
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Limited student housing is available on campus. Most students reside in nearby apartments, condos, and houses. Housing is widely available in the town, and the college provides assistance with locating housing for students. There are many eco-minded businesses in the Prescott area. As for activities, there are numerous clubs and organizations that meet every night of the week.
Prescott College is ideally located for aficionados of outdoor pursuits, being bordered on three sides by National Forest lands. Numerous outstanding trails weave their way across the Prescott National Forest offering a variety of challenges to hikers, trail-runners and mountain-bikers. Granite Mountain, a notable rock climbing area, as well as several smaller climbing areas, are easily accessed from campus. Prescott’s four lakes offer paddlers and sailors excellent and varied venues for developing their skills; the Verde River (Class III) is an hour away. The Arizona Snowbowl is just an hour and a half drive from Prescott. Several World Heritage Sites, including the Grand Canyon and the Gulf of California are within a half day’s drive of Prescott. The college maintains a well-stocked equipment warehouse that offers outdoor equipment and food rations to students and staff at minimal cost.
All Prescott College students receive membership with the Prescott YMCA which features an indoor pool, fitness center, gymnastics training facility, indoor basketball and volleyball courts, and Yoga classes.
On-campus students begin with a three-week adventure into Arizona's wilderness, known as wilderness orientation. In their first week, students are introduced to the college and gather supplies before being sent out in groups of 7-14 people, depending on the size of the incoming class. The average distance covered varies from 50–100 miles.
Students usually design a degree plan by the beginning of their junior year. Unlike most other schools that have degree programs set with specific classes and little room for deviation, at Prescott College students fulfill basic requirements (such as math and writing) and then design their Competence (like a major) and Breadth (like a minor). The degree plan is submitted to the student's Individual Graduation Committee (IGC) for review. The IGC consists of at least one faculty member, and another faculty member and a student if desired. The committee will then edit and suggest classes that are needed to enhance and complete the Competence and Breadth.
A student's course of study will fall under one of the following : Adventure Education (AE), Arts & Letters (AL), Education (ED), Environmental Studies (ES), Psychology and Human Development (IS), Cultural & Regional Studies (IS). Some examples of student degree plans would be: "Environmental Studies with a competence in Ecology and a breadth in Rock climbing" or "Cultural & Regional Studies with a competence in Latin American Cultures and a breadth in Psychology". The possibilities for degree titles and course selection are numerous. Degree plans that draw from as many of the six areas of competency as possible are the most favorable, as the goal is to obtain a well-rounded liberal arts education. However, students are given an exceptional amount of freedom in pursuing their academic interests.
To graduate from the program, each student must design and complete a senior project. Writing Certification III and a student's degree plan must be on-file for a student to apply for their senior project. Students apply for the project during the semester before they plan to undertake it. Some examples include: HUB (helping understand bicycles), The Ripple Repeat Project (campus thrift store), The Latin American Studies Scholarship Endowment Fund, an internship relevant to a student's Competence, or even a research paper. Students are given a great deal of freedom in this requirement as well. However, a student must rigorously justify the project as proof of competence in their field of study.
In 1965, the Ford Foundation brought together a group of educators from around the United States and challenged them to create an ideal college for the future— a college that would use the very best learning theories to prepare students for their place in an ever-changing world. Prescott College was the result of this gathering.
The college was originally built in 1966 on 200 acres (0.81 km2) outside of Prescott, Arizona, on what later came to be known as the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University campus. In 1974, despite dedicated faculty and students, the college went bankrupt due to poor fiscal management and the loss of anticipated donor funds. A core of determined faculty and students refused to see the college fold, and after a series of emergency meetings, formed the Prescott Center for Alternative Education. This earned the school national publicity as "The College That Wouldn't Die."
During the spring semester of 1975, classes were held in the basement of the historic Hassayampa Hotel in downtown Prescott, Arizona, as well as in the homes of both faculty and students. Over the succeeding years, the college was able to once again obtain the legal right to the name Prescott College and began acquiring the property and buildings which constitute the current main campus. Prescott College also has a Tucson, Arizona campus.
Most of the current Prescott location buildings have been converted to classrooms from their previous occupants (e.g., furniture stores and dental offices). The newest building, the Crossroads Center, was intended to be a model of environmental design. It houses classrooms, meeting facilities, and the college library as well as computer labs. Below are pictures of the building:
Prescott College is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools and the Association for Experiential Education. The Teacher Education Program is approved by the Arizona State Board of Education and the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification (NASDTEC). 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, School Counseling (M.A. & Post-Graduate 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.
Prescott College is part of two major college consortia 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 paying tuition at Prescott. Prescott’s consortium relationships include the Eco League, a five-college consortium of colleges with strong environmental studies programs: 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.
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