At Sterling, that amounts to half an education.

The other half is experiential academics, the “practice” in theory and practice. Lifelong learners benefit from doing what they study, and from experiencing what they are taught and what they are thinking. At Sterling we use experiences like hiking and observation, journal keeping and reflection, group dynamics and public speaking, and tools like the axe and the plough, as well as plain hard work.

Sterling College educates for life, and that means community is vital if we are to understand how to learn and how to keep learning. In the College dining hall we eat food produced and raised on our own organic farm. In our woodlot we harvest timber for construction and firewood. In our computer labs, we try to understand the relationship of people and community to nature and natural resources.

Sterling is one of only seven Work-Learning Service colleges in the nation. We are terrifically proud of that. Those three words define how Sterling views the world close by and far away, how we judge ourselves and how we wish to be judged by others.