During your visit to Asheville, you may see the "Warren Wilson" name on menus in some of the "farm to fork" restaurants in downtown Asheville that feature local foods. The farm at Warren Wilson sells sustainably raised grass-fed beef and College-grown grain fed pork in quarters and halves, butchered and wrapped according to cuts. This is just one example that shows the uniqueness of Warren Wilson.
Nestled in the lush Swannanoa river valley of the Blue Ridge Mountains just a few miles east of Asheville, Warren Wilson College was founded in 1894 upon a philosophy of sustainability that thrives to this day. An accredited, four-year, private liberal arts college, their education is driven by a threefold "Triad" principle: Academics for the mind, Work for the hands, Service-Learning from the heart. This is a setting that, throughout history, has inspired community, creativity, learning, and a sense of harmony with the environment.
Warren Wilson provides an outstanding curriculum grounded in sciences and humanities, interwoven with cross-cultural experiences, immersed in service-based philosophy and experienced with an environmental focus. It's a campus where people who want to make a difference can begin meaning it. The College offers 900 students strong academics with work for the school (15 hours per week) and service to the community (100 hours over four years) for a more involving, more meaningful education.
Their campus includes 45 buildings, a 300 acre farm and an organic garden, 600 acres of forest, 25 miles of hiking trails, numerous cows, pigs, and a few bears. See a PDF Map of the Warren Wilson College Campus.
Warren Wilson College is No. 4 among Sierra Magazine's "10 Coolest Schools" nationwide in the fight against global warming. And it has been recognized in the 2009 edition of "America's Best Colleges," published by U.S. News & World Report, as having one of the nation's leading service-learning programs. The recognition marks the sixth time in seven years that Warren Wilson has received the distinction. Warren Wilson is one of only 25 schools across the country listed in the "Service Learning" category of "Programs to Look For" in choosing a college - programs the guide calls. "outstanding examples of academic programs that are commonly linked to student success."
The student run mixed-crop and livestock operation, although educational in nature, is managed as a working farm with a commitment to sustainable farming practices. The College Farm strives to cultivate student leaders with a strong work ethic, continuing an agricultural tradition dating to 1894 in the Swannanoa Valley.
The WWC garden crew is made up of about 25 students who are responsible for the daily maintenance of five acres of organically raised crops, including vegetables, fruits, cut flowers and herbs. Seasonal extension practices involve the use of a 34 x 80 heated greenhouse and two unheated hoophouses.
Community Events at Warren Wilson
The Swannanoa Gathering: This series of week-long workshops in various folk arts is held in July and August on the campus of Warren Wilson College. With a limited enrollment and an 'open' format which allows each student to select their own curriculum from a variety of courses, they offer an intimate, supportive community experience for students of all abilities, featuring a staff of some of the finest performers and teachers in the world.
Visit The Swannanoa Gathering website.
The Swannanoa Chamber Music Festival: The Swannanoa Chamber Festival Players are a group of outstanding professional musicians from Florida, New York, California, Michigan and Ohio who perform together each year at the Festival. The wind-players and pianist have been playing together at the festival for at least a decade. By working together for so many years, they have developed a mutual understanding of each other's sensibilities, resulting in performances of enormous energy and style. This "chemistry" is one of the reasons the performances are, consistently, at such a high level.
Visit The Swannanoa Chamber Music Festival website.
The Swannanoa School of Culinary Arts: The Swannanoa School of Culinary Arts offers week-long hands-on immersion in a variety of culinary experiences designed to awaken and broaden the palate, lead you closer to the source of the food you prepare, and provide you with a panoply of skills that will help you celebrate the ordinary in extraordinary fashion. The mission of the Swannanoa School of Culinary Arts is to inspire a new (and revised old) generation of home chefs to gather food consciously, treat it with skill and respect, and share it with passion, furthering the notion that the most important moments we spend are those partaken with friends and family around the table.
Visit The Swannonoa School of Culinary Arts website.
Warren Wilson Theatre: The Warren Wilson College Theatre houses a full season of theatrical productions, concerts, and special events throughout the year. Warren Wilson Theatre productions are open to participation by members of the greater Asheville community. During the summer, it is home to the concerts of Swannanoa Gathering and the Swannanoa Chamber Music Festival.
For their season schedule, go to the Warren Wilson College Theatre website.
Sustainability Studies
At Warren Wilson, the Triad of academics, work, and service immerses students in community problem solving. They study the human and ecological history of this planet and understand the need for global citizens to adopt a more informed process of decision making than ever before. Students engage in community-based research and learn that complex issues like unemployment and affordable housing require a cross-disciplinary approach to problem solving. They participate in work crews, ranging from dining services to landscaping, and help the College earn the distinction of being a “living laboratory” of sustainability. Through service learning they experience, first hand, the importance of their participation in solving chronic community issues. Whether working with literacy programs or disaster relief efforts, students come to understand these problems are complex. Sustainability deepens their conversation about community well-being and provides valuable insight into the root cause of some of our most pressing issues.
History
In 1894, the Asheville Farm School officially opened with 25 boys attending and a professional staff of three people. It was not until 1923 that the school had its first graduating class. In 1936, the first post high school programs in vocational training were begun. It was hoped that this type of training would give the students more prospects in the job market. In 1942, the junior college division was established. The Asheville Farm School continued as a boys unit in high school studies. The Dorland-Bell School of Hot Springs was joined with the Farm School, which brought high school age girls to campus. The Warren Wilson Vocational Junior College was joined with them under our one administration.
After WWII, the public education system in NC improved dramatically and the need for the mission's high school diminished. The last high school class at WWC was graduated in 1957. WWC was a junior college until March 1966 when it was established as a four year college, offering six majors. In 1972, the National Board of Missions deeded the WWC property over to the college's Board of Trustees.
In the late 1990s, they added an Outdoor Leadership major and The North Carolina Outward Bound School moved its headquarters to campus. As the new millennium approached, the college raised its target enrollment to 800 and began growing. Many new, state-of-the-art facilities were built including a new science center, two new computer labs, a library renovation, and several new residence halls. In 2003, the college opened the EcoDorm--a residence hall built with sustainable and ecologically friendly building practices and intended to be a live-in educational facility for students. Following its commitment to green construction, the college constructed a new office building designed to meet the LEED's standard. They continue to grow, change, and improve, but as the time honored cliche states, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
For more, go to www.warren-wilson.edu.
|
