Sterling College is a Christ-centered, four-year college located in Sterling, Kansas, with a mission "to develop creative and thoughtful leaders who understand a maturing Christian faith."

Founded in 1887 (as Cooper College) by the Presbyterian Church, the College embraces an emerging vision to serve God's world through servant-leadership training, the nation's first undergraduate program in Social Entrepreneurship and the development of future leaders through strategic partnerships with Habitat for Humanity International.

Message from the President

Quick Facts

Student Profile

Student/Faculty Ratio: 15/1

Fall 2006 Total Enrollment: 607

Academic

Students in 2006 Freshman Class: 205; Transfers: 60; Average GPA: 3.32; Average ACT Score: 23; States Represented: 30; Foreign Countries: 5; Kansas Residents: 42%; Out of state residents: 58%; Minority: 34%

Accreditation:

Spiritual Life

Required Weekly Chapel; Spiritual Formation Program; Staley Lecture Series; Student Ministries Program; Oscar Schmidt Lecture Series.

Performing Arts

Theatre Productions; Concert Choir; Sterling Lasses; Symphonic Band; Highland Singers; Pep Band; Art Exhibits; Forensics; Debate.

Athletics

Member: National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Division II and Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC).

Men's Varsity Sports: football, soccer, cross country, basketball, baseball and track.

Women's Varsity Sports: volleyball, soccer, cross country, basketball, softball, and track.

Buildings

17 Total Buildings: 6 Dorms (Campbell, Kilbourn, new men's, McCreery, Evans, new women's); Student Union & Cafeteria, Cooper Hall, Thompson Hall, Kelsey Hall, Mabee Library, Wilson Hall, Spencer Hall, Smisor Stadium, Gleason Athletic Center, Art / Education Center, East Campus House.

See Campus Building Information and Virtual Tour.

Mission

Our mission: The mission of Sterling College is to develop creative and thoughtful leaders who understand a maturing Christian faith.

Our vision: Within a decade, to be recognized as the finest Christ-centered, servant leadership development-focused, liberal arts experience in the Great Plains.

Our core values: In active, vital partnership with church, community and strategic partners, and ever striving for first-class quality in all that it does, the Sterling College community will be guided in all its work by the following intrinsic values:

• Faith:
  Faithful discernment of and response to God's self-revelation in Christ in Scripture
  
  
• Calling:
  Faithful discovery and pursuit of each person's particular calling in life
  
  
• Learning:
  A love of learning and a dedication to the pursuit of truth
  
  
• Integrity:
  Integrity in scholarship, the arts, athletics, and all other co-curricular activities
  
  
• Service:
  Faithful practice of redemptive servant leadership involving a vision of wholeness in a broken world
  
  
• Community:
  Mutual respect amid diversity as members of the body of Christ
  

Our priorities: Sterling College is committed to an environment of academic excitement in the Reformed tradition of a thorough exploration of all truth in the light of God's Word. An enthusiastic Christian faith and experience permeate all aspects of the College life. Activities are designed to encourage and develop the skills necessary to understand our world and to create positive change in it. Specifically, we seek to build within our students creativity, critical thinking, effective communication and leadership for use in the workplace as well as in the community, church, and home. We seek to cultivate a Christ-centered world view through which students are able to explore and understand themselves, their faith, their environment, and their heritage. We further strive to foster the values of independent inquiry, a thirst for life-long learning, emotional maturity, positive self-worth, and an understanding of a maturing Christian faith that provides the foundation and meaning for life.

Our process: The College works to achieve its priorities through the learning experiences of the liberal arts curriculum, faculty/student interactions, and a residential lifestyle. The liberal arts curriculum is designed to build breadth and depth of understanding through a general education core, specialization in a major, and attention within majors to career preparation. The College affirms the primacy of the faculty/student relationship and the importance of excellence in instruction and advising. Relationships of faculty to students are built around principles of serving, mentoring, modeling, and discipleship. The campus lifestyle is designed to provide a unifying community experience for social, educational and faith development.

Our faith: The board, faculty, administration and staff possess an active and visible Christian faith which encourages the entire campus community in our pursuit of a wholesome and practical Christian life. We personally trust and collectively bear witness to the one, eternal God, revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are redeemed from our sins by Christ's life, death, and resurrection, and it is by God's grace alone that we joyfully receive our salvation through a personal faith in Christ Jesus. God the Holy Spirit is active, providing us with God's sustaining presence and power, and working sanctification in the faithful. We believe in the life of the world to come in which righteousness will dwell and God will reign forever. We accept the inspiration and authority of Scripture (both Old and New Testaments) which directs our daily living and illumines our minds, and we embrace the Church as the body of Christ and God's witness of His love in the world.

Our relationships: Founded in 1887 by the Synod of Kansas of the United Presbyterian Church of North America, Sterling College continues to affirm its historical ties with the Presbyterian Church. Through the years of denominational change and reshaping, the College has held solidly to its covenant relationship with what is now the Presbyterian Church (USA). The College is governed by an independent self-perpetuating Board of Trustees. Sterling College holds strong the mandate of the original charter to be thoroughly Christian, but not in any sense sectarian, and cherishes its covenant relationship to the PCUSA. The diversity of God's people is welcomed and the College respects the differences in denominational distinctives and worship traditions.

Member of:

Council for Christian Colleges & Universities

The Associated Colleges of Central Kansas

Kansas Independent College Association