Company Profile
Sweet Briar College
Company Overview
Sweet Briar College prepares women (and at the graduate level, men as well) to be productive, responsible members of a world community. It focuses on personal and professional achievement through a customized educational program that combines the liberal arts, preparation for careers and individual development. The faculty and staff guide students to become active learners, to reason clearly, to speak and write persuasively, and to lead with integrity. They do so by creating an educational environment that is both intense and supportive and where learning occurs in many different venues, including the classroom, the community and the world.
Sweet Briar's curriculum is organized on the premise that a foundation in the liberal arts enhances the development of critical and creative abilities, develops the ability to synthesize disparate information, equips the student for graduate and professional education, and encourages her to continue to learn long after leaving Sweet Briar.
A broadly based academic program teaches the student to view her experience within wide contexts, to appreciate the achievements of the past, to understand the methods and major theories of science, to gain an appreciation of the arts, and to communicate with precision and cogency. At Sweet Briar this study takes place within a residential environment that encourages physical well-being, ethical awareness, sensitivity to others, responsibility for one's actions, personal initiative and the assumption of leadership.
A highly qualified faculty, committed to the highest standards of teaching, engages individuals on a human scale. In small classes, students receive the attention that encourages self-confidence and the improvement of skills for life and livelihood.
Sweet Briar continues its commitment as an independent undergraduate women's college in order to devote its resources to the education of women in the full range of the liberal arts, including those subjects that have been traditionally considered as male domains. It welcomes men as well as women in selected graduate programs. The College continues to seek a diverse student body, which is drawn from a national and international pool of applicants.
Company History
Sweet Briar College was founded in 1901, the legacy of Indiana Fletcher Williams, who left her entire estate to found an institution in memory of her only daughter, Daisy, who died at the age of 16 in 1884. At the time of Mrs. Williams' death in 1900, her estate consisted of more than a million dollars, and over 8,000 acres of land, including the Sweet Briar Plantation. The first board of directors determined that the College should be free from denominational control and that it should maintain the highest academic standards. Sweet Briar would unite classical and modern ideals of education and, in the words of its founder, prepare young women "to be useful members of society."
Sweet Briar College opened formally in September 1906 with 51 students, including 15 day students. Its A.B. degree, granted for the first time in 1910, was immediately recognized by graduate programs at leading universities, with three of its first five graduates pursuing advanced degrees.
By 1921, Sweet Briar held membership in the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the American Association of University Women and the American Council on Education, and was approved by the Association of American Universities. Its chapter of Phi Beta Kappa authorized in 1950, the Theta of Virginia, is one of fewer than 276 chapters nationwide. In 1952, Sweet Briar became a charter member of the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges.
An early leader in international study, Sweet Briar in 1932 established an exchange program with the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, and in 1948 began its renowned Junior Year in France program, to be followed in 1984 by a Junior Year in Spain program in Seville.
In 1978, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts opened to fellows. The center is affiliated with Sweet Briar and located at Mount San Angelo, a nearby estate belonging to the College. Today the VCCA is one of the foremost working retreats for artists in the world, and the only one with direct ties to a college or university.
Twenty-one of the College's buildings were listed in 1995 on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic District.
Sweet Briar College celebrated its Centennial in 2001, and moved vigorously into its second century both in terms of its physical facilities and educational programs. In 2002, the College completed a new quad around a Student Commons, a "village green" that links residence halls with student services, dining facilities, a book shop and cafe, post office and student organizations. The new facility visually exemplifies Sweet Briar's commitment to an educational environment that is integrated, intentional and rooted.
In 2000, the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), which measures effectiveness of student learning, named Sweet Briar one of only four colleges in the nation scoring in the top 20 percent on all five national benchmarks. Subsequent NSSE surveys, including 2010's, continue to rank Sweet Briar among the nation's best in student engagement.
Sweet Briar's leadership in student engagement is reflected in a new mission statement, adopted in 2004, refocusing the College on its first principles, but recognizing that in the 21st century, students who will become "useful members of society" must, as liberally educated women, be well equipped to move into professional life. In 2004 the College inaugurated its first graduate programs, a Master of Arts in Teaching and a Master of Education, and became one of two women's colleges in the nation to offer a degree program in engineering.
Sweet Briar is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award degrees at the bachelor's and master's levels. It is a member of the College Entrance Examination Board and a contributing member of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.
List of Presidents
Jo Ellen Parker
2009 - present
Elisabeth Showalter Muhlenfeld (President emerita)
1996-2009
Barbara A. Hill
1990-1996
Nenah Elinor Fry
1983-1990
Harold B. Whiteman, Jr.
1971-1983
Anne Gary Pannell
1950-1971
Martha B. Lucas
1946-1950
Meta Glass
1925-1946
Emilie Watts McVea
1916-1925
Mary K. Benedict
1906-1916