Introduction to the Work College Program
Berea's Labor Program originated in its earliest form in 1859 and expanded to become one of the College's Great Commitments. Known today as Path to Purpose, the program provides economic, educational, social, personal, and spiritual benefits to students and to those served by their work-learning. From its earliest days, Berea has enabled students to contribute to the cost of their education while building skills, exploring their strengths, and serving the college and surrounding communities. Historically, this also allowed the College to operate in a self-sustaining way, with students growing food and building the living and learning facilities they shared. As society has changed, the nature of the work has changed with it. What has remained constant is the program's underlying commitment to learning through doing.
The program originated in 1859 and was formalized into every student's educational experience in 1906, when the Berea College Catalog declared that every student must contribute at least seven hours per week to the necessary work of the College. This was raised to ten hours in 1917, a requirement that remains in effect today.
The value of student work-learning is reinforced in Berea's Great Commitments, first published in 1969 by the General Faculty and the Board of Trustees, and revised in 1993 and again in 2017. This affirms Berea's commitment "to promote learning and serving in community through the student Labor Program, honoring the dignity and utility of all work, mental and manual, and taking pride in work well done." This commitment has long been integral to Berea's educational mission, giving students real opportunity for learning, service, and work well done.
Path to Purpose is built around a few core aims:
- Support the total educational program at Berea College by teaching skills, responsibility, habits, attitudes, and processes connected to meaningful work;
- Create a lifestyle that joins doing and thinking, action and reflection, service and learning, one that carries on well beyond the college years;
- Provide opportunities for students to serve their community and others through their work;
- Support students in offsetting the cost of their education at Berea;
- Connect student work to the ongoing life of the College, alongside its educational purpose;