Sterling College was among the first colleges and universities in the United States to offer a liberal arts curriculum focused on the environment. It was founded in Craftsbury Common in 1958 as a boys’ preparatory school known as Sterling School. The Grassroots Project and Sterling Institute co-educational programs followed in 1974, continuing the Outward Bound model of “development-by-challenge” introduced in its earlier years. In 1983, the school was approved for degree-granting authority by the State of Vermont, and the name was changed to Sterling College. The “Working Hands. Working Minds” motto reflects Sterling College’s membership in the federally recognized Work Colleges Consortium.