Is Hampshire College Closed? Nope. No Way. Not By a Long Shot.

Sure, we had a bumpy 2019, but Hampshire was made for change, and we’ve been reinventing ourselves all along. Today we are doing just that, imagining what a college, built with tomorrow’s world in mind, can deliver to instill the essential skills and qualities needed to thrive in the 21st century and beyond. 

Our mission is to radicalize the liberal arts and serve as the agent of change in higher education. In fact, every element that today’s Association of American Colleges & Universities recognizes as high impact educational practice was part of Hampshire’s method from the beginning.

And we aren’t slowing down; we’re doubling down.

We believe that to know is not enough—that knowledge without understanding and application benefits no one.

We have a reinvented approach to college education that places students at the center of globally relevant questions in urgent need of solutions and empowers them to become agents of momentous change. At Hampshire College, students self-design their path of study, combining different fields of study to curate their own original course of study and design their own concentrations.

Students engage in project-based learning to develop their entrepreneurial skills and take part in community-engaged learning. They learn multiple ways to identify a challenge, ask the right questions, mobilize resources, and incorporate diverse points of view as they creatively propose solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems.

In short, they take their projects beyond the conceptual, and make them real.

The world has long looked to Hampshire for what’s next, and we will continue to confidently keep higher education on its toes.

A few recent highlights:

• We launched a bold new curriculum organized around urgent challenges. Through our innovative Learning Collaboratives, we bring disciplines together to address the biggest issues facing society today. And as global challenges shift, so do the topics of our collaboratives. We evolve and change to reflect the world around us.
• After exceeding our admissions target for the fall 2022 semester, we welcomed our largest incoming class since 2018 to campus. The fall 2022 class represents a 73 percent increase from 2021 in terms of total incoming students.
• Dr. Sheila Lloyd joined Hampshire College as the Senior Vice President for Justice, Equity, and Antiracism.
• We were recognized for bringing ”choice to an increasingly conformist higher education landscape,” and for serving as an incubator for education innovation by reporter Jon Marcus for The Hechinger Report.
• We received a historic $5 million dollar investment in our Change in the Making campaign in honor of alum Ken Burns.
• In October of 2021 Hampshire College marked 50 years of innovation in higher education. We celebrated with almost 900 guests on our campus, among them alums, families, community friends, donors, and former presidents and faculty members. 

Our alumni, faculty, and students have been busy innovating too.

• Hampshire College student Rupert Tawiah-Quashie 22S was awarded a Projects for Peace grant to implement “<Code_gh>,” a training program that aims to give high school students in Accra, Ghana, an opportunity to excel within the tech space.
• Hampshire alum Orisanmi Burton 99F was named a 2021 Freedom Scholar.
• Dance Professor Deborah Goffe received a Creative Capital Award for her performance installation, Liturgy|Order|Bridge.
• Alum Manny Castro 02F was appointed NYC Commissioner of the Mayor's Office for Immigrant Affairs.
• Recent graduate Flynn Hibbs 17F’s Div III produced valuable research on the effect of large-scale solar arrays on animals. 
• Hampshire College alum Alex Rivera 91F was awarded a 2021 MacArthur Fellowship. Rivera was one of 25 Fellows chosen by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for their “outstanding talent and exceptional creativity.” 
• And so much more.

Curious to learn more? You should be. Come visit, and see for yourself why Hampshire College is the most innovative and exciting place in higher education right now.