Berea has long aspired to provide its students a holistic educational experience that involves the head, the heart, and the hands.
Head
Certainly, all facets of classroom and laboratory learning provide our students with the highest quality of head learning. Berea College has not charged a single student tuition since 1892, because the students it serves are of high academic promise but very limited financial means.
Heart
Berea’s historic mission of inclusivity serves to educate its students—and indeed all those who support it—with heart learning. Our founder, the Rev. John G. Fee, and his wife, Matilda Hamilton Fee, envisioned an institution that would educate female and male, Black and white students together.
Hand
Berea’s rich educational experience is also augmented by its status as one of nine federally recognized Work Colleges. All students at Berea work 10-15 hours each week and are paid for their labor, which helps them pay for personal expenses and other things—even housing and meals.
