Yellow Springs, Ohio — To fully understand Antioch College and the role it plays in higher education, it’s important to know the history and culture that makes it such an atypical institution.
From the town in which it’s located to the students it enrolls, the Antioch experience is like none other.
Calls to "RESIST" are tagged in black spray paint throughout campus. A bonfire pit is set up in the main lawn bordered by antiquated brick buildings. Funky art greets visitors in the admissions building.
LEARN HOW ANTIOCH REOPENED:The rise and fall of a college
Antioch boasts the fact it hasn’t had a football team since 1929, and it instead wins victories for humanity. The motto comes from Antioch’s first president, esteemed education reformer Horace Mann, who told the college’s 1859 graduating class, "Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity."
The college, dedicated to sustainability, is largely fueled by energy from 3,300 solar panels and a geothermal plant that sits behind academic buildings. Food served in the dining hall is grown about 1,500 feet away in the Antioch Farm.
The curriculum differs from typical four-year colleges. There is no summer break, and students go year-round, although they’re working in the real world for a couple months each year as part of Antioch’s distinctive co-op program. Co-op essentially allows students to do anything anywhere, from working as an assistant curator at the Boston Museum of Arts to caring for people with disabilities in an adult daycare center in Japan.