About Woodbury

Mission

Woodbury College provides rigorous, practice-based education that extends beyond the classroom into the community. Our respectful learning environment helps adult students go beyond their limits as they prepare for rewarding careers that contribute to a healthy, just and democratic society.

History

Woodbury College was founded in 1975 to prepare people to work as paralegals. In 1984, Woodbury College was offered accreditation by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, and also began offering a Mediation program to train people in a neutral, third-party method of mediation. Two years later, in 1986, Woodbury founded the Dispute Resolution Center, a mediation resource to help people resolve family disputes, environmental conflicts, and community and business disputes. In addition, the Dispute Resolution Center works with courts around Vermont offering parties the opportunity to use mediation to settle cases out of court.

In 1989, Woodbury College moved to its current campus at 660 Elm Street in Montpelier, Vermont. Having once served as the barn for Montpelier's "Poor Farm," the building was extensively remodeled and expanded to accommodate the needs of a small but growing college.

In 1993, Woodbury received approval to offer an associate of science degree, and also received a major grant to found the Prevention & Community Development Program. Offering classes in early 1994, the Prevention Program is the nation's first comprehensive college-level program designed to prepare people to plan and carry out initiatives that preemptively address problems such as violence and substance abuse.

In 1995, the Mediation program expanded its focus to reflect the growth of an even newer interdisciplinary field of work with conflict in public policy, communities, and organizations.

In 2000, the college began offering bachelor's degrees, and also completed a major addition and renovation project that more than doubled the size of the old barn.

Most recently, Woodbury received approval to offer a Master of Mediation and Applied Conflict Studies degree in 2005. Building on its 21-year history training mediators, this intensive, practice-based graduate program is designed to educate students specifically in the emerging field of mediation.