Terrain V01 - Journal - Page 12
10 | Sterling College
...continued,
I was a Sterling College student in the
late 90’s, and graduated in the first cohort of Bachelor’s degree candidates
in the Spring of 2000. What I remember most of my time at Sterling was not
any singular experience or relationship
(though my wife, who was a student in
the class behind mine, may be a bit putout by that admission), but rather a feeling that occurred to me for the first time
while living in Craftsbury. It is a feeling
that remains as clear and vital to me now
as it did nearly a quarter-century ago. It
came to me most reliably each time I returned to campus, be it from a weekend
at my parent’s home outside Boston, or
simply from a brief getaway to the bright
lights of Burlington or Stowe. Cutting
up from Route 15, I’d follow North Wolcott Road out of the Lamoille Valley and
over the height of land to follow the Wild
Branch as it wound down past the cemetery and Dave Linck’s property. There,
at the T intersection with Route 14, I was
afforded a look out over the Black River
and up at the Common.
I’d always stop for a moment and let the
feeling sink in: up there, where woodsmoke rose from chimneys in winter,
and the church steeple pierced the sky,
was an institution that I’d become a part
of, that I’d allowed myself to be identified by, and chosen to identify with.
Photo: Will Freihofer
I’d look up at a community that spilled
over the hilltop and seeped into the
cornfields and woodlots, and I felt absolutely certain that I had become part
of something pertinent, and topical, and
focused on doing right. I had discovered place and purpose and had found
a group of people who shared that connection. Simple as it sounds, it felt wonderful. It made me proud.
In those moments of pause I manufactured at the end of North Wolcott Road
I looked up at a cluster of houses, a
spruce covered hillside, a church steeple, and a sturdy little college … and I
felt the potential for transformational
experience. Sterling provided me opportunity for engagement in work that was
necessary, that impacted my communities - human, plant, and animal. From an
educational standpoint, there is nothing
more valuable.
In his own moments of pause, in his own
reflections on Sterling, I’m sure Matthew
Derr sees something similar. I’d imagine
he too sees a container that holds all
the potential for transformational experience, but he also acknowledges the
fundamental necessity for that container. He sees Sterling - the college, institution, movement, cause – as a model of
what the world requires right now. As he
moves on to new roles and new projects,
his conviction is strong.
I asked him about this, about the constants that are the bedrock into which
change gradually etches its channels. I
asked him about his next steps. He was
on his phone, speaking from the vantage of an Airstream trailer parked in his
boyhood haunts near Lake Michigan. He
was quiet for a second. I could hear the
songbirds and the scuffly sound of the
wind. I wondered if perhaps, empowered
by the successes embedded in his years
at Sterling, refreshed from a Big Year
or two, he’d dip a toe back into higher
education. Of this he was again gentle but certain. “Look at the past presidents of Sterling … there is a common
theme. You don’t go on to other colleges.
You reach a point where Sterling becomes a distillation of what you believe
about education.”
This response, perhaps, says it all. A
small school perched on a hilltop in an
overlooked corner of Vermont has matured into something definitive, something essential, quite literally a vehicle
for global change. That is something for
which we can all be thankful; it is something of which we should all be proud.
Photo: Compliments of Reid Bryant
Reid Bryant ‘00
Reid graduated from Sterling with a degree in Outdoor Education in 2000, the
first year BA degrees were awarded by
the College. He went on to serve as a
Sterling trustee from 2005-2009. Reid
is a hunter, angler, writer, and adventurer. He serves as wing-shooting services
manager for the Orvis Company, and his
freelance work has appeared in Gray’s
Sporting Journal, Covey Rise Magazine,
and American Angler Magazine, among
others. You can also find Reid as the
host of The Orvis Hunting and Shooting
Podcast where he offers up tips for more
success and fun in the field. He lives with
his wife, Kim (Carr) Bryant ‘99, and their
two daughters in Dorset, Vermont.
At the October meeting of the Board
of Trustees, this fiduciary and governing
body honored Matthew’s contributions
and tenure as president by awarding him
the title President Emeritus as a means
to recognize his notable achievement.