Sattler College
Sattler College is a private college in the US that associates itself with "the historic Christian faith."
Type
Private
2016
Hans Leaman
Zack Johnson
15 in 2023
93 in 2023
Urban office building 29,000+ ft2
The college aims to "equip Jesus’ peaceful revolution" through relational discipleship and academic excellence.[2] The school was founded (and funded) by Dr. Finny Kuruvilla (former research fellow at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT).
It welcomed its first class in the fall of 2018, received national accreditation in 2021, and graduated its first class in May of 2022. Projected external funding for the school is $30 million over the course of 25 years.[3] Its campus is in a high-rise office building in downtown Boston, overlooking the Charles River and Massachusetts State House.
Academics[edit]
Academic model[edit]
Classes are mostly discussion-based, with briefer lectures and greater student involvement.
Instead of having a library of their own, Sattler utilizes the Boston Public Library for its students. Sattler also provides electronic library resources by subscribing to the eBook services provided by two leading digital library service providers: Proquest (ebrary) and EBSCO."[9]
The college has announced that, "within ten years [by 2028], we plan to seek authorization to also offer programs in Civil Engineering, English, Education, Journalism, Mathematics, Physics, and Social Sciences."[9]
Religious affiliation[edit]
The college is named after Michael Sattler, a sixteenth-century Anabaptist Christian martyr.[12] Though the school is aligned with the theology of Conservative Anabaptism and is very closely connected to and associated with the local Followers of The Way (FOTW) church body. It is not affiliated with a particular denomination; Sattler College espouses principles from the early church and looks to the example of persecuted Christians.[1] Michael Sattler believed in the power of redemptive love and emulated the early church and Anabaptist groups by following Jesus's instruction to love one's enemies.[3]
Core values[edit]
One of Sattler College's self-proclaimed distinctives is its focus on "The Three C's": Core, Christian Character, and Cost.[13][14]
In setting the curriculum, Kuruvilla looked to the first US colleges such as Harvard and Yale, where the first students there had to show proficiency in Bible literature and languages.[15] In this spirit, students are required to take religion courses on Christianity.[11] These courses include learning Old Testament Hebrew and New Testament Greek, church history, and studying the basics of Christianity.[16]
Sattler also requires students to complete an extensive core curriculum based on the liberal arts, including writing, history, biology, and math, as well as their major subjects. The college also focuses on students' Christian development through "wise study, mentoring, and discipleship."[13]