College of the Atlantic

Founded in 1969 by Mount Desert Island residents who wanted to sustain the island's economy through the quiet months, College of the Atlantic set out with a different premise than most schools: one field of study, human ecology, available as both a bachelor's and a master's degree. The campus sits on Frenchman Bay, with Acadia National Park as the working backyard. Two organic farms supply the dining hall. Two offshore lighthouses — Mount Desert Rock and Great Duck Island — function as field research stations, one a center for marine mammal study, the other a site for seabird research. The majority of the campus was purchased for one dollar from a seminary. This is a place built on deliberate choices, most of them unconventional, all of them traceable. Come because the education is inseparable from the place that holds it.