President’s Welcome
Centre College offers students a world of opportunities, and one that might best be characterized as an adventure, highlighted by one of the nation’s premier study-abroad programs and a record of postgraduate success.
Over the last decade, an average 85 percent of students studied abroad at least once during their four years at Centre. And over the last five years, an average 98 percent of graduates are employed or pursuing advanced degrees within a year of graduation.
Prestigious fellowships are also won on a regular basis. Eight Rhodes Scholars, 12 Goldwater winners, three Gates Cambridge recipients, three Truman Scholars (including one in 2022), and the College's first Boren scholar highlight Centre’s stellar academic achievements. Five Rotary awards for international postgraduate study have also been won since the award's inception in 2014, and Centre is consistently among the nation’s top Fulbright producers.
All of Centre’s graduates are accomplished people positioned to be citizen-leaders in whatever work they might choose, given our strong commitment to career and professional readiness.
For educational adventure, we offer 15 permanent, semester-long residential study-abroad programs in Bhutan, China, England (three options), France (two options), Germany, Japan (two options), Mexico (two options), Northern Ireland (several options), Scotland, and Spain. Shorter three-week programs in January, or summer study, explore an ever-increasing number of countries: Argentina, Austria, Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, Borneo, Cameroon, Czech Republic, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Egypt, England, France, Ghana, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Panama, Peru, Rwanda, Spain, Thailand, and Uganda.
A semester-long study-away program in Washington, D.C. includes internship components. We also have new study-away programs in New York City and Lake Tahoe, California.
The Centre Experience includes study abroad for all, participation in hands-on research or internships locally and around the world, and the chance to engage with alumni and industry leaders in Career Exploration Communities. Our 10:1 student-faculty ratio means students receive personal support and engagement. With more than 50 majors, minors, pre-professional, and dual-degree programs, students can find their passion from business to pre-med, psychology to history, and Chinese to data science.
Career readiness is an integral part of a Centre education, and an impressive 89 percent of recent graduates participated in either an internship and/or an undergraduate research experience, opportunities that have helped students find their first post-graduation jobs or entrance into an ideal graduate program, law school, or medical school.
These opportunities take place during the academic year and in the summer. In a recent summer, for instance, many of our students were off campus for internships (traveling to 18 states and Washington, D.C., as well as to 12 countries), while others were on campus for local internships, collaborative research projects, or service programs. Those abroad interned in China, Czech Republic, England, France, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Japan, Myanmar, South Africa, and Thailand.
Those on campus conducted internships here in the Bluegrass in areas such as banking and finance, medicine, law, business, nonprofits, and the arts. Others conducted collaborative research with faculty in many different areas, including art history, behavioral neuroscience, biology, chemistry, Chinese, economics, environmental studies, music, physics, and religion, just to name a few.
A place of high achievement as well as high opportunity, Centre’s exceptional commitment to remaining affordable is made possible in part by legions of devoted alumni. For over three decades, more than half of living alumni have made an annual gift to the College. Parent and senior class gifts have consistently exceeded the 40 percent mark.
Centre’s three premier scholarships (Brown, Grissom, and Lincoln) all cover full tuition or better, and the College’s current annual institutional aid budget is just over $41 million. This includes support for two cohorts of Posse Scholars, 60 Bonner Scholars and Leaders, and New Horizon Scholars, programs all focused on Centre's commitment to inclusive excellence.
Finally, I would say that Centre is also a place where important conversations take place in and out of the classroom. Centre’s Norton Center for the Arts has twice hosted a Vice Presidential Debate. The Norton Center and Centre events have also featured visits by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Ibram X. Kendi, Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, the Blue Man Group, Alison Krauss and Union Station, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed, New York Times columnist David Brooks, and the late Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, to name a few.
Our brand-new and recently upgraded athletic facilities are remarkable, with new fields or facilities for baseball, football, men’s and women’s soccer, field hockey, softball, and lacrosse, indoor and outdoor facilities for track and field, including a 200-meter indoor track, an aquatics center with an Olympic-size pool, an upgraded gym for basketball and volleyball, and a multi-purpose field house. Home to 25 NCAA Division III men’s and women’s sports teams, Centre teams compete successfully for conference and national titles, and our new facilities make participating and watching these competitions even more exciting.
At Centre, students can follow their interests and explore activities they love while also discovering new and unexpected paths.
Our trustees, faculty, staff, and current students are all committed to a campus culture characterized by hard work, play, accomplishment, and kindness. Come join us for this educational adventure we call the Centre Experience.
My best,
Milton C. Moreland
President