Berea Computer Science alumn here. Ask me anything. I grew up in Appalachia (pronounced "app-uh-lai-cha" by us), and have to say Berea was a godsend. I was luc

Berea Computer Science alumn here. Ask me anything. I grew up in Appalachia (pronounced "app-uh-lai-cha" by us), and have to say Berea was a godsend. I was lucky to start as desktop support and move on to a network engineer later. The labor program is probably the only reason why I became a somewhat competent programmer out of college, since I was writing "production" code before having my first real full time job. You can read more about the labor program here[1] The college is very particular about your time there, since it's free and all, so your first year you're not allowed to have a car on campus, enter the opposite sex's dorm rooms, and (in some cases) you're tasked with a job that you may or may not like. Some of this may or may not have changed in the past 10 years. Most people hear this and think, "that's crazy," as I did at the time, but as I've grown older -- I've grown to appreciate it. Another interesting thing is how forward thinking the community is in the town of Berea. Kentucky isn't the friendliest for being a moderate or liberal, but (I would say) Berea is probably the friendliest community I've ever been apart of. It's a place where you can having engaging discussions and make friends at local establishments (BC&T[2] being my favorite). With regards to the article, the endowment, and replicating the model -- it would be hard. The college runs itself efficiently while maintaining a high quality of education and student services. Replicating this model elsewhere would mean cutting many staff, removing the luxuries that many people enjoy and most likely lowering salaries. Lower salaries work in Berea because the cost of living is so low; however, that's not the case in many areas and no one is going to volunteer themselves for a salary cut. The labor program has a lot of infrastructure around it (payroll, staff, processing incoming students) that would be hard to replicate. I think existing universities would have to run a program within or alongside their work-study programs and grow it overtime. 1 - https://www.berea.edu/labor-program-office/a-guide-to-the-labor-program/ https://www.berea.edu/labor-program-office/a-guide-to-the-la... 2 - https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g39187-d2225795-Reviews-Berea_Coffee_Tea-Berea_Kentucky.html https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g39187-d222579... ( Seems that they don't have a website )