Vassar and the community are inseparable
Poughkeepsie, the Arlington neighborhood, and Dutchess County are home to Vassar College. This is where our students spend four significant years of their lives. It's where our neighbors and employees live, work, raise families, and serve the community.
Historically, Vassar has emphasized to its students the importance of learning beyond the classroom and the laboratory: since 1949 our Field Work office has helped students earn credit for this “experiential” learning, and in turn has contributed their skills to hundreds of local agencies and organizations. Likewise, we encourage the public to take advantage of the resources that the college has to offer, to walk amidst thousands of trees, to use our library, museums, and observatory, and choose from any one of hundreds of free concerts, lectures, exhibitions, and sporting events.
Whether you are a member of the Vassar community or a part of the larger neighborhood, we hope this website helps you participate in more of what we make possible together.
There are many ways for students to connect with Poughkeepsie and the surrounding community. For example...
For Academic Credit
Field Work
Courses
- Poughkeepsie Institute
- Green Haven Prison Program
- Democratic Engagement
- Adolescent Literacy
Other
- Exploring Science at Vassar Farm
- Middle School Tutoring (VAST)
- HHMI Science Education Internship
- Sistah Power
- ESL Tutoring Program
- Urban Education Initiative
Volunteer
- Community Action
- Vassar Student Association (VSA)
Community Service Work Study
Summer Programs
- Community Fellows
Projects
- Campus-Community Advisory Committee
- Community Works Fundraising Campaign
- Good Neighbors Partnerships
- Committee on Sustainability
- Science Scholars Program
- Digital Tour of Poughkeepsie
- Vassar Haiti Project
Community Partners
Some of the many organizations that work with Vassar students and employees
- Catharine Street Community Center
- Children’s Media Project
- Dutchess County Historical Society
- Dutchess Outreach
- Family Partnership Center
- Grace Smith House
- Hudson River Housing
- New Horizons Resources
- Rural and Migrant Ministry
- Hudson River Health Care
- Poughkeepsie Farm Project
- Poughkeepsie Middle School
- Poughkeepsie High School
- Dutchess County YMCA
- Battered Women’s Services
- Arlington Business Improvement District
- John Flowers Projects
- Real Skills, Inc.