Middlebury College, the highly rated liberal arts educational institution in Vermont, has opened the new Anderson Freeman Resource Center for serving the needs of students from underrepresented groups. The center located in Carr Hall on campus offers a computer lab, study rooms, social space, and counseling services.
Roberto Lint Sagarena, director of the center, says that ““we hope the center will be a home base for students who are adjusting to life at Middlebury. It would be easy to assume that, because a student is talented enough to be accepted to Middlebury, everything falls into place once they arrive. But we know that’s not always the case and we need to provide extra support for students to achieve their academic and personal goals.”
The center is named after two early Black graduates of Middlebury College. Mary Annette Anderson was valedictorian of the Class of 1889 and the first woman of color to graduate from Middlebury. The daughter of a former slave, Anderson taught at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
Martin Henry Freeman graduated from Middlebury in 1849. He later was president of the all-Black Allegheny Institute (later Avery College), in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Later in life, Freeman moved to Liberia and taught mathematics and served as president of the Liberia College in Monrovia.
