Barnard College is devoted to empowering young women to pursue their passions. Located in the heart of upper Manhattan, Barnard became the first college in New York City to offer degrees to women in 1889. Since then, generations of Barnard women have challenged themselves and one another to redefine—and keep redefining—what it means to be a woman, a scholar, an activist, and a leader.

Four strategic Institutional Areas of Focus guide life at Barnard:

  • STEM as a Critical Component of the Liberal Arts: Long a leader in promoting equity and increasing the number of women in STEM fields, Barnard is deepening its commitment to classical STEM fields and cross-disciplinary sciences.
  • Health and Wellness: By uniting initiatives that address the many dimensions of student health and wellness—physical, mental, and financial—Barnard provides holistic well-being support that propels success inside and outside the classroom.
  • Social Mobility and Access: From its founding, Barnard has been committed to recruiting a diverse class (in terms of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic background and from historically underrepresented groups) and provide resources to support student success.
  • Lifelong Success: Beyond Barnard is an integrated office for the career preparation and advancement of women in academia, industry, nonprofits, the arts, and government.

The office of Community Engagement & Inclusion unites community engagement efforts. The idea is to consolidate, coordinate, and promote current activities while also seeking out new opportunities that will allow Barnard College and its students to expand sustained community engagement efforts.

Barnard’s urban location provides infinite learning and engagement opportunities beyond the classroom. Students can engage with their community in a variety of ways:

  • STEAM in the City: Designed to guide K-8 teachers in the Harlem and Morningside Heights neighborhoods in building a science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics (STEAM) curriculum that leverages the city’s parks and public spaces as environmental and design learning sites.
  • Volunteer Engagement: CE&I provides opportunities to collaborate on current, local ongoing projects that are connected to a community identified need, individual, group, or community.
  • The Harlem Semester: Pairing faculty from Barnard and other colleges with Harlem-Based institutions, these place-based courses teach Harlem’s diverse cultural and political legacy through participatory, interdisciplinary, multi-directional learning modules.

At Barnard, New York City is a classroom. With one of the world’s most diverse and culturally rich urban environments at Barnard’s doorstep, faculty and students use the city to highlight ideas and test thinking in the real world.

Join us in welcoming Barnard College to the CUMU membership.