The School of Continuing and Professional Studies celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. The University of Virginia established the School — originally called the Bureau of Extension — in 1915 under the supervision of then-President Edwin Alderman.
James Baker, senior director of academic partnerships and community programs at the School of Continuing and Professional Studies, said the School's mission has developed since its inception.
“[The School] is an embodiment of how a public university can serve audiences outside the walls of the Grounds,” Baker said. “We immediately, within several years, established centers in the 1920s, all across the state, in locations where people are still being served.”
The University set up an exhibit earlier this year in the Special Collections Library entitled “Continuing Education at U.Va.: Early Service to Women and African Americans” to showcase the historical efforts of the School to bring the benefits of the University to more isolated racial and gender populations in the early 20th century.
Specifically, the exhibit focused on various movements run by the former Bureau of Extension such as the Bureau of Citizenship — which served to educate women on their newly gained suffrage and empower them as voting citizens — in the 1920s.
The School focuses today on helping people advance and develop their careers with locations both at the University and throughout Virginia — notably in Roanoke, Falls Church and Hampton Roads.
“We often have hit some underserved populations, many of the folks that we serve in our degree completion programs especially, are individuals who didn’t follow a linear path through college,” Baker said. “In many cases there were issues including starting a family or taking care of family members or career changes that have intervened.”
The School offers a degree completion program that allows working men and women to finish their undergraduate education as well as more than twenty certificate programs on subjects ranging from accounting to project management. All of these programs are designed to give people the skills necessary to move up in the work force.
“We are trying to reach out to people to make the University of Virginia an option for them as they look toward their career development and personal and professional goals,” Baker said.
As the School of Continuing and Professional Studies enters its second century of operations it has in part shifted its focus to online education. Many of the School’s certificate degree programs are offered completely online and reach people across the nation.
“We really will be focused on career advancement and serving the needs of the public off-Grounds,” Baker said. “We want to reach out to alumni, we want to reach out to audiences across the Commonwealth, and increasingly in online programs, across the country to give them the skills they need to remain competitive in the workplace.”
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