Life Outside Class
A Great Community and a Great Education
Studying together for a quarter, or two, or even a year at Evergreen with the same group of students and faculty creates special communities and friendships.
Since you see each other all the time and share common interests, you'll build camaraderie with other students in your program. Working with each other in pairs or small groups for seminar discussions, labs or workshops creates even more opportunities to develop friendships and exchange ideas.
Outside of class, students hang out together - since you're thinking about the same questions and problems and reading the same things, conversations start at parties, in housing, when hiking or going to the grocery store. A lot of the most important learning at Evergreen happens with friends from your program at moments that aren't on the schedule.
Find out more about life at Evergreen
Athletics and Recreation
Evergreen's state of the art recreation center features a fantastic pool, gymnasium, racquetball and handball courts, climbing wall, exercise and dance rooms and a lot more. It's also the home of the Geoduck soccer, basketball, cross country and volleyball teams.
The Bookstore
Evergreen's Bookstore is different. You can buy your textbooks online and pick them up or have them delivered to your home. Plus, it's got the largest selection of Geoduck gear anywhere!
The Campus
Evergreen is situated on over 1,000 acres of forest with 3,300 feet of unspoiled beach on Washington's Puget Sound, just outside downtown Olympia. Visit the Campus Tour to learn more about unique campus facilities and features.
Community-Based Learning and Action (CCBLA)
The Center for Community -Based Learning and Action (CCBLA) supports the partnership of academic programs, students, and faculty, with community organizations. We aim to meet mutually agreed upon community needs to strengthen and enhance student learning through critical engagement.
Dining Choices
A variety of meal plans let you choose where you eat on campus. The Greenery, Evergreen's full service dining hall in the Campus Activities Building (CAB), has a wide variety of options including regular vegetarian offerings. The Market, also in the CAB, offers sandwiches, pizza, a burrito bar and more. Other cafes are located in housing and in Seminar II. And after your first year, apartments with kitchens are available.
Library & Media Services
Computers and media equipment are available through a variety of labs. The library's unique media loan system provides audio/video and photographic equipment and training for students, faculty and staff. Evergreen students check out half again as many books per student as undergraduates at the University of Washington; combining the college's catalog with those of sixteen other Northwest colleges and universities means you can request books from a 16 million volume collection and have them delivered by courier for you to use in a few days.
Performing & Media Arts
Evergreen's curriculum and facilities offer students unique opportunities to study across disciplines in the performing and media arts. The work of visiting artists as well as student-originated productions are presented throughout the year.
Residential and Dining Services
About 1,000 students live on campus, with a choice of spaces from single rooms to apartment suites. You're a few minutes from classes and your front lawn is the playing fields, plus over 1,000 acres of forest with trails and a half-mile beach stretch out around campus.
Student Activities
More than fifty student organizations are funded by an unusual all student Board completely in charge of allocating the $1.5 million in student activities fees each year.
Student Media
KAOS, the college's 1,500 watt community FM station, reaches all of southwest Washington; the Cooper Point Journal student newspaper comes out weekly; and annual publications include a literary and visual arts magazine (Slightly West), a literary magazine edited by the students of color, a yearly music CD produced by students in Evergreen's audio studios, and various zines.
Visual & Environmental Arts
Our curriculum allows students on contracts or doing a senior thesis to produce a significant body of work, and the Evergreen Galleries feature student shows as well as special exhibitions. Programs often do brief, collaborative year-end shows in other spaces too.
About Olympia
Explore the area: more about Olympia and the surrounding area.