Southern Vermont College is a private, four-year liberal arts college located on the 371-acre (1.50 km2) former Edward Everett Estate near Bennington, Vermont in the southwestern corner of the state bordering New York and Massachusetts. Southern Vermont College was founded in 1926 as St. Joseph Business School, an institution offering certificates of proficiency in secretarial accounting, finance, shorthand and typewriting. "Southern Vermont College is a private, four-year liberal arts college. Southern Vermont College was founded in 1926 as St. Joseph Business School, an institution offering certificates of proficiency in secretarial accounting, finance, shorthand and typewriting. Eleven students were in the first graduating class. In 1962, it became an accredited junior college, St. Joseph College, awarding associate degrees in business and secretarial science.Twelve years later, in 1974, the school moved to its current location on the Everett Estate and became Southern Vermont College, a nonsectarian liberal arts college offering a career-directed curriculum."