Russell Sage College (often Russell Sage or RSC) is a women's college located in Troy, New York, approximately 150 miles (240 km) north of New York City in the Capital District. RSC was founded in 1916 by Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage, a suffragist, as a "school of practical arts." She named the college after her husband, Russell, who was a Congressman from New York. With Eliza Kellas, head of the Emma Willard School, Mrs. Sage was active in the women's suffrage movement; in founding the new College, they proposed to offer women the means of independence through the combination of broad education in the liberal arts with preparation for specific professional careers. Initially, the college operated under the charter of the Emma Willard School, granting its first baccalaureate degree in 1918 and graduating its first class in 1920.