Stevenson University

Founding Stevenson University was founded in Maryland as Villa Julie College in 1947 by the Roman Catholic women's religious order Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur as a one-year school training women to become medical secretaries. The college was named for Saint Julie Billiart , foundress of the Sisters of Notre Dame. [ 4 ] Stevenson's Greenspring Valley campus is in the Green Spring Valley area within northwestern portion of Baltimore County . It is located on the 60-acre (240,000 m 2 ) former estate of the George Carroll Jenkins family. The estate's name was "Seven Oaks", [ 4 ] a reference to huge old oak trees planted on the property. They were thought to mark a traditional Lenni Lenape burial ground. One of these seven oaks still survived on campus until August 2007, when it was deemed potentially hazardous and cut down.

On October 28, 2000, Villa Julie College inaugurated its fourth president Kevin J. Manning , who succeeded Carolyn Manuszak. Under Manning, enrollment continued to increase and the demand for college-owned student housing intensified. The college broke ground on a second campus in Owings Mills in August 2003, opening it a year later. The Owings Mills campus included several major residence complexes. In 2006 Rockland Center, a new student union and dining hall, was completed. [ 4 ] The Caves Sports and Wellness Center also opened that same year. [ 4 ]

Undergraduate programs Stevenson offers over 90 majors, minors, tracks, and concentrations. All degree programs have a core curriculum in the liberal arts and a career emphasis. [ 6 ] In 2018, the university introduced five professional minors—Applied Management, Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development, Human Resources, Real Estate, and Software Design and Coding. [ 7 ] The school reported that 92 percent of graduates were employed or started graduate school within six months of graduation. [ 8 ] Traditional undergraduate students can also complete a master's degree program through the university's bachelor's to master's option, designed to allow completion of both degrees in five years.

Stevenson University Online, formerly the School of Graduate and Professional Studies, offers online master's, bachelor's, and certificate programs for working professionals. Admission is granted on a rolling basis, and courses are offered year-round in 8-week sessions. Areas of study include nursing and healthcare; forensics, cyber forensics, law, and criminal justice; business & technology management and business communications; community-based education and leadership; and STEM-focused teaching. [ 11 ]