George Williams College (Downers Grove, Ill.)

The origins of George Williams College date back to the 1880s, when the YMCA established a series of week-long institutes to train men going into YMCA work. By that time Robert Weidensall, a YMCA leader who had been commissioned to develop the YMCA movement in the western sector of the United States had for several years been pressing for the idea of a permanent training institute that he envisioned would one day play the same role for YMCA professionals that law school played for those entering the profession of law and medical school for those desiring to practice medicine. Land was purchased on Geneva Lake in Wisconsin, on Williams Bay, a quiet area suitable for retreat, reflection, visioning, and planning. Known as the "Western Secretarial Institute," programs included special institutes for physical educators, run by Luther Gulick from the only other institution dedicated to the purpose of training YMCA workers, Springfield College in Massachusetts. There were also very popular student conferences, where college students who were tied to the YMCA (or YWCA) on their campuses would come for a week. Then, in 1890, when full-time YMCA work was becoming professional, requiring more intensive training, a year-round "Training School" was established under the same leadership. The new school was located in Chicago, Illinois and was greatly influenced in its human service mission by the social and educational changes going on in that rapidly growing, industrial city. While evangelism and "Christian work" was clearly at the heart of both the YMCA and the training school, the work of the association was never dissociated from a social service purpose. The service mission was one of sensitivity to problematic social situations young men faced as they migrated from the rural families and communities to an urban industrial environment.

Known at first as the Training School of the YMCA (1890-1896) and subsequently as the Secretarial Institute and Training School (SITS) (1896-1903), the Institute and Training School of the YMCA (ITS) (1903-1913), and the YMCA College or Association College (1913-1933), it was finally named George Williams College in 1933 in honor of the man who founded the YMCA movement in 1844. It continued to maintain the Williams Bay campus in the Lake Geneva area, which was used for its educational purposes as well as for outside groups. By the 1930s, the college was a national center for the development of group work as a profession. It was also an early pioneer in the idea of holistic health, with the integration of body, mind and spirit that was key concept within the YMCA movement.

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