Oberlin, Ohio

When I arrived as a freshman, Oberlin seemed to me the ideal small college town. Located 35 miles from Cleveland, the town got its start in 1833 as a utopian community based on the ideals of “learning and labor,” served as a stop on the Underground Railroad, and has maybe two traffic lights. Oberlin the college offers co-ed dorm bathrooms, globalization protestors, and an environmental studies building that treats and recycles its own wastewater. The college also has a late example of a Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian house, an excellent art collection in a museum designed by Cass Gilbert, and a world-class music conservatory in which to spot the next Denyce Graves (class of 1985).

But all that’s just the college prospectus-y stuff. I remember Oberlin for the timeless grace of ivy on the red brick of my dorm, the warmth of autumn light on the trees of Tappan Square, and the energy of young people impatient to change the world.

—Amy Alipio

Amy Alipio is a Traveler assistant editor.