Phone +1 530-422-7950 | Founded 1978 | |
Address 20601 W Paoli Ln, Weimar, CA 95736, USA | ||
Weimar Institute, formerly known as Weimar Center of Health & Education, is a private educational and health care institution in Weimar, California, which operates a health care center and an unaccredited high school and college. It highlights traditional Seventh-day Adventist principles of health and education, especially as espoused by early Seventh-day Adventist founder Ellen G. White, who wrote extensively on health and education. Although founded by Adventists, it has never been legally affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
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1981 weimar institute campus
History
Weimar Institute is located on the property formerly occupied by the Weimar Joint Sanatorium (AKA Weimar Chest Center and Weimar Medical Center), which operated from 1919 to 1972. Following the closure, the property changed hands several times and in 1975 it reopened as Hope Village, a temporary relocation center for Vietnamese refugees.
In May 1977, a group of Seventh-day Adventists purchased the 457 acres (1.85 km2). In 1978 it was registered as the nonprofit organization, Weimar Institute of Health & Education, and Weimar College was opened. In 1981 Weimar Academy was established as a private four-year Christian boarding high school.
In early 2008, Weimar Institute announced that it would close Weimar College at the end of June 2008. Later that year, however, the institute merged with Amazing Facts and a combined board was established to oversee the operations of Weimar Institute and its divisions. An announcement stated:
"After two years of heartfelt prayer, study, discussion, and observing the leading of the Lord, Amazing Facts and Weimar Institute voted on April 6, 2008 to proceed with a bold new joint venture. Their respective boards approved an agreement whereby the operations of Weimar Institute will be administered by Amazing Facts with a new board of directors providing direction to both ministries."Subsequent to the decision to jointly operate Weimar, it was realized that operating a college, academy, and lifestyle center required a quite different focus than operating a media ministry and that Amazing Facts and Weimar Institute would be better served to operate cooperatively, but separately and the two separated amicably. Amazing Facts and Weimar Institute continue to work cooperatively..
A long-term focus of Weimar has been the NEWSTART Program. The NEWSTART Program is part of Weimar's health care program and is primarily focused on lifestyle based crisis intervention and training for recovery from diabetes and life-threatening heart problems. NEWSTART is an acronym and stands for Nutrition, Exercise, Water, Sunlight, Temperance, Air, Rest, and Trust (in Divine Power).
Weimar College
In 1978, Weimar College opened on the semester system. It now offers a BA in Religion, BA in Christian Education, BS in Natural Sciences, BS and BA in General Education, AS in Nursing, and Certificates in Health, Medical Assisting and Massage & Hydrotherapy. As of February 2017, Weimar College has received accreditation candidacy from WASCUS accrediting body but is not yet fully accredited. The college does have approval from the California Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education, but this is not the same as accreditation. However, Weimar College Academic Bulletin describes an affiliation with Griggs University, a Seventh-day Adventist distance learning institution accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council. According to the Adventist Review, credit earned by Griggs courses at Weimar appear on Griggs University transcripts. Weimar College reports that it is actively pursuing full accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.
Associate Degree in Nursing program
On May 18, 2011, the college requested a study of the feasibility of starting an Associate Degree Nursing program. It has a state-approved pre-nursing program and started an associate's degree program in nursing that began in Fall 2015, with state approval from the California Board of Registered Nursing.