About

Are You a Senator?

Students doing an activity on a bench
Diverse &

Engaged

Our mission at Davis & Elkins College is to produce critical thinkers and lifelong learners.

Why? Because those are the people who may try and fail, but they also can adapt and grow. The ones who press on until they succeed.

But success for its own sake is empty. Senators are value-driven. They value deep and meaningful relationships, seeking to understand one another across differences, the sanctity of truth and the beauty of the natural world.

senators represent:

Continents

Countries

States

Senators come from all over the nation and world to form genuine connections with one another and with faculty-mentors. Though all are unique, Senators share one thing in common: they believe more is possible for themselves and the world around them.

Do you believe … in you?

What It’s Like Being a D&E Senator

You Will Grow As a Leader

Our students actively improve our community – on campus and wherever they go in the world.

Students

Student Athletes

Acre Campus

Leading the Way is in the Senator DNA

The City of Elkins was built by two U.S. senators in the early 1900s.

Henry Gassaway Davis and his son-in-law, Stephen Benton Elkins, developed industry and the railroad lines that made it thrive. They also donated land and money to establish, in partnership with the Presbyterian Church, what would officially become Davis & Elkins College in 1904.

Meanwhile, Elkins was transforming itself from a town known for its coal and timber production to an arts community known for its celebration of the natural world. College and town evolved together. In 1926, D&E would move from its original location in south Elkins to its present location, a plot of land that includes Mrs. Hallie Davis Elkins’ home (Henry’s daughter and Stephen’s wife), Halliehurst. In 1941, the college would acquire Senator Davis’s historic summer home, Graceland, which today operates as an inn.

All of this has happened because two people – Davis and Elkins – applied their initiative and leadership ability to creating something new and ambitious. But their legacy is not the industry, the town or the college they built. Instead, the legacy of Davis & Elkins is the spirit of innovation they left behind. It’s the spirit that leaders channel to help people, improve communities and ultimately change the world.

It’s with that same spirit that D&E Senators are leading the way today. You will, too.

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