The newly published book 《近乎奇迹》《佛蒙特社区学院不可能的故事》 is the half-century history of a college that genuinely grew out of communities — and in the process may have found a key to making higher education more relevant and accessible to many more people.

“当你思考高等教育的未来时，”CCV主席乔伊斯·朱迪（Joyce Judy）在弗吉尼亚州韦布里奇（Weybridge）作家道格·威廉（Doug Wilhelm）的第19本书中写道，“它不是坐着等着别人来找你。 它伸出援手，提供途径。”

That”s the core, says 真是个奇迹, of what CCV has been doing since it was first created in 1970 as a college without a campus, offering courses that in the beginning were tuition-free, taught by volunteer teachers in communities around the state. 其目的是为那些无法前往或负担不起传统大学的成年人提供高等教育。

当时，在成熟的高等教育界，几乎没有人认为这种极不寻常的方法会奏效。 然而，CCV今天作为一所社区学院蓬勃发展，仍然没有中心校区，没有全职教师，课堂上聚集了年龄和生活经历各异的学生。

“Doug Wilhelm”s 真是个奇迹 is perhaps less a story about how the Community College of Vermont came to be,” writes Emerson Lynn, longtime editor and publisher of the 圣奥尔本信使, in the book”s introduction, “than it is about the power of people who refused to give up — people whose thirst to turn the educational model upside down could not be quenched, and people who prevailed when all others told them they were wrong, or they did not belong.”

The author, a former Vermont reporter for the 波士顿环球报, tells much of CCV”s story through the words of people who were part of it, with extended quotes accompanying the narrative in “oral history” style. 简短的简介让人想起色彩缤纷的关键人物，在学院为生存和赢得尊重而进行的长期斗争中，有一些场景是至关重要的。

还有一些幽默，比如刚出生的伯瑞特伯勒大学的第一位协调员回忆与当地商会的会面：

“最后，主席说，‘你想要信任票吗？”

“是的,先生。

“‘好吧，你没拿到。””

如今的社区学院拥有佛蒙特州第二大的学生人数和最便宜的学费，赢得了人们的信心。 It even presents a model, 真是个奇迹 suggests, for how higher education today can reinvent itself to meet the steep challenges it faces.

“I think the future of higher education looks more like CCV than it does like traditional institutions,” observes Tim Donovan, former CCV president and former chancellor of the Vermont State Colleges, in 真是个奇迹.

他解释说，社区学院“从不认为上学是学生生活的决定性因素。 You have to make college fit into 他们的 defining elements. 这些可能是地理上的，可能是经济上的，可能是家庭上的，也可能是工作上的。”

Published by Long Stride Books of Middlebury, 真是个奇迹 is available through Vermont booksellers and online retailers. For more information, visit longstridebooks.com.