Vanguard University of Southern California

Vanguard University is a private, Christian, comprehensive university of liberal arts and professional studies equipping students for a Spirit-empowered life of Christ-centered leadership and service. Since 2010, the U.S. News & World Report has ranked Vanguard in the top 10 among the best baccalaureate colleges in the west in their rankings of colleges and universities and The Princeton Review named VU a 2014 "Best in the West" College. Vanguard is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). The vision that guides the VUSC community is rooted in the University's heritage as an institution of the Pentecostal tradition which was birthed out of the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles, California, at the turn of the twentieth century. From its inception, the movement generated a multicultural, multiracial, and gender-inclusive community of Spirit-empowered Christian believers who were committed to peacemaking and reconciliation. With global consciousness, these foremothers and forefathers of a renewed Christian faith carried the good news of the gospel around the world. A strong commitment to cultural diversity, racial reconciliation, and gender equality is a consequence of VUSC being deeply grounded in the faith tradition that brought the University into existence. Moreover, these core values continue to define the institutional vision that pulls the VUSC community forward toward its mission and educational targets and goals. Within this Christian context of inclusiveness, the University aims to provide a quality educational experience by cultivating the Spirit-empowered life in Christian experience and service; promoting academic excellence that integrates faith and life; and providing professor-mentors in a dynamic community environment.