Американың Пенсильвания штатындағы Албрайт Колледжі

Private college in Reading, Pennsylvania, U. S.

Albright College is a private liberal arts college in Reading, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1856.

Albright College traces its founding to 1856 when Union Seminary opened. Present day Albright was formed by the mergers of several institutions: Albright Collegiate Institute, Central Pennsylvania College, and Schuylkill College. Albright Collegiate Institute opened in 1895 and was renamed Albright College three years later. Union Seminary, meanwhile, became Central Pennsylvania College in 1887 and merged with Albright College in 1902. Schuylkill Seminary, the third institution, was founded in 1881, became Schuylkill College in 1923, and merged into Albright in 1928. Albright's campus relocated from Myerstown, to Schuylkill College's campus, which is the present location of Albright, at the base of Mount Penn in Reading. The college is named for Pennsylvania German evangelical preacher Jacob Albright, who founded the Evangelical Association (later known as the Evangelical United Brethren Church). Born in 1759 in Douglass Township, (now Montgomery County) with the given name of Johannes Jacob Albrecht, the family changed their surname to "Albright" following Jacob's 1808 death. The theatre program has been honored by the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival consistently for many years. Albright's Domino Players Company has been invited to perform at the Region II KCACTF Festival 10 times in the last 18 years (2004, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019 and 2020). At the National Conference held every April in Washington DC, Albright's theatre program has garnered dozens of awards for distinguished work in performance, direction, dramaturgy, scenic, sound, costume, and lighting design. Acclaimed productions of “Waiting for Godot” (2007), “Clybourne Park” (2016), “A Raisin in the Sun” (2018) have also been named “Outstanding Production of a Play” – recognizing them as the best college production of their years. “A Raisin in the Sun” also received eight other national awards, for distinguished performance, scenic and lighting design, director and performances. Graduates of the program have gone on to graduate study at such schools as Yale, NYU, Brown, Columbia, Villanova, UArts/Pig Iron, SCAD, UMass Amherst, University of Minnesota, and CalArts, and have distinguished themselves with work on Broadway, in Hollywood, and in theatres and opera houses across the globe. The Albright Creative Research Experience (ACRE) is a multi disciplinary program that affords undergraduate students the opportunity to conduct research or pursue creative endeavors during the three week January Interim or summer break. The students, who work one on one with faculty members, can be from any discipline, from STEM subjects to the humanities. For 2024, U. S. News & World Report ranked the college tied at #146 out of 211 in National Liberal Arts Colleges and tied at #31 in Top Performers on Social Mobility. In 2018, U. S. News ranked Albright 33rd out of 208 national liberal arts colleges in the "Campus Ethnic Diversity" category, and in the "Economic Diversity" category, Albright ranked 27th out of 210 national liberal arts schools. The Economist magazine listed Albright among the top 50 American colleges and universities for economic value in 2015.

Albright College athletic teams compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III as a member of the Middle Atlantic Conferences. Charles "Pop" Kelchner founded the men's basketball team in 1900 and was athletic director at Albright College for 21 years. He was involved in aspects of Major League Baseball for over 50 years. Albright College dedicated the baseball field as Kelchner Field in 1952. Branch Rickey gave the dedication speech, with Connie Mack in attendance. Kelchner was a graduate of Lafayette College with two degrees and was proficient in German, French, Italian, Spanish, Classical Latin and Greek. He served as Professor of Languages and athletic director. Doggie Julian was the head football coach at Albright from 1929 to 1930. Clarence Lester "Biggie" Munn was the head football coach at Albright College from 1935 to 1936, before coaching Syracuse University (1946), and most notably Michigan State College (1947–1953), where his 1952 squad won a national championship. William "Lone Star" Dietz was the director of athletics and head football coach at Albright from 1937 to 1942. Dietz led the football team to their first undefeated season in 1937. He previously led Washington State to 1916 Rose Bowl victory. In the National Football League, Dietz had coached the Boston "Redskins" (1933–1934), the forerunner of the Washington Commanders. Dietz is in the Albright College Athletic Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame. In 1948, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) and Albright College played the first intercollegiate football game between an Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) institution and a majority white institution. The Philadelphia Eagles held pre season training camp at Albright from 1968 through 1972. Dr. Wilbur G. Renken was athletic director and basketball head coach for 38 consecutive seasons. A highly regarded figure in collegiate athletics in general and specifically basketball, Renken was the president of the United States Olympic Basketball Team Selection Committee for the 1976 Olympic Games. He also served as the president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) in 1979–1980. On October 11, 2017, sophomore backup quarterback Gyree Durante was dismissed from the football team for kneeling during the national anthem before the team's game against Delaware Valley University, going against a collective team decision made before the game to kneel for the coin toss and stand for the anthem. President Fetrow later offered reinstatement to the team to Durante (and two other players who did not fully kneel during the coin toss), saying that further review of the details surrounding the game's events found that "what we understood to be shared agreement among players, student leaders and coaches has not been adequately supported.”. Durante, however, declined reinstatement, citing his former teammates' stated lack of trust in him.

Albright's campus radio station, WXAC 91.3 FM is a student operated college radio station. The initial call name was WALC, but was later changed to WXAC on March 8, 1965. WALC had been the same call name for the Alcoa Steamship Lines.