Barat College has called Lake Forest home for almost 100 years.

Founded by the order of the Sacred Heart as a women’s academy in 1858, Barat relocated to its bucolic setting off Westleigh Road in 1904. In the early 1970s, it expanded its reach to include non-traditional age students -- mostly north suburban mothers wanting to finish their college educations. Male students were admitted in 1982. Today, students at the Barat Campus hail from as far away as South Africa, Poland and Vietnam.

Through all the changes, Barat College has retained an intimate environment and charm that makes it a long-lasting gem for the city of Lake Forest. And the future only looks brighter.

Earlier this year, Barat formed an educational alliance with DePaul University in a way that preserved Barat's identity while furthering DePaul's desire to serve the higher education demands of the North Shore. Thanks to the alliance, $6.2 million in campus improvements were executed this summer that dazzled students returning to campus this fall. Along with new paint, carpeting, furniture, a new elevator and water heater, campus renovations include upgraded technology in the classrooms, Internet connections and cable TV in every residence hall room.

But that's just the beginning. Beginning next fall, the Barat College curriculum will feature four newly designed multidisciplinary majors and will bring to Lake Forest seven degrees from DePaul’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. In all, the Illinois Board of Higher Education recently approved 15 new academic programs that DePaul may offer in Lake County.

“We are bringing DePaul into the back yard of students in Lake County, a market where we will have a much stronger presence than before,” said Raymond Kennelly, DePaul’s associate vice president for enrollment management. “This provides the best of both worlds for students interested in a small campus who also will have all the resources of the largest Catholic university in the country available to them.”