Ravencrest University
The school got its start as a grant from the founder of the town on his death without heirs. He gave the manor house he had lived in to the city as long as it was used as a school. The college was mediocre at best, with bad management and nothing to make it noteworthy until 1911 when the administrator in place died in an accident and was replaced with, of all things, a woman. A woman who had a clear view of what her vision of the college (A school for young women up to then) needed to be.
A number of large financial grants were given to the school once this woman, who's origins are still obscure took over and the college expanded to become coed, and the classes and disciplines offered expanded greatly. Oddly, there is no portrait of the Miss Lakeland who was in charge of things as these things occurred.
Though it is acknowledged that she was the first driving force to make Ravencrest University a place where students could actually learn not only their chosen discipline, but how to apply that out in the world to be a success.
In 2011 Ravencrest University, though small and largely unknown to the general public, is a respected school that produces lawyers, engineers, artists of every kind, and is known to the movers and shakers in the world of business and politics as a prime spot for finding good candidates for jobs they wish to fill.
N.B. Information in this page extracted from Maggie Finson and EnemyOfFun's Guidelines document.