New Brunswick Theological Seminary is a Reformed Christian seminary with its main campus in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It was founded in 1784 and is one of the oldest seminaries in the United States. It is a seminary of the Reformed Church in America (RCA), a mainline Reformed Protestant denomination in Canada and the United States that follows the theological tradition and Christian practice of John Calvin. First established in New York City under the leadership of the Rev. John Henry Livingston, who instructed aspiring ministers in his home, the seminary established its presence in New Brunswick in 1810. Although a separate institution, the seminary's early development in New Brunswick was closely connected with that of Rutgers University (formerly Queen's College and Rutgers College) before establishing its own campus in the city in 1856. Since 1986, the seminary has also offered classes at a satellite location on the grounds of St. John's University in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, New York. New Brunswick Theological Seminary offers professional and graduate degree programs (Masters and Doctoral) to candidates for ministry and to those pursuing careers in academia or non-theological fields. It also offers certificates and training programs to lay church leaders seeking advanced courses in Theological Studies or Church Leadership. While rooted in the Reformed faith, New Brunswick Theological Seminary is dedicated to providing a comprehensive Christian education as "an inter-cultural, ecumenical school of Christian faith, learning, and scholarship committed to its metro-urban and global contexts". As of the fall semester of 2012, the seminary enrolled 197 students. History Establishment and early history (1784–1810) The Dutch Reformed Synod of New York recognized that there was a shortage of adequately trained ministers to supply the church’s congregations in the British American colonies. Young men had to journey to the Netherlands to pursue several years of theological studies at a Dutch university. Church leaders sought to obtain the right to examine and ordain ministers in the colonies (later in the United States), and to operate a school to train them. In 1766, several clergymen secured a charter from New Jersey's Royal Governor William Franklin for the creation of Queen's College, now Rutgers University, in New Brunswick, New Jersey "for the education of youth in the learned languages, liberal and useful arts and sciences, and especially in divinity; preparing them for the ministry and other good offices." However, in these early years, the trustees of