Student Essentials Drive

Three miles north of where Covenant Church meets for worship, up Glenoaks, sits one of the oldest colleges in Southern California.

Burbank has known it as Woodbury University. It began in 1884 as a business college in downtown Los Angeles, and moved to Burbank in 1987, onto the 22-acre campus it has occupied ever since. This July the school completed a merger with the University of Redlands that had been underway since 2024, and the campus is now the University of Redlands, Los Angeles. The Woodbury name continues in its schools of architecture, business, and design. The campus, its programs, and its students remain right where they have always been.

It is a small school. Fewer than a thousand students study across its four schools of business, architecture, liberal arts, and media and design, with roughly eight students for every faculty member. Most commute in from around the Valley. About a quarter live on campus, in two residence halls.

Fall classes begin on Monday, August 31. Covenant Church is aiming to be present on campus as students arrive before, during, and after that week. Our hope is to have all 24 baskets assembled before that first day, so that a student walking into a new room finds towels, a blanket, pens and notebooks, and some evidence that a church down the road is glad that they chose Burbank for education.

Covenant Church is on mission as a church of prayer, worship, and love for our city. That campus is part of our city. A laundry basket packed with ordinary things lets students know that we're thinking of them, praying for them, and inviting them to be a part of this growing church.