Doane College is a private liberal arts college in Crete, Nebraska, United States, with additional campuses located in Lincoln and Grand Island. The history of Doane College dates from 1857, when the General Association of Congregational Churches, in its first annual meeting in Fremont, Nebraska, resolved to lay the foundations of a literary institution of a high order in the state. Fourteen years later, and after several unsuccessful attempts to establish Congregational schools across the state, an academy was founded in Crete on May 22, 1871. The efforts of the local Congregational pastor and Thomas Doane, chief civil engineer for the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad, were instrumental in advancing the idea of the Academy. On July 11, 1872, Doane College preempted the old Crete Academy. Doane College is the first liberal arts and sciences college in Nebraska. The college has had 55 Fulbright Scholars since the program began in 1946. The enrollment consists of over 1,000 undergraduate students on the Crete campus, as well as 750 adult learners and 1,200 graduate students who attend the Lincoln and Grand Island campuses.