Brewton-Parker College pleased with Top 20 recognition for ethnic diversity on campus

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An ethnically diverse women's wrestling team poses for a photo on the Brewton-Parker campus in 2019.



By ROGER ALFORD
The Christian Index

MOUNT VERNON, Ga. – A small Baptist college in southern Georgia ranks big nationally in terms of ethnic diversity.

Brewton-Parker College made the Top 20 in U.S. News & World Report’s listing of most ethnically diverse liberal arts campuses in the nation. Brewton-Parker ranked higher than a long list of better-known schools, including the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado.

In a report to the Georgia Baptist Education Commission last week, Brewton-Parker President Steven F. Echols said the measurement is a reflection of the ethnically diverse region the school serves.

It’s a ranking Echols said he is especially proud of because it models the diversity of Christianity, which is open to people from all nations, tribes and languages.

“We’re just reaching our community," Echols told the Education Commission.

Georgia is a diverse state, with 3.4 million African Americans, 1 million Hispanics, nearly a half million Asian-Americans, and sizeable numbers of many other ethnic groups.

Brewton-Parker was No. 18 in the “Campus Ethnic Diversity” category in the latest ranking by U.S. News & World Report, which measures the likelihood for students to encounter classmates from racial or ethnic groups different than their own.

The overall makeup of the Brewton-Parker student body is more than 40 percent minority, primarily African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

U.S. News & World Report is well known for ranking colleges, universities, hospitals, even automobiles to provide information helpful to potential students, patients and customers.

Brewton-Parker, Brewton-Parker College, ethnic diversity, Steven Echols, U.S. News & World Report