The Facts
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Web site: www.oakwood.edu
Location: Huntsville, Alabama
Environment: small cosmopolitan city in the beautiful Tennessee Valley
Undergraduate enrollment: 1,767 43 percent male, 57 percent female
Annual cost for tuition, room, board, fees: $17,672 (add about $900 per year for books)
School year: two semesters, late August to mid-May
Call for more information: 1-800-358-3978
E-mail: admissions@oakwood.edu
Nearest Taco Bell: one mile
Squirrel population (rough estimate): prolific (bring lots of peanuts!)
Historical trivia: the famous slave Dred Scott once lived and worked on a plantation that eventually became part of Oakwood's campus
Famous people who have visited: Julius Erving (Dr. J), Muhammad Ali, Debbye Turner (Miss America 1990), Marla Gibbs, Peabo Bryson, Florence Griffith Joyner
Our next stop in our tour of SDA colleges in North America brings us to a campus that has grown teachers, preachers, and stars.
Not long ago my friend Dwain was cruising down a California freeway and decided to swing into a service station. As he started pumping gas into his car, a voice called to him. Turning, Dwain spotted a grinning young woman who shouted, "Hey, didn't you go to Oakwood College?"
Another time Dwain pulled on one of his Oakwood T-shirts for a game of pickup basketball in Washington, D.C. One of the players recognized the shirt and exclaimed, "Oakwood College! I have a friend who went there too."
"It happens all the time," Dwain says. And the amazing thing is that this school isn't located in either California or Washington, D.C.--it's in Alabama. But Oakwood students come from all over (40 states and several dozen countries), and they seem to have a way of bumping into each other after they graduate. Even at gas stations thousands of miles away.
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Oakwood College
Our next stop in our tour of SDA colleges in North America brings us to a campus that has grown teachers, preachers, and stars.
Not long ago my friend Dwain was cruising down a California freeway and decided to swing into a service station. As he started pumping gas into his car, a voice called to him. Turning, Dwain spotted a grinning young woman who shouted, "Hey, didn't you go to Oakwood College?"
Another time Dwain pulled on one of his Oakwood T-shirts for a game of pickup basketball in Washington, D.C. One of the players recognized the shirt and exclaimed, "Oakwood College! I have a friend who went there too."
"It happens all the time," Dwain says. And the amazing thing is that this school isn't located in either California or Washington, D.C.--it's in Alabama. But Oakwood students come from all over (40 states and several dozen countries), and they seem to have a way of bumping into each other after they graduate. Even at gas stations thousands of miles away.
Just think, at Oakwood you could have a roommate from Atlanta, a chemistry partner from Toronto, and a flag football teammate from the West Indies. You'll find professors from places such as England, Sierra Leone, Kenya, and India. And people say that once you've joined the Oakwood family, you'll be part of it forever.
Now, let's say it's your first day at Oakwood. What will you notice first? Friendly students, definitely.
And music. Lots of music. Whitney Houston sings from a boom box in the dorm. Somewhere down the hall a few students hold an impromptu jam session. A women's trio practices gospel favorites on the lawn. A lone saxophone sounds in the band room. Oakwood's oldest choir, the Aeolians, rehearses for their next cross-country tour. And somewhere on campus is that famous bathroom where the a cappella group Take 6 got their start. (They said the acoustics were better in there.)
"The caliber of music is incredible!" says one Oakwood student. "Everyone does his own thing, but it all blends together--a lot like heaven, I guess."
And the preaching isn't bad either. You won't fall asleep in the campus church or in your religion classes, because Oakwood is home to some of the best speakers in the Adventist Church. Many graduates have gone on to become great leaders.
For example, OC alumnus Charles Bradford was elected the first Black president of our church's North American Division. Eva B. Dykes became the first Black woman in the U.S. to complete the requirements for a Ph.D. Wintley Phipps has sung all over the world, including a great performance at the 1984 Democratic Convention. He now works for the General Conference Religious Liberty Department.
Home ec and much more
Oakwood's current students are also an interesting bunch. And they like to have fun. The campus lies in the city of Huntsville, close to the Marshall Space Flight Center. If you're a high-tech junkie, you'll never get bored here. And lots of activities happen right on campus, because 80 percent of the students live in the dorms.
Oakwood is historically a Black college (and of course all other students are welcome too). This heritage allows the school to offer classes with a perspective that you can't find everywhere: Black literature, African civilization, minorities in America, and race relations.
You might like to know that Oakwood teaches a full range of home economics classes (one of the few Adventist colleges that still does). And have you heard about the outstanding premed program? For the past 15 years Oakwood has ranked among the top 10 institutions in the U.S. in providing Black applicants to medical and dental schools.
The students I talked with kept mentioning one thing: Their teachers inspire them to work hard. "Professors at Oakwood are much more than professors," my friend Dwain says. Many teachers invite students over for lunch (or even for the whole weekend).