Everything about Berry College totally explained
Berry College is an accredited, private, four-year
liberal arts college located in
Mount Berry, Georgia,
USA, in
Floyd County just north of
Rome, Georgia. The institution emphasizes the importance of educating the whole person. This focus is usually referenced as "educating the head, heart, and hands" and follows the school's motto, "Not to be ministered unto, but to minister." With approximately 1950 students and 26,000+ acres (105 km²) of north Georgia hill country, Berry College's campus is the largest contiguous college campus in the world.
History
Berry was founded in 1902 by
Martha McChesney Berry as a school for rural youth at a time when few public schools existed in Georgia.Seven years later, a girls' school was added, with a junior college being established in 1926 and a four-year college in 1930. Graduate programs outside the liberal arts were added in 1972. Financial contributions from
Henry Ford and from the
Ford Foundation, and donations from others have helped the institution establish itself as a leading liberal arts college in the southeastern United States.
Academics
Berry College offers students the
Bachelor of Arts,
Bachelor of Music,
Bachelor of Science,
Master of Business Administration,
Master of Education and
Education Specialist degrees from the four schools making up the academic program. The liberal arts education offered by Berry includes a general education program coupled with the student's selected major. The four schools offer a total of 32 undergraduate academic majors, 34 minors, and three graduate majors. According to
U.S. News and World Report Berry is currently ranked 118th among the "Top
Liberal Arts colleges."
Campbell School of Business
The Campbell School of Business has its home at Green Hall on the Berry College campus. Green Hall offers students seven
multimedia equipped rooms. The School of Business offers five
undergraduate majors and one
graduate major. The Campbell School of Business recently received its accreditation from the
Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International) in April of 2007. The school will also be featured in the “Best 290 Business Schools 2008 Edition,” by the
Princeton Review.
Majors
Charter School of Education and Human Sciences
The Charter School of Education and Human Sciences is located in the Cook Building. In 2003, the Cook Building underwent a major renovation as part of Berry's "Centennial Campaign". The School of Education was recently honored by the Association of Independent Liberal Arts Colleges for Teacher Education.
Majors
Evans School of Humanities and Social Sciences
The Evans School makes its principal home in Evans Hall. Other buildings used by the Evans School include the Moon Building, home of the art program, the Laughlin Building, home of the communications department, Blackstone Hall, home of the theatre program and Ford Music Hall, home of the music program. The Evans School is the largest school at Berry College, with the areas of study taught at the Evans School being the foundations for the general education requirement at Berry.
Majors
School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences
The School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences makes its home in the Science Building. The Science Building opened in the spring semester of 2001 at a cost of $25 million. It includes four multimedia classrooms and practical laboratories for the sciences, mathematics and computer science labs, study rooms, and two
greenhouses. The science facilities host conferences in the science and mathematics disciplines. The Berry College science program also has an animal science department, which makes its home in the Lamar Wescot Building at the Ford Complex. The animal science department uses the Rollins Ruminant Research Center and the Gunby Equestrian Center for hands-on learning. With 28,000 acres (110 km²), Berry College also offers one of the largest outdoor laboratories for field experience.
Majors
Religion
Berry was never officially affiliated with a particular Christian denomination yet was founded as a Protestant institution with required chapel attendance and adherence to the Christian faith. Though mandatory religious adherence was abandoned decades ago, religious practice is prominent on campus. The campus has a chaplain, a non-denominational campus church, three chapels, and an active religion-in-life program spanning all Christian denominations. An interfaith council and an interfaith center was set up in 2004 to address the needs of non-Christian students, faculty and staff.
Student Work
Each student is guaranteed a job on campus through the Berry student work program which is funded mostly with college endowment earnings and subsidized by the federal government work study program. Students participate in all aspects of campus work, from grounds crew and dining services to secretarial assistants to the president. The Bonner Foundation provides Berry students with community service scholarships, allowing students to work with dozens of community agencies rather than on campus. The college's agricultural programs, originally producing dairy, beef, pork, chicken, and horticultural items for consumption on campus and sale, were refocused in the 2000s on research rather than production.
Campus Life
Many student organizations exist, including national and international honor, service, and leadership societies. Although there are no traditional Greek social
fraternities and sororities present on campus, chapters of both the
Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity of America and
Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity for Women were approved by the
Student Government Association (SGA). They are both recognized not as fraternities, but as student honor societies.
Over the past two decades, a strategic partnership between Berry and the
WinShape Foundation has transformed the college's mountain campus into a service community, including a college scholarship program with two
dormitories serving over a hundred students, three
foster homes, boys & girls summer camps, a challenge/ropes course, and a retreat center and cabins for corporate and community groups and marriage seminars.
Athletics
The Berry College mascot is the
Viking and the athletic teams are Division I members of the
NAIA. Varsity sports are men's baseball, women's volleyball, and men's and women's basketball, soccer, golf, cross country, tennis, and indoor / outdoor track. The Berry College Equestrian Team became a varsity team in 2007 and is a member of the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA). Non-varisty sports include the Viking Crew Club Team. A strong intramural sports program also exists. The $33 million Steven J. Cage Athletic and Recreational Center (
The Cage Center) opened on
January 25,
2008 housing the home games of the Vikings and Lady Vikings basketball teams. Previously Berry played its home basketball and volleyball games at Ford Gym, a facility that has housed Berry basketball for over 45 years. The facility was donated by Henry Ford. The Viking soccer teams play at Ford Field, while the baseball team plays home games at William R. Bowdoin field. The Vikings tennis team plays at Richards Memorial Tennis Courts and the cross country team runs in the Clara Bowl.
Setting
The Berry campus, easily the largest land mass campus in the world, consists of fields, forests, and Lavender Mountain, designated portions of which are open to the public for hiking, cycling, horse back riding, and other outdoor activities. Present throughout the campus is a large population of deer, which are estimated to outnumber students eight to one. A portion of Berry's campus is designated as a wildlife refuge where no hunting is allowed. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources manages a large section (almost 16,000 acres) of the campus and conducts managed hunts in an attempt to control the deer population and provide recreational opportunities within department regulations. Fishing on some of the campus' lakes and streams is permitted with proper permits. Berry also has a wealth of wild turkeys, seasonal ducks and geese, skunks, and squirrels.
Mountain Day
Berry is a college rich in heritage and campus customs are deeply rooted. The most universal custom is that of greeting everyone on campus with a smile, a wave, and a cheery “hello.” Freshmen usually become familiar with this custom on their first day and realize that much of the beauty of Berry is in this spirit of friendship which one meets everywhere.
Each year on the first weekend of October, Martha Berry is remembered in a traditional celebration, which is called Mountain Day. The holiday, which celebrates Miss Berry’s birthday, begins with convocation for college students and a picnic lunch. The lunch is followed by the main event of the day, the Grand March. The music for the Grand March is provided by the college band. Students, led by the seniors, join hands, separate, and unite in ever widening lines as they weave a march pattern on the gentle slope at the foot of Lavendar Mountain. During the march, students drop donations into the birthday basket, traditionally the number of cents equal to the student’s age. These donations become a part of the Martha Berry Memorial Endowment Fund, established by Miss Berry with gifts made to her to aid The Berry Schools. A colorful part of the tradition is the costume worn - for the women, a pastel pink (blue if a senior) blouse; for the men, a lighter blue shirt (white if a senior).
On the Saturday night of Mountain Day Weekend, students come together in the Clara Bowl to participate in Marthapalooza, an all-night carnival-like atmosphere, free food, games, music, bonfire, outdoor movie and the opportunity to camp out on campus with friends.
Films
Berry College's beauty draws visitors every year. It has been used for the filming of several movies, along with music videos by bands, such as
Casting Crowns.
The most notable films are
Remember the Titans and
Sweet Home Alabama.
Disney's movie,
Perfect Harmony was filmed at buildings including Old Mill.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Berry College'.
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