A 1973 Wall Street Journal article dubbed College of the Ozarks “Hard Work U.”
More than 40 years later, students and faculty at this unique Christian college still embrace the name. Banners shout it out from every corner of campus. You can even see it inscribed on the white coats of nursing students.
The moniker is more than a catchy slogan. From freshman year on, full-time students are assigned to some 15 hours a week, plus two 40-hour workweeks, at one of more than 75 job stations, as part of the college’s required work education program. Some butcher or milk cows on one of the campus’s three farms, while others prepare food in the cafeteria or write press releases in the public relations office.
“Our students are crucial to the operation of this place,” says Chris Larsen, the dean of work education. Students learn initiative, responsibility, communication and other skills through their campus jobs, he says.
While figuring out how to balance work with study and other activities can be challenging for incoming students, there’s a big payoff: no out-of-pocket tuition. The work education program — which some students participate in during the summer, too — federal grants and College of the Ozarks scholarships cover tuition for all full-time students; very few students graduate with debt. Fees and room and board run a bit over $6,500 a year.
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“I have a lot of friends at home that are up to their eyeballs in debt,” says Kelsea Inson, a senior from Warrenton, Virginia. College of the Ozarks is the only four-year institution she applied to after attending community college. She’s majoring in graphic design, one of 44 majors offered; the others, along with general liberal arts options, include business, nursing and education.
Inson is one of the fraction of students — some 20 percent of the 1,500 population — who hail from outside the Ozarks region; most slots go to students from the area, which encompasses parts of Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois, Oklahoma and Kansas. The hilly landscape provides a bucolic backdrop for the manicured grounds, some 1,000 acres of lawns and flower beds.
Besides the farms, students heading to class might pass the farmer’s market during the fall months and Edwards Mill, a grist mill where they can grind whole grain into flour and weave textiles.
Ozarks students have a sizable menu of activities to choose from for the hours when they’re not studying or working, from the College Republicans club and student government to the basketball, baseball and volleyball teams to jazz band and the Ozarks Fisheries and Wildlife club. Popular campuswide yearly events include the bluegrass-heavy Sadie Hawkins dance and Mudfest, which involves a fiercely fought tug-of-war contest over a pit of mud.
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There’s a strong interest in spirituality here.
“I wanted to go somewhere where I would enhance my faith,” says Michaela Moore, a sophomore nursing major from Waynesville, Missouri.
Moore is a Southern Baptist who participates in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and plans to get involved with the Nurses Christian Fellowship. At noon, activity in the dining hall pauses for a moment of prayer, and students are required to attend at least five chapel services each semester.
Everyone is encouraged to pursue an experience abroad, although the school doesn’t offer any semesterlong options; past opportunities have included study trips to China and Belize. Through the Patriotic Education Travel program, students travel with veterans to battlegrounds where they have served to get an understanding of the history and an appreciation for what it was like to be on the front lines.
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— Missouri University of Science & Technology
This story is excerpted from the U.S. News “Best Colleges 2015” guidebook, which features in-depth articles, rankings and data.
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Missouri College Road Trip: College of the Ozarks originally appeared on usnews.com
