Newly minted high school graduates touring Champion Christian College won't find the water parks, concerts, skiing, scuba diving and state-of-the-art residence halls large institutions of higher learning wield in the competition for students.
But the interdenominational liberal arts college with a biblical worldview offers prospective students something else, a college experience that feels more like a family than a metropolis teeming with tens of thousands of undergraduates taught by graduate assistants and overworked faculty in packed lecture halls.
"Our teacher-to-student ratio is more focused on the individual," Champion President Eric Capaci said. "We look at being small as a positive. We look at it as a recruiting tool."
While some college presidents are cloistered in their ivory towers, indifferent to the thousands of applications that pour into their admission offices, Capaci plays a hands-on role in recruitment. He'll make his pitch for the college in person, as a prospective enrollee from Fort Smith recently learned.
"He had an opportunity to go to a large college," Capaci said. "The dad told him, 'Son, if it were my decision, I'd choose Champion. The fact that we're sitting in the president's office, you're not going to sit in the president's office anywhere else.'
"That's what we want. We want people to feel like part of a family. If you have a problem, a question, a disagreement, it's not going to be hard to get that addressed or taken care of."
Ralph Ohm, chairman of the college's board of trustees, said the college sees its size as an advantage.
"We are still small, and we're good with that," he said. "We expect to be on the smaller size for a while. That's where we're supposed to be. That's our niche."
But the college is making strides to expand its niche, starting an endowment fund earlier this year and hiring a director of advancement and development to oversee fundraising. The other trappings of a large college, such as a student life center, coffee shop, basketball gym and workout facility, are also on campus.
The college will start the fall semester with four sports programs. The women's basketball team enters 2021-22 as the National Christian College Athletic Association's defending national champion. They and the men's team play at the Champion Community Center, the facility the college acquired after the Boys & Girls Club of Hot Springs dissolved in early 2018.
It's also the home of the women's volleyball program, which will embark on its inaugural season this fall. Behind the facility is Majestic Park, which will be home to the Champion baseball team.
The college expects as many as 100 students will live on campus in the fall. Many of them will compete for its sports teams. Some were recruited from local high schools, as the college has expanded its student recruiting base from the homeschoolers and private Christian schools it's been mining since its founding as Champion Baptist College in 2005.
For the first time in the school's history, enrollment was higher during the spring semester than it was in the fall.
"We're excited there's more students from Arkansas coming to Champion," Capaci said. "We did have a stronger presence outside of the state when we were Champion Baptist, but there's going to be quite a few students coming from Little Rock, Bryant, Fort Smith and locally. We have several students from Hot Springs High coming to Champion."
In keeping with the family atmosphere, all traditional freshman students are required to live on campus and are assigned a mentor from the faculty.
"Because freshman do not always make the best decisions, we decided to keep everybody close and keep an eye on everyone and let everyone know what's going on," Ohm said. "Some young people, as soon as they get out the door, they start looking for things they haven't had a chance to do. We don't want that. We want this to be a good, safe environment for everyone.
"We want them to develop friendships that last a long time. We want them to feel comfortable with themselves, feel safe, be secure. After the first year, if they want to move off campus we'll let them do it."
On the academic front, the college has applied to the state's Higher Education Coordinating Board and the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges to certify criminal justice and secondary education as four-year degrees. The two bodies have already conferred accreditation on the college's associate of arts in general studies and bachelor of science in professional studies. The college also offers a four-year degree in church ministries.
Catering to nontraditional students, the college will offer 20 online classes starting in the fall, with a plan to offer virtual learning for all of its classes in the future.
"We're looking at 20 to 50 students who are looking to complete their degrees online," Capaci said. "For our size, that's pretty exciting. Online is going to be huge for Biblical studies. There are so many people who don't want to leave their church, leave all that to come to a Christian college campus and get a degree. More than likely a good majority of our Biblical training will be online."
Keeping tuition affordable is a priority, as the cost of college, which has outpaced the rate of inflation, requires many students to incur debt they'll be burdened with long after they leave campus. Accreditation allows students to apply for financial aid, and flexible class schedules allow them to work while they go to school.
"The goal is to come out of here and not owe any money," Ohm said. "We're trying to help students get a great education and be successful and not be tied to a lot of debt. We strongly encourage working and paying your way. We've been blessed with students who've been able to take care of their bills, so we don't have a lot of uncollectable debt out there."
Capaci and Ohm said providence has favored the college during its growing pains, helping it navigate the thicket of the accreditation process and interceding when the college's means appeared inadequate for its needs.
"God has taken care of Champion," Ohm said. "I really can't explain it. I know some people will think that's crazy. The board has thought how are we going to pay for this, and something will happen. A grant or donation will come."
That providence has instilled faith, but faith without work doesn't ensure success, Capaci said.
"Sometimes you need to have that little element of faith," he said. "It doesn't make things easy. It makes them possible."
