Emmanuel College Applying to Add Graduate School

Emmanuel College is working towards adding a graduate school to its academic programs.

On Wednesday, Emmanuel College President Dr. Ron White told WLHR News they have submitted the required application paperwork and are now waiting to hear from the accreditation committee.

“The next big thing for us is a graduate school. We just submitted our prospectus to SAC-COC, that’s our accreditor.  It has to be approved before we can launch. We submitted it by the deadline on September 1, which means it will be reviewed between now and the December meeting. And the decision will be made in December whether to recommend us forward to the executive committee,” White explained.

White said if the executive committee receives the prospectus they will likely approve it in January.  If approved, White said they will offer four different Master’s degree programs.

“One is in Elementary Education, another in Exercise Science and we have two ministry degrees; one a Master of Ministry, which is a shorter degree and the other is a Master of Divinity. Ours will be a standard two-year M-DIV Masters program,” he said.

All four Master degree programs will be offered online but there will be some on-campus learning requirements as well, according to Dr. White.

One program in particular, the Exercise Science degree program White said is one he is especially excited about because of the college’s ever-expanding athletic program.

“We have a lot of athletes who want to go into fields that are athletically related. athletic science. This Masters is being designed to help a person pass licensure to become a strength and fitness coach, he said. “Strength and fitness coach jobs are plentiful. For example, every NCAA Division, whether you’re Division 1, 11, or III, you have to have a strength and fitness coach. Second, if you work in a small college like ours you can work part-time as a strength and fitness and part-time assistant coach. So it’s a leg up to get into a coaching position.”

If approved, each degree program will be 36 hours with two modules each semester, 12 hours per semester.

White said if approved in January by the Executive Committee, they hope to open the graduate school in the fall of 2022.