Huntington University

Huntington University is a comprehensive Christian college of the liberal arts offering graduate and undergraduate programs in more than 70 academic concentrations. U.S. News & World Report ranks Huntington among the best colleges in the Midwest, and Forbes.com has listed the university as one of America's Best Colleges. Founded in 1897 by the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, Huntington University is located on a contemporary lakeside campus in northeast Indiana. The nonprofit university is a member of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU). 

2021 School of the Arts Summer Academies
When: June 20-24
Where: Huntington University in Huntington, Indiana
Cost: $450
www.Huntington.edu/Academy

The University is a Christ-centered liberal arts institution of higher education with a strong historic and ongoing relationship with the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. With the conviction that all truth is God’s truth, the University exists to carry out the mission of Christ in higher education.

Through a curriculum of demonstrated academic excellence, students are educated in the liberal arts and their chosen disciplines, always seeking to examine the relationship between the disciplines and God’s revelation in Jesus Christ.

The University’s mission will be accomplished as we . . .

1. develop in students a commitment to scholarship that is persistent in its pursuit of truth and sensitive to the concerns of the Christian church, the scholarly and educational community and the world at large; 
2. educate students broadly for a life of moral and spiritual integrity, personal and social responsibility and a continued quest for wisdom; 
3. equip students for a variety of vocations so that they may glorify the Creator, who charged humanity with the care of his Creation; 
4. help students develop their abilities for a life of God-honoring service to others and for personal fulfillment.

The founding of Huntington University has been called a work of divine providence. In 1896, the General Board of Education of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ laid plans to open a new institution of higher learning.

But before these plans were made known, an unsolicited proposal was received from the Huntington Land Association. Three entrepreneurs (among them a United Brethren minister) proposed a strategic partnership: the Land Association would donate a three-story brick building, additional campus grounds, and operational cash. In return, the Church would equip and operate a school, and sell lots in the surrounding neighborhood. Called a direct answer to prayer, the opportunity was "precipitated upon us like a clap of thunder," said Bishop Milton Wright (whose sons, Orville and Wilbur, would be the first to fly).

Through this cooperation of Church and community the University's cornerstone was laid in August 1896. A year later, the Huntington Herald estimated that 1,200 people turned out for the dedication of the University. "Very impressive were the services at Central College," reported the Herald, using the institution's original name. "The new Central College was dedicated Tuesday afternoon, and the doors of the institution thrown open to all for their education as taught from the Word of God."

Central College opened in September 1897. The institution changed its name to Huntington College in 1917, and became Huntington University in 2005.