Left to right: Bethany Turner & Atyona Lambright
changing the story: the simple way Anderson University found enrollment success during a pandemic Everything you read told the same story. “A Crisis is Looming for U.S. Colleges,” blared the headline from NBC News. “Coronavirus Drives Signs of a Major Drop in College Enrollment,” reported The New York Times. “Pandemic Hammers College Enrollment This Fall,” was The Washington Post’s take. But here’s the thing: None of these news outlets talked to Atyona Lambright, Faith Davis, Gabriel Linder or Hampton Clawson. If they had, they’d have heard a different take, one that turned national trends on their heads. Lambright, Davis, Linder and Clawson are just four of 3,848 students who enrolled at Anderson University last fall. There’s a different story here. A new headline. And it is this: “Despite COVID-19 Pandemic, Anderson University Sets New Record for Student Enrollment.”
8 | IT ’ S TI M E TO C EL EBRAT E !
It wasn’t supposed to happen. The reason it did is pretty simple. Anderson University is a special place. Atyona Lambright is more than the sum of her parts. She’s more than a former high school cross country athlete. She’s more than where she’s from (Pickens, South Carolina.) She’s more than her name; it’s pronounced “Ah-tee-yawna,” by the way. She’s more than her upbringing as an AfricanAmerican woman raised by white parents. To paraphrase Whitman, she “contains multitudes.” And it is at Anderson University where she is seen as she wants to be seen. People at AU, she said, take the time to genuinely know her as an individual and not size her up based on her appearance, background or personality. That wasn’t always the case during her childhood, and it played a pivotal role in bringing her to AU. She is one of 970 first-year students—the largest freshmen class in the University’s 110-year history. Lambright said God led her to AU after she didn’t feel quite right staying overnight at another college she hoped to attend. After praying, she saw an email from an AU
