We’re less than a month away from fall classes starting for another year at Point University. That will happen on August 22. It’s a phenomenal asset to have a growing four-year college in your hometown. LaGrange has had that for years with LaGrange College, and we don’t have to mention how important Auburn University is not just to the City of Auburn but also the state and nation. In the local area, we have something special with Point University.

We’ve seen steady growth since classes started in 2012. Point students come from 28 states and 16 foreign countries. People from far and wide want to be part of a Christ-centered school of higher learning. It’s good to have that in your community. One of Point’s strongest growth trends is also good for the community. Though Point attracts students from many areas, fully one-fourth of the student body is local. Students who graduate high school in Troup and Harris counties in Georgia and Chambers County, Ala. want to be a part of what’s going on in West Point, Ga.

At Point University, students have an excellent faculty to student ratio of 18:1.  Young people learn time management and communication skills while doing something that can never be underestimated. They build friendships that will last them a lifetime. And, of course, they have some fun along the way.

We salute Point University and say “Go Skyhawks!” in appreciation for what they university means to our community.

Point being here has much to do with the renaissance we have seen in downtown West Point. If we’d been told 15 years ago that we were going to have a major automobile manufacturer and a four-year college in West Point and that we’d have 15 restaurants to pick from when we went there, everyone would have thought them nuts. It has been good to see all this happen.

From the students to the faculty to the administration, Point we are glad to have you here and we thank you on having helped with the major transformation of what had been a dying downtown district.

And it’s not just West Point. Valley has benefited from Point’s 19 varsity athletic teams. We  see those blue-and-gold clad young people at the Community Center and Walmart all the time. Lanett is benefitting in the form of students and faculty members who take advantage of proximity to campus and live there. When the student housing building on North 15th Street opens, there will easily be over 200 Point students living in Lanett. The helps the city with utilities.

The next time you pass a young man or woman wearing the Point blue, it’s not a bad idea to nod and say “Go Skyhawks!” Let them know we appreciate them.