The Need

America's urban centers are places of wonderful cultural and economic diversity where people from different backgrounds, perspectives and life experiences have regular opportunities to interact. They are also places yearning for new faces of committed, visionary leaders who will build bridges across differences and respond creatively to pressing challenges.

Unfortunately, too few of the colleges working to prepare our nation's emerging leaders provide similarly diverse campus environments and too many potential campus and urban leaders face significant obstacles on the journey to a college degree.

Ongoing Disparity

Both enrollment and retention rates in higher education remain uneven across ethnic groups. A recent report by the American Council on Education indicated that while 62% of Asian American and 58% of White students who enrolled in college earned a bachelor's degree within five years, only 42% of Hispanic and 36% of African American students completed their degrees.1

In addition, only 50% of 18- to 24-year-old high school graduates with family incomes below $25,000 attend college, compared with 90% of those with family incomes above $75,000.2

It is particularly troubling that faith-based colleges, rather than leading the way in calling together and empowering people from the broad diversity of God's creation, are consistently among the most homogenous institutions in higher education.

Broad Impact

In a rapidly diversifying society, we all feel the effects of these realities as too many of our next generation of leaders miss the opportunity to interact and learn in diverse campus environments during one of the most formative times of their lives.

“What I lacked was the education that can only be gained from direct contact and conversations with people who are different than you. I don’t remember ever having a class with a Black person, until college. So you can imagine how many I had talked with—zero. No amount of book learning, in my opinion, can totally shatter the misconceptions you have about a group of people that you’ve never had contact with.”

• Whitworth College Student, Quoted by James Waller in Prejudice Across America3

“Like most Americans, we Christians do not interact closely with people of other races in everyday spheres of life. The end result is that the needs and concerns of the minority are often overlooked as the majority pursues its priorities.”

• Spencer Perkins and Chris Rice in More Than Equals4

“Most white evangelicals, directed by their cultural tools, fail to recognize the institutionalization of racialization—in economic, political, educational, social, and religious systems. They therefore often think and act as if these problems do not exist. As undetected cancer that remains untreated thrives and destroys, so unrecognized depths of racial division and inequality go largely unaddressed and likewise thrive, divide, and destroy.”

• Michael Emerson and Christian Smith in Divided by Faith5

An Effective Response

Act Six is an effective and proven model for addressing these frustrating realities. It is making a difference for urban young people, college campuses and urban communities.

Learn More

• Fact Sheet
• How Act Six Works
• Impact on Scholars
• Impact on Campuses
• Impact on Cities