education to serve the mountain communities of rural Southwest Virginia.
The school was known as "Ferrum Junior College" between 1940 and 1976. It was founded by the United Methodist Church and gradually developed from primary to post-secondary education. Today, Ferrum enrolls around 800 undergraduate and graduate students and offers over 54 undergraduate majors and four graduate programs. Ferrum College's 700-acre (280 ha) campus is in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains near Rocky Mount, Virginia, in Franklin County.
Its athletic teams, known as the Panthers, compete in Division III of the NCAA in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC). Ferrum has 11 men's teams and 14 women's teams. The football team is commonly referred to as the "Black Hats".
The Ferrum College campus is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Register.
== History ==
=== Founding ===
Charitable members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Virginia established the school—Ferrum Training …
