The Amity school began in 1981 as an outgrowth of a homeschool at a time when home schooling was illegal in the state of Arkansas. Located in the home of Dr. and Mrs. Chester Clark, Jr., the school soon provided education for the children of other members of the local church and operated as a fully accredited conference school serving grades one to eight from 1983 to 1995. Over the years, teachers included Harriet Clark, Dawn Blum, Clinton Walker, and Pam Brown (Clark, 2019).
In 1988, the Clarks started a school for ninth – twelfth grades called Ouachita Hills Academy (“OHA”). It was located on seventeen-and-a-half acres of land in Amity. In 1993 the academy moved to 381 acres south of town. The school developed a strong mission emphasis, with students holding evangelistic meetings once or twice a year in more than fifteen countries world wide. Not only does it emphasize vocational training, it keeps solid academics a priority, resulting in ninety-four per cent of its graduates attending colleges and universities across the nation. Enrolled students come from fifteen to twenty different states. OHA is accredited by E. A. Sutherland Education Association (EASEA), the Institute for Social + Emotional Intelligence® (ISEI), and the National Council for Private School Accreditation (NCPSA) (Clark, 2019).
Photo courtesy of Harriet Clark
Ouachita Hills College
Ouachita Hills College (“OHC”) enrolled its first students in August 2003. Focusing primarily on developing workers for the Lord, it offers degrees in education, business, theology, Bible working, and canvassing leadership. While pursuing their academic studies, students work with six to eight churches in surrounding areas in the conference providing speakers, musicians, and outreach workers in the church’s community. They have also assisted in the establishing of church plants in Arkadelphia, Nashville, and Umpire (Spanish). Since OHC’s beginning, canvassing has been a major support of the college and of the students, many of whom provide half or more of their school fees by their canvassing. Churches in the Arkansas-Louisiana Conference and in conferences as far away as Maine have contracted for students to canvass their communities and Bible study contacts made by students have helped to prepare the way for evangelistic meetings. The college shares many of the facilities of Ouachita Hills Academy but has purchased an adjoining forty acres for future development. A small lifestyle center, directed by Drs. Carlos and Kathy Irizarry, has been developed on fifty-two acres of land about one-half mile from the main campus (Clark, 2019).
Citation
Clark, Harriet. (2019, Aug. 21). Email from Harriet Clark.
How it all Began 
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