NORMAN PARK — Sometimes it takes a sibling to help you be what you were meant to be.

Norman College in Norman Park was once a two-year Baptist college, but it closed in 1971. The Georgia Baptist Convention turned the campus into a conference center. But two decades later, higher education returned there, thanks to Brewton-Parker College.

Brewton-Parker — founded in 1904 in Mount Vernon, Ga. — was once a two-year Baptist college, just like Norman College, but by the 1990s it had added four-year degrees to its offerings. It also was expanding into a number of satellite campuses, and Norman Park looked like a good fit.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Brewton-Parker began offering bachelor’s degrees in elementary and middle school education at the Georgia Baptist Conference Center, according to the Norman Park campus director, Emory Smith. Last year, it added bachelor’s degrees in business administration and ministry. It also offers two-year associate’s degrees in general studies.

Smith said the college serves the needs of the community by educating residents so they can change careers or move up in their current jobs. For instance, he said, some of the business administration students are area bank employees who have been promoted as far as they can go without a degree. Others in the program are small business owners learning to better handle their businesses.

Similarly, many of the education students are paraprofessionals who are looking to move up as teachers, or women who left the workforce to have children and now want to return.

The bachelor’s degree in ministry hearkens back to Norman College’s role as a training ground for ministers, Smith said.

“A lot of the Baptist churches in Southwest Georgia looked to Norman College to supply their pastors,” he said. “They called them ‘preacher boys.’ … We want our ministry program to be seen the same way.”

All the classes at the Norman Park campus are at night, Smith said, so working adults can more easily attend. Classes are small — eight to 10 students, on average — and are held once a week for either eight or 16 weeks, depending on the class. All the teachers are part-time.

“What they’re teaching you at night is what they’re doing during the day,” Smith said, emphasizing the practical experience the instructors bring to the classroom.

Smith said Brewton-Parker is planning to expand its offerings over the next few years. The next degree it hopes to add is in social services, but he said he doesn’t have a timetable for that yet. He said if the student body grows enough, the school could add day classes, but such a move is “way down the road.”

About 80 students currently attend Brewton-Parker’s Norman Park center, but Smith said registration is still open. In fact, if anyone attending Thursday’s open house wants to join, they can fill out an application on the spot. Financial aid is still available.

The open house, which is set for 3 to 8 p.m., is intended for those who are still making their decisions about college, Smith said. He said some may have planned to go to college elsewhere and changed their minds, perhaps because of the high cost of fuel. Others may wish to go to college, but think they can’t because they’ve been out of school for so long. Thursday’s event is to show them the options available to them at Brewton-Parker.

Classes begin Aug. 25.