Fort Valley State beat out some Ivy League schools, such as Harvard and Georgetown, when it comes to African-American math graduates.
An academic journal, Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, recently named the university number one in the nation in producing African-American math graduates.
Rocio Castillo is a sophomore math major at FVSU and wants to get a second degree in geosciences.
"When you have a degree in [math], it's almost like you can almost go anywhere and say, 'Hey, look, I have this. I can work with you to basically mold myself into anything you want from me because I have a math degree'," she said.
Castillo is in the university's Cooperative Developmental Energy Program, or CDEP.