Building a Black Honors Community

When Naomi Thrower was applying to college, she knew she wanted the historically Black college or university experience but hesitated to leave the community she had built in California, which does not have a traditional HBCU. 

So she applied to HBCUs across the country, as well as to California State University, Sacramento, the state’s first Black-serving institution.

“Sacramento State is the only California school I applied to. The rest were all East Coast HBCUs,” Thrower said. “I do have family on the East Coast, but none I felt strongly connected with. So I would be leaving my family, my friends, the life I’ve built here, and that was a little nerve-racking.”

Now a fourth-year deaf studies major, Thrower has found a community in the university’s Black Honors College, a first-of-its-kind program that provides a culturally responsive curriculum and inclusive academic community for students focused on the Black experience.

“It really provided me with a strong social foundation,” said Thrower, who was part of the college's inaugural cohort in 2024. “I knew everybody in my cohort, so when I was in my classes, when we started for the first day, I was nervous, but I already saw familiar faces, and so the [Black Honors College] provided me with that community feel.”

A growing community: Originally announced in 2023, Sacramento State’s Black Honors College offers smaller, specialized general education classes and is open to students of all races and majors. It also provides dedicated mentorship, paid internships, residential living-learning options and scholarships. The model offers a window into what can happen when an honors college centers Black history, culture and experiences in its curriculum while emphasizing community and belonging.

The Black Honors College admits incoming first-year students each fall, while transfer students and continuing Sacramento State sophomores and juniors can apply each spring. Students must have a 3.5 GPA at the time of application and maintain a 3.0 GPA or higher to remain enrolled.

Boatamo Ati Mosupyoe, dean of students and chief academic officer at Sacramento State, said the college initially planned to admit only 50 students in fall 2024, but growing interest led it to admit 80. The fall 2025 class grew to 262 students; this year's class is 414 students, bringing the total enrollment to 914.

Mosupyoe attributes that growth in part to the environment the college has sought to create, one that emphasizes students’ strengths rather than approaching them from what she described as a deficit perspective.

“We are creating a welcoming environment to the students,” Mosupyoe said. “This program doesn’t look at the students as deficient, and we don’t subscribe to a deficit model. We look at the potential of what these students are going to do.”

Matthew Ward, vice president of strategic enrollment management and chief enrollment officer, said the Black Honors College has become part of a broader effort at the university to intentionally support Black students and celebrate Black culture.

“We have lots of students who think about HBCUs but have to consider traveling across the country to go to an institution where they’re going to find that Black joy, Black excellence, Black dignity,” Ward said. “From what I’ve seen, in terms of the broader growth … word travels fast. There is definitely among students and families and school districts and educational leaders a real focus on Sacramento because it’s doing something that’s against the grain.”

That sense of community appealed to Manuel Tellez, a transfer student who grew up in Sacramento’s Oak Park neighborhood. Entering Sacramento State as a first-generation student, Tellez said he knew he needed the guidance of a strong Black community to feel comfortable and push himself academically, which he found in the Black Honors College.

“The Black Honors College pushed me to the next level [and] held me to a higher standard,” Tellez said. “Ever since then, my GPA has climbed, and I’ve been comfortable with going to school.”

Leland O’Neal, assistant program coordinator for the Black Honors College, said another strength of the college is the range of students and experiences represented within its cohorts.

“The pace of expansion has surprised me a little bit, but in a grand way,” O’Neal said. “We have students in that cohort, like Manuel, who are transfer students, but we also have students coming in who are as old as 69 or students who are as young as 19. So I think you really get a diverse array of perspectives and experiences.”

California State University, Sacramento

Building a network: As the Black Honors College has grown, so have its student supports. The college now offers financial literacy workshops, access to an in-house licensed therapist and events that celebrate Black culture. Mosupyoe said the number of professors affiliated with the college has also grown from 20 when the college began to 30 today.

“We have a community of administrators, staff and professors who are helping us really make sure that we provide what we have promised to students,” Mosupyoe said.

For Thrower, that support has extended beyond the classroom. She now works as a student assistant for the college and in that capacity has helped organize programming with the nonprofit Black Deaf Project to connect and socialize with students. The experience ultimately led her to an internship with the organization.

“The first piece of advice I got before college was that your net worth is your network,” Thrower said. “The Black Honors College has been that foundational network hub. I know people all over campus, and if I don’t know where to find some information, I know that I can go to the Black Honors College and they can direct me towards somebody who can help.”

(Updated 9/23, 12:20 p.m. to reflect the total number of students in the college.)

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