Saint Augustine’s Creates Fresno Transfer Pathway

Saint Augustine’s University, a historically Black institution in Raleigh, N.C., is expanding its outreach to community college students in Fresno, Calif., through a new transfer pathway, university leaders announced Wednesday.

Participating community college graduates who earned an associate degree in a field offered at Saint Augustine will be guaranteed admission to the HBCU and are eligible for a Community College Transfer Grant of $8,945 per year. The grant will be automatically renewed for one academic year if the student maintains a GPA of 2.8 or above.

The new transfer option is an effort by the HBCU Urban Access Hub, an initiative to partner with community colleges across the country located in areas that don’t have HBCUs and create pipelines to Saint Augustine.

“Expanding to Fresno, California, makes sense,” Christine Johnson McPhail, president of Saint Augustine’s University, said in a press release. “I consider Fresno my second home. I graduated from Fresno City College and Fresno State University. So, this is my way of giving back to a place that has given me so much.”

The university plans to hold an information session in Fresno on July 1, open to rising seniors, community college transfers and recent graduates and older adult learners. Eligible students have an opportunity to be accepted to the university on-site at the event, provided they bring their transcripts and meet the minimum requirements.