In 2005, Marcus Baker’s freshman year at a Christian university in North Carolina was short-lived. A series of what he calls “discipline problems” got him suspended and sent back home to Portsmouth, Va. Six years went by, but, at the urging of a good friend who convinced him to give college another try, Baker said yes.
Today, Baker, 25, is president of the Student Government Association at Tidewater Community College’s (TCC) Portsmouth campus; he’s striving and eager to channel his “passion for working in the community” into a job as a social worker. An excited Baker is about a year away from tackling a bachelor’s degree program in social work at the historically Black Norfolk State University in Virginia, but he is already getting a jump start on his university experience.
Baker, the father of two young children, is a regular visitor at Norfolk State, where he has begun to plot his academic track with faculty and advisers there and from TCC. And when he wants to attend cultural and sporting events at the university, Baker can flash the Norfolk State student activity card that he has been issued, although he hasn’t officially been admitted to the university.
This kind of early access and academic support are among the benefits Baker and about 325 other community college students are receiving through the HBCU-Community College Initiative, spearheaded by the African-American women’s service organization, The Links, Inc. This three-year, $500,000 program is aimed at channeling community college students to HBCUs while removing many of the barriers that often keep those at two-year institutions from graduating and transferring.
Like Baker, Elysse Greenwood, a 29-year-old nursing major, is one of 26 TCC students selected to be a “Links Scholar.” As she prepares to pursue her bachelor’s degree in nursing at Norfolk State University and inch closer to her dream of becoming a psych nurse, the doubts Greenwood once had about being “college material” and smart enough to succeed at a four-year institution are far behind her. But when she leaves TCC, The Links safety net and supports Greenwood has been given won’t go away.
“We’re not there yet, but I feel that we are already Spartans,” says Greenwood, referencing the Norfolk State mascot. Greenwood will be the first of the TCC-Links cohorts to transfer to Norfolk State in December, but when she gets there, she plans to build on the relationships she’s already forged through Links networking opportunities and step confidently into the courses that have been planned for her.
While Greenwood and Baker were already participating in TCC’s “Open Door Project,” a federally funded college success program, The Links transfer initiative represents added and personal resources for students for whom an HBCU education may be out of reach because of tuition costs and academic requirements, says Kay Williams, who directs TCC’s Open Door Project and The Links Scholars. Already, the university has waived the admissions application fee for students like Greenwood, who is on track to finish this semester, Williams adds.
