Title:A legacy of belonging

For nearly 60 years, Georgetown University’s Community Scholars Program has been a pioneer among college programs in supporting firstgeneration and limited-income college students. In Fall 2024, the program welcomed 88 incoming first-year students—the program’s largest cohort ever.

Managed by Georgetown’s Center for Multicultural Equity and Access, the Community Scholars Program is one of the nation’s oldest academic initiatives offering pre-first year, credit-bearing college courses to a diverse cohort of incoming undergraduates who are the first in their families to attend college. The program offers academic advising, mentoring, and personal counseling so students have the resources and network they need to thrive in Georgetown’s highly competitive environment. Often characterized as “the soul of Georgetown,” the Community Scholars Program reflects the university’s commitment to ensuring students from all backgrounds have the support and resources they need to explore their fullest potential.

The program sets Georgetown apart from other universities, says Ali Chaudhry (B’26), a Community Scholar and International Business Asia Regional Studies major. “Most universities sent me a letter saying, ‘Congratulations, you’re accepted!’ Only Georgetown mentioned a program for first-generation, low-income students,” says Chaudhry. “It reinforced Georgetown’s commitment towards caring for students and providing an accessible and equitable education for all. It was very impressive.”

Participants start their Georgetown experience with a five-week in-residence program the summer before the fall semester, which ensures a head start on earning college credit before their first year begins. The program provides a meal plan, room, and board and covers the cost of course materials for all summer classes, as well as travel expenses for students who live beyond a 250- mile radius of Washington, DC.

During that summer, students enroll in two credit-bearing courses. The first class, Writing and Culture, is an intensive course that prepares students to engage in college-level reading and writing across the curriculum. Scholars all read the same material during the summer program, allowing them to gather after class in study groups to discuss the readings, support each other when they need help, and brainstorm ideas together. They continue taking this course in the fall semester with the same faculty member and English graduate teaching assistants they had for the summer. For many students, it’s their first time getting direct, individualized feedback from instructors invested in their work as writers and their intellectual development as scholars.

During the summer session, students also enroll in an elective course from a selection that includes theology, economics, biology, government, sociology, and psychology. Scholars in the McDonough School of Business are invited to enroll in the Principles of Marketing business course, while students interested in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) enroll in the Principles and Practice biology course.

“The summer program is an entry point for many students to begin to create belonging and community, and to get exposure to academic rigor and acquire the school success strategies they need to flourish,” says Charlene BrownMcKenzie (C’95, G’23), a Community Scholars Program alumna who now serves as senior associate dean of students and executive director of access and success. “That support is available both in the summer and throughout their time at Georgetown.”

Distinct programs also set students up for academic success in business and STEM education. Students in Georgetown McDonough are invited to participate in the Business Scholars Program, which provides early curriculum exposure and mentorship to first-year, first-generation students from underserved backgrounds. Students interested in STEM are invited to join the Regents STEM Scholars, a program that offers academic support and opportunities to create a more equitable STEM community. Workshops, seminars, and academic advising sessions help refine students’ time management and study skills, and deans guide them through their rigorous summer coursework to prepare for the fall. Students also meet with financial aid counselors and other on-campus partners who support them throughout the academic year.

“Having the support of peers and knowing that you’ve already been successful in the classroom allows you to be confident in your ability to excel and be on par with others who come from wealthier, more well-connected backgrounds,” says Darius Wagner (C’27), vice president of the Georgetown University Student Association.

For Aya Waller-Bey (C’14), a 2015 Gates Cambridge Scholarship recipient and Class of 2025 doctoral candidate at the University of Michigan, those summer courses left an indelible mark years after graduation. “In one of the classes I took for the Community Scholars Program, we read Jonathan Kozol’s Savage Inequalities, and I wrote about that experience when I applied for my Ph.D. program,” she says. “The opportunity I had to learn about education inequality and get exposure to that literature in small classes where we were forced to think critically motivates a lot of the work that I’m doing 15 years later.”

A Strategy for Success

These support systems pave the way for first-year students to build a successful academic career at Georgetown. Experts say rates of first-year persistence (the share of students who stay in college from their first to second year) and retention (the share of students who re-enroll at a particular higher education institution) are strong predictors of college students’ likelihood of staying enrolled and completing their college degree.

“Community Scholars Program faculty and staff work hard to build a strong support system for our scholars because they worked so hard to get to Georgetown,” says Brown-McKenzie. “They are extraordinarily talented and the top of their class. They earn the highest possible test scores during extraordinary circumstances in their lives. We make sure they have clarity about where they’re heading and don’t lose themselves in the face of adversity.”

The Community Scholars Program surveyed students in 2022 and found that the summer session increased their academic preparedness, familiarity with Georgetown’s academic resources, and sense of social connection. The program’s graduation rate is 92%, according to its more recent data, compared to the average graduation rate of 26% for first-generation students nationwide. During the summer, students begin building their social capital, a supportive community of peers, faculty, and staff who will guide them through their college and career journey.

“The Community Scholars Program has been among the best teaching experiences I’ve had in my career,” says Christopher Shinn, an associate professor and director of graduate studies at Howard University’s English Department who has been teaching the Community Scholars Program’ Writing and Culture classes for over a decade. “It’s remarkable to see students’ confidence grow over time. Initially they come to Georgetown and it feels like some kind of dream. They experience impostor syndrome where they wonder, ‘Should I really be here?’” says Shinn, who was the first in his family to attend college. “By the end of the fall, they are proud to be Georgetown students, and they feel like they have a home here.”

Fostering a community of mutual support also helps students meet their academic goals while bonding with their peers. One of the program’s outreach activities, the Fourth Hour Study Group, organizes group study sessions for first-year students outside of their curricular commitments with upperclass scholars who consult them on class assignments, help them navigate college, and aid them in translating course material to real-world applications.

Emmanuel Palacios (C’26), a mathematics major, realized the importance of peer support as a Fourth Hour instructor. “As an instructor, I see these students’ progress and relate to their struggles as first-generation, low-income students. It’s had a tremendous impact on me,” says Palacios. “They have these learning gaps because of COVID and the failures of the education system. They come to college and don’t know how to approach certain problems. The Community Scholars Program does a tremendous job filling in those gaps and giving students confidence and a sense of hope.”

The program’s holistic approach also allows students to show up on campus as their whole selves. “I really learned the importance of seeing myself as a person before seeing myself as a student,” says Myla Taylor (SFS’27), who is majoring in International Politics. “When you’re bogged down by the rigor or seeking out professional opportunities, you’re affirmed and comforted by a community that’s built from the start, and you come to realize that you’re not solely defined by your academics or the things you can do. It’s great to do well on an exam, but it’s also important to take care of myself in the process.”

“We strive to make higher education accessible and achievable for many talented students across the country,” Brown-McKenzie says. “The Community Scholars Program is one the most visible ways Georgetown lives out its Jesuit values of a community in diversity, academic excellence, and cura personalis, or care of the whole person.”

The program’s mission embodies those values. “That sense of cura personalis was modeled by the faculty and staff,” says Waller-Bey. “When you’re seen as just another person in the classroom or are reduced to a stereotype about your race, gender, or class identity, it is difficult to thrive. The Community Scholars Program saw me in my fullness. Their commitment to equity, access, and inclusion felt like love to me.”

Reaching out into the community

The core mission of the program was first proposed during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, when the university committed to meeting the needs of the predominantly Black, disenfranchised youth living in Washington, DC. To achieve these ends, Georgetown faculty volunteered to teach high-achieving Washington, DC, public high school juniors and seniors from underserved communities, instructing them via summer sessions and monthly seminars during the academic year. The budding program was a success.

“The impact of this program on the morale and interests not only of the participants but also of their classmates has been far beyond what any of us could have imagined it would be,” wrote English Department Assistant Professor Roger L. Slakey to Nursing School Dean Ann Douglas in a 1964 letter.

To continue fostering student achievement, Georgetown faculty requested that the university eventually enroll a select group of highly qualified Black college applicants they had worked with. They also proposed that those students receive a faculty tutor in their first year at Georgetown to help them navigate barriers to their academic success.

Six students formed the first cohort of the Community Scholars Program in Fall 1968, a tumultuous year in the country and in DC. Violent civil unrest spread across the nation’s capital after the April 4 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., just days after he had delivered his final Sunday sermon at the National Cathedral. With the Community Scholars Program, Georgetown established a mutual partnership between the Hilltop and underresourced schools in the District in accordance with Jesuit values and with the support of deans, faculty, and staff.

“No modern urban university can in conscience ignore the problems of the inner city and urbanization. Let’s divide up the work and get on with it,” said Robert J. Henle, S.J. in a message to the university community when he became president of Georgetown in 1969.

In the next five decades, the mission of the program has expanded from providing academic support to Black students in the District to contributing to the successful retention and graduation of first-generation undergraduate students at Georgetown who typically represent a wide variety of diverse backgrounds and lived experiences. The curriculum also developed from a pre-first-year summer program in writing and math, to a four-year program and wraparound support services that kicks off with the credit-bearing summer session of today.

In recent years, the Community Scholars Program helped students rebound from disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic, which disproportionately affected lower-income communities.

“Its Class of 2025, which is my class, was the first to come back from COVID, and for most of us, the last time we were on campus was our sophomore or junior year of high school,” says Julien Sims (B’25), an accounting major and president of the Nu Beta Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. “However, the summer program allowed us to get re-acclimated to work and be educated in a classroom setting, which has been extremely beneficial.”

Fostering student success

For the last 20 years, the program has been complemented by initiatives such as the Georgetown Scholars Program (GSP). While the Community Scholars Program offers academic support, GSP provides wraparound resources such as mentorship, professional development, and microgrants to further position first-generation and limited-income undergraduate students for success. All participants in the Community Scholars Program receive additional financial and basic needs support through GSP.

Both Community Scholars Program and GSP participants are poised to have even more significant roles at Georgetown, as the university continues to expand its enrollment of low-income students and ensure they have the tools they need to flourish on campus and in their chosen careers. The Class of 2028 includes the highest percentage of students who are Pell-eligible—meaning they receive federal grants because of significant financial need—in more than a decade, with 15% of the class qualifying for the designation.

That combined financial, academic, and community support has changed how scholars move through the world after they’ve left campus. “The Community Scholars Program at Georgetown was one of the most formative experiences of my life,” says Sundaa Bridgett-Jones (SFS’93), chief partnership and advocacy officer for the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet. “It helped me and other first-generation students who shared a deep drive for excellence understand that we belong—in any setting, in any room.”

“The Community Scholars Program gave me a North Star. Everywhere I go, I try to replicate the environment I had in the program,” says Michael Sobalvarro (C’16), a current M.D. candidate at Georgetown University School of Medicine. “It gave me a standard of who I should surround myself with, because anything less is toxic to your dreams.”