A meeting with his high school guidance counselor proved life changing for Curtis Davidson. His advisor encouraged him to drop out of the college preparatory track and directed him toward vocational training – to be an auto mechanic. As an African-American, Mr. Davidson didn’t think that the counselor’s advice was racially motivated, but it wasn’t what he wanted to hear. He was determined to get a college degree and used his excellence in athletics to do just that. That experience instilled in him a passion for higher education and a dogged determination to prevent any counselor from ever telling high school students that they cannot go to college.

Mr. Davidson graduated from the University of Findlay in Ohio with a Bachelor of Arts degree in business. He was the director of admissions and assistant football coach at his alma mater before becoming senior associate director of admissions at Christopher Newport University. Now he fulfills an important role in helping minority students find their niche at CNU. He is excited to see the University’s aggressive efforts to recruit minorities who strive to be successful and need the support of a strong university to get them started.

“It’s a team effort that has led to this,” Mr. Davidson said of the rise in minority recruitment in the past several years at CNU. He added that he was “blown away” by President Paul Trible’s vision that has led to the University’s dramatic growth and increase in minority recruitment.

“It’s so heartening to be in a place where you are part of its growth, and you can help build the customs and traditions that contribute to the creation of a great institution: an institution that will stand in the community for hundreds of years to come,” he said.

Recognizing the need to reach out to the minority community, President Trible set up a task force in 2002 that consisted of members of CNU’s Board of Visitors, administrators, faculty, staff and current students as well as local community leaders. This diverse group meets throughout the year to discuss strategies to increase minority enrollment at CNU.

Thaddeus Holloman Sr., Board of Visitors member and a prominent leader in the Newport News community, said he felt the urgent need to help minority students overcome perceived barriers before, during and even after the application process. As senior vice president of Old Point National Bank in Newport News, Mr. Holloman has been instrumental in establishing the successful Captains for Excellence program at CNU.

The program’s purpose is to increase minority enrollment in colleges and universities. It is not meant necessarily to encourage students to choose to attend CNU, but to encourage first-generation minority students to find an institution of higher learning that best suits them. The two-year mentoring program supports high school juniors and seniors in their endeavors to attend college by helping with financial aid and preparation for the SAT and ACT tests. These students’ fees for taking the tests are paid through the program. Students also are taken on tours to various college campuses.

Mr. Holloman said that Captains for Excellence is at a pilot stage with 20 juniors and seniors. He said that he hopes that with more funds, the program’s true potential can be realized, and more minority students can be included. Two students who graduated from the program are now attending CNU, and Mr. Holloman hopes they will form a bond with newer Captains for Excellence recruits, who in turn, would also choose to attend CNU.

Guidance counselors from public schools in Newport News recommend minority students with a high level of academic potential for Captains for Excellence, and the program is supported whole-heartedly by the superintendent of Newport News Public Schools, Dr. Marcus Newsome.

“Programs like the CFE are a tremendous help because it establishes a mindset in minority students that they too can attend college,” said Dr. Newsome, whose son is a high school senior and a member of Captains for Excellence. “The CFE helps them prepare for a life beyond high school by taking them on tours to various colleges in the state and introducing them to other minority student role models who are now in college.”

Among other minority initiatives in place at CNU are student organizations such as the Multicultural Student Association, designed to deal exclusively with problems facing minority students. CNU also hosts two events each year for minority students to visit the University. They tour the campus, learn about CNU and spend valuable time with current CNU students. Many of them stay overnight as guests of current students.

Kamala Hill, student director of Captains for Excellence, participated in one such campus tour in fall 2001 and picked CNU as her college of choice. Kamala is currently a senior majoring in communication studies, the president of the Multicultural Student Association and a member of CNU’s President’s Leadership Program.

Kamala explains that minority students often are exposed only to historically black colleges and universities – if they are exposed to college life at all. Many parents of minority students did not attend college and know very little about the application process. Kamala said that her family was convinced they didn’t have enough money to send her to college, and that most minority students don’t realize that if they look hard enough, there is money available to attend college.

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