CSUN Launches New Program to Support Black Students
CSUN has launched the Bridge to the Future (B2F): Black Scholars Matter (BSM) program to bolster college retention and graduation rates among Black students.

Eleven teens who are part of an innovative program to help bolster college retention and graduation rates among Black students will start their journey at California State University, Northridge this month. The teens are part of the first cohort of the Bridge to the Future (B2F): Black Scholars Matter (BSM) program.

The program is an expansion of the university’s Bridge to the Future program, directed by sociology professor David Boyns, which removes many barriers to academic success by providing a tuition-free CSUN education to students from Canoga Park High School in Canoga Park, and additional support once they are on campus.

“Many colleges and universities across the country face challenges with increasing the number of students of African descent on their campuses. CSUN is no different,” said Africana studies professor Theresa White, director of Black Scholars Matter. “We’re always looking for ways to increase that pipeline. Our Bridge to the Future program has been quite effective in ensuring the success of historically underserved students from Canoga Park High School. That program’s second class of scholars just graduated in spring 2022.

“We decided to build on the success of Bridge to the Future and create the Black Scholars Matter component, tailoring it to specifically meet the needs of students of African descent,” White said. “Black Scholars Matter is a holistic, wrap-around program with an eco-system of support that includes tuition (above and beyond grants received specifically for tuition), intellectual, mental/emotional, spiritual and physical support for the students who are accepted to the program. All designed to empower them in their future endeavors.”

The Black Scholars Matter program is funded, in part, with support from campus diversity, equity and inclusion grants.

Deeja Ray, the BSM Outreach Coordinator, added that the program’s support “is life-changing in the way we give students the opportunity to grow in multiple venues of their life: mind, body and soul.”

White said the program is working with a variety of entities on campus — from the financial aid office, which helps students find the dollars needed to cover additional college costs beyond tuition such as fees and housing, to university counseling services, academic advisement in the Matador HUB, the Department of Recreation and Tourism and even the campus’s wellness center, the Oasis — to ensure the students have the support they need to succeed on campus and beyond.

“The program offers an engaging, educating, college experience that aims to empower the students,” White said. “We want them not only to succeed, but to excel.”

Patrick Anderson, the BSM creative media editor, said the program “offers scholars an opportunity to grow and achieve their dreams and aspirations, with the support of the BSM team.”

CSUN has partnered with educators at Hamilton High School in Los Angeles’ westside, Taft Charter High School in Woodland Hills, and Palisades Charter in Pacific Palisades to identify students who might be a good fit for the Black Scholars Matter program.

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