Sacramento State's Black Honors College tops 800 students as Black enrollment and graduation climb

Not long ago Zyearre Amoah sometimes felt like the only Black student at Sacramento State, a campus of more than 30,000. Black students were there, he says, but they had to go looking for one another. Today he works for the school's Black Honors College recruiting new students and he says the change is easy to see. Black students are visible and finding each other is simple now.

The Black Honors College launched in 2024, the year Amoah graduated. It works as a school within the university that centers Black history, life and culture across its courses. It now counts more than 800 students in its third year.

University President Luke Wood, who helped build the program, says the campus had long struggled to give Black students a real shot at success. The honors college was designed as a direct answer to that problem while staying open to anyone who wants to join. Students of every background can enroll and some non-Black students apply because they want a focused, high-level academic experience.

Classes with a Black studies lens

Every course in the college is taught through a Black studies perspective. A math class, for example, weaves in the stories of pioneering Black mathematicians. Professors are picked for their record of helping Black students succeed, including low rates of students dropping or failing their classes.

The college's headquarters on the first floor of the campus library stays busy. Students drop in to meet advisers or ask about tuition while professors prepare for class in the corner. Many describe it as a home base.

Finding community

Junior Naomi Thrower, who studies Deaf Studies and American Sign Language, had hoped to attend a historically Black college but California does not have one. The honors college became her closest option. Growing up in the East Bay she was teased as a girl who did not fit in and she wanted a college home full of driven students who looked like her.

She runs a natural hair business on campus that lets her express her creativity. She remembers friends from high school who never understood why washing and styling her hair could take all day. In the honors college, friends simply pitch in to help, sharing music and conversation along the way. That, she says, was the community she had been missing.

Students often point to Ubuntu, a South African idea usually translated as "I am because we are," as the heart of their experience.

Results that matter

Dean Boatamo Ati Mosupyoe says women make up most of the enrollment, as at many colleges. She wants more Black men to join and thrive. Her plan includes adding male mentors and role models to support them once they arrive.

The program has held firm while many colleges nationwide have scaled back similar efforts under federal pressure. Wood says it follows state and federal law and that the payoff is clear. Black enrollment at Sacramento State is up and more Black students are coming back each year and earning their degrees. He believes many more universities could do the same.