A College Transition Program for African American Students
Your application did not give you admittance.
Your bloodline did — long ago.
"We go back to what our students already carry — and we bring it forward with them."
Sankofa Fellowship is a 6-week church-based college transition program rooted in the post-emancipation legacy of the Black church — the institution that has guided African American communities through every transformation this nation has demanded of us.
This program does not teach students to survive in white spaces. It teaches them to enter those spaces already knowing who they are — ancestrally, academically, and communally.
The church provides the covenant. We provide the curriculum. The student provides the future.
African scholars, healers, architects, legal minds, and scientists predate every American university. Your application did not give you admittance. Your bloodline did — long ago.
— Sankofa Fellowship Foundation"Go back and fetch it."
The Sankofa bird flies forward while looking back — carrying its past as its power. Our students carry more than they know. This program helps them remember.
Students trace African ancestral contributions to modern majors and careers. The message is clear: you did not earn your seat at this institution. You inherited it. African scholars, architects, healers, and legal minds predate every American university.
Students confirm their 1st and 2nd choice major with intention and strategy. Confusion is expensive — in time, in money, and in momentum. This module produces grounded direction and a backup plan that still honors purpose.
Students connect their academic path to community giving. What will they bring back? To whom? This module anchors the WHY behind the work — and prevents the drift that happens when students lose sight of why they went in the first place.
Students identify their learning and communication styles, upgrade their study and note-taking strategies, and learn when to code switch, when to code mix, and how to return to cultural balance — preventing erasure in predominantly white academic spaces.
Students learn roommate contracts, how to document racial disruption, what to expect from predominantly white academic culture, and how to navigate institutional expectations without losing themselves in the process.
Students prepare mentally, emotionally, and spiritually for the journey ahead. They prepare themselves for change — and they prepare their goodbyes: words and actions that honor their family, themselves, and the road ahead. The capstone poster board presentation follows Graduation Sunday for those who remain after service.
The church provides the covenant. We provide the curriculum. Together we send students forward.
The church launches the program in its own voice, its own culture, its own enthusiasm. The congregation commissions the students before they begin — setting the spiritual and communal foundation for everything that follows.
Students complete Modules 1–3 through a guided online course — lineage, major clarity, and community purpose. The church holds accountability throughout.
Students return to the church to present their identity and cultural exercises. Church leaders facilitate — in their own voice, their own culture, their own spirit.
Students complete Modules 4–6 — navigating the PWI terrain, preparing mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, and crafting their goodbyes and capstone presentation.
Students are formally recognized as Sankofa Fellows before the full congregation. A cake ceremony follows — the community celebrates their path. For those who remain after service, students present their college success plan poster boards in a community showcase. The church opens. The congregation stays. The students shine.
The congregation that watched these students grow up now watches them step forward — with a plan, a purpose, and the full weight of their ancestral heritage behind them. The church does not just send them off. The church commissions them.
Each student displays their complete college success plan — major, purpose, community commitment — for the congregation to witness.
Students are formally recognized before the full congregation as inaugural Sankofa Fellows — a title they carry to campus.
The congregation walks among the displays, meets the students, and celebrates their path forward. Church culture. Community investment. Lasting memory.
This is the post-emancipation model. The institution invests. The community receives. The next generation thrives.
"Families pay nothing. The church makes the investment. The community receives the return."
June 2026 inaugural cohort · Limited to 3–5 churches per state · Ohio · Connecticut · Georgia · CaliforniaJune 2026 National Launch
Space is limited to 3–5 church partners per state. Agreements are accepted on a first-confirmed basis.
J.D. · MBA · MA · Fulbright-Hays Scholar
Sankofa Fellowship was not invented in a boardroom. It was built from 15 years of watching African American students arrive at Ohio State — brilliant, capable, and utterly unprepared for what the institution was about to ask of them culturally, psychologically, and socially.
"African American students do not need to be saved. They need to be reminded of who they already are."
The curriculum draws on Fulbright-Hays research in Ghana, 15 years of college access work at OSU, legal training, and a foundational belief that the Black church remains the most powerful institution in African American community life — and that it has always been in the business of preparing its young people for the world ahead.
Sankofa Fellowship is the convergence of all of it. The scholarship. The legal mind. The access professional. The historian. The daughter of this community.
June 1, 2026 launch · Limited church partnerships available · 4 states
To reserve your church's place in the inaugural June 2026 cohort, reach out directly. A 20-minute conversation is all it takes to confirm whether Sankofa Fellowship is the right fit for your congregation and your students.
Request a Conversation