BLACK ADMITTED STUDENTS DAY
Turning community insight into infrastructure.
The challenge
Make belonging tangible for prospective students and translate members’ needs into sustained organizational change.
The decision
I treated community exposure as part of recruitment. As a prospective Black student, I’d had little access to Black students or a real sense of campus life. Bentley’s MOSAIC showed how much a post-commitment experience could help students of color feel connected. I brought that principle earlier into admissions, creating space for one-on-one conversations, cultural context and direct access to current students while prospective Black students were still deciding whether Bentley was for them.
The more clearly people can see themselves in an experience, the easier it is to believe it could be for them.
The approach
Founded Black Admitted Students Day, developed a member needs assessment and BUB’s first formal two-year DEI strategic plan. Helped connect BUB to Bentley’s Celtics partnership, bringing 20+ Boston high school students into conversations with Black women leaders in sports business.
The outcome
- RELATIVE INCREASE IN BLACK ENROLLMENT
- 50%
- YEARS OF PRESIDENTIAL FUNDING
- 3
BASD became recurring university programming with sustained presidential support. The class it engaged reached 6% Black first-year enrollment, compared with a typical 4%.
The enrollment comparison describes the cohort reached by the initiative; it does not isolate the program as the sole cause of the change.
College access beyond campus
Alongside Black Admitted Students Day, I led Bentley’s involvement in ConnectED, a college-preparation program with WPS Institute for Black, Hispanic and low-income high school juniors and seniors from Newton Public Schools. The program brought together college mentors and community partners to support college selection, application planning, personal statements and preparation for financial-aid applications, including the FAFSA and CSS Profile.