Chelsea Howard’s dream since she was a little girl was to go to Florida A&M University. Her grandfather graduated from the historically Black college in Tallahassee, and she has three cousins currently enrolled there.
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“FAMU means elevating,” said Howard, a freshman at Valencia College in Orlando. “It means learning around the Black community, seeing more of my people.”
Thanks to a new transfer partnership between Valencia and FAMU, Howard’s dream is now within her grasp.
Under the agreement signed by each school’s president at Valencia’s west campus on Tuesday, any Valencia student who earns an associate degree in arts, and select associate in science degrees, is now guaranteed admission into FAMU.
The initiative is similar to the one Valencia entered into 20 years ago with the University of Central Florida. Since 2006, more than 70,000 Valencia students have transferred to UCF under that “direct connect” program.
“It’s hard to get into these types of legacy colleges. A lot of students want to go there,” Howard said. “So this does relieve a lot of stress for me.”
Florida has long guaranteed that any student who gets an associate degree from a state college, once more commonly called community colleges, would be admitted into one of Florida’s state universities for their bachelor’s degree.
“But not necessarily the university that a student might have as their preference or the destination where they want to go,” said Kathleen Plinske, Valencia’s president. “FAMU is a highly selective institution.”
FAMU reports an acceptance rate of less than 18%.
More than 100 students from five Orange County Public Schools high schools attended the signing ceremony to hear how, if they started at Valencia, they could end up at FAMU.
“Even though they’re going to call you a puma, the day that you step foot on this campus, we want you to feel like a rattler,” said Marva Johnson, FAMU’s president, in a reference to both schools’ mascots.
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The audience erupted in applause.
Andrew Atherley, a 17-year-old senior at Wekiva High School who attended the ceremony, would like to study finance and business at FAMU. But he was worried that he would not get accepted right out of high school.
“I’m not the best test taker, so my SAT score isn’t as high as it should be,” Andrew said. But the new partnership has him feeling hopeful that he will get to go to FAMU. “It opens up more possibilities for me.”
The agreement between the two colleges is good for three years and takes effect immediately. To make the transfer, students must declare their intent to go to FAMU before earning 30 credit hours and complete their associate degree with an overall GPA of 2.0 or better.
FAMU will have a student advisor working full-time at Valencia to help prepare students to move from one school to the other.
“Transfer success is not simply about moving credits from one institution to another. It is about creating a coordinated student experience,” said FAMU Provost Allyson Watson. “This agreement establishes a framework for our academic and student-support teams to work together earlier and more intentionally.”
There is also some scholarship money available for qualifying students, who will be able to earn awards of $1,000 to $4,000 depending on their GPAs.
Howard, who hopes to major in psychology at FAMU, said the scholarship possibility gives her extra motivation to work hard.
“This opens up a lot of opportunities for me,” she said. “I’m so thankful for it.”
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