and staying in Melrose Cottage... To know that my grandfather’s name is still connected to helping Cheyney students take that next step in their education…it’s just really special to see.” — Ms. Gretchen Underwood Tucker, granddaughter of Dr. Leslie Pinckney Hill A PIPELINE CHANGES WHAT STUDENTS BELIEVE IS POSSIBLE. At Cheyney, we have learned that making money available is only part of the work. Students have to know the opportunity exists. They need someone to explain the requirements, help them navigate applications and expose them to graduate and professional schools before they are expected to decide whether those spaces are for them. That is why the Cheyney University Honors Academy approaches Bond-Hill as more than a scholarship application. Students are connected to graduate- school advising, application assistance, campus visits, professional conferences, entrance-exam preparation and other
Cheyney’s investment in them does not have to end when they cross the commencement stage.” WHEN MONEY STOPS BEING THE REASON YOU SAY NO For Kirsten Mosley, Bond-Hill made continuing her education feel possible in a very practical way. “Growing up, graduate school wasn’t something I could just assume would happen for me. There were a lot of things I had to figure out along the way. Bond-Hill took one of the biggest questions — “How am I going to pay for this?” — off the table. Now I’m earning my MBA at West Chester University, and I can think less about whether I can afford to keep going and more about how far I actually want to go.”
The second can tell them: You don’t have to stop here.
IT’S TIME FOR BOND-HILL TO STOP BEING A SECRET More than four decades after its creation, Bond-Hill continues to expand educational opportunity. But an opportunity cannot transform a life if the person who needs it never knows it exists. That is why our work at Cheyney is bigger than administering a scholarship. We are trying to build a culture where students hear the words graduate school before senior year. There is a line connecting all of this. It stretches from Dr. Leslie Pinckney Hill, the son of formerly enslaved parents who pursued an advanced education and dedicated his life to educating Black students, to the scholarship that now bears his name. It stretches to a former Bond-Hill Scholar who returned to Cheyney and now helps students access the same opportunity.
There is a particular power in what is happening at Cheyney.
America’s first Historically Black College and University has spent nearly two centuries creating educational opportunities for students who were once legally and systematically excluded from higher education. That work continues. Only now, the question is not simply whether our students can earn a college degree. We are asking: What comes after it? Law school? Medical school? An MBA? A doctorate? Public service? Research? Leadership? For students who may be the first in their families to earn a bachelor's degree, graduate education can change more than the letters behind their names. It can change what younger siblings believe is possible. It can change the careers available to them. It can change earning potential. It can change the kind of expertise they bring back into their communities. And sometimes, simply seeing someone from your family, neighborhood or university accomplish something makes it easier for the next person to imagine doing it too.
It stretches to Kirsten, pursuing her MBA at West Chester University.
opportunities designed to make graduate education feel tangible.
And it stretches to more than 30 Cheyney Bond-Hill Scholars entering graduate and professional programs this fall.
They visit institutions. They sit in classrooms. They meet professors and admissions professionals. They learn about entrance exams. They ask questions about applications, careers and financial aid. Graduate school slowly stops being this distant thing that “other people” do. It becomes something they can picture themselves doing too.
Someday, it will stretch through them to someone else.
And it is time more students know that possibility belongs to them, too.
For Dr. Janelle L. West, Dean of the Honors Academy, that work is personal.
“I know what Bond-Hill can mean because I was once the student receiving the scholarship. Now I get to sit across from students and tell them about an opportunity that helped shape my own journey. I don’t want them hearing about graduate school for the first time three months before commencement. I want our freshmen imagining it, our sophomores exploring it, our juniors preparing for it and our seniors applying. Most importantly, I want them to know that
The first degree can tell a student: You belong here.
HBCU TIMES FALL ISSUE 2026 | 4 9
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