Virginia State just welcomed more students than in its 143-year history

When Virginia State University opened in 1883, it had 126 students. This autumn it counted more than 6,350 — the highest enrollment in its history, passing the record of 6,200 set in 2012. The entering class is a record too: 1,725 first-year students arrived on the Ettrick campus. The growth has been steady and steep, from 4,020 students in 2020 to more than 5,750 last fall and now this. Vice President Alexis Brooks-Walter framed the numbers as trust: every one of these students arrived with a goal and entrusted the university with helping them achieve it. President Makola M. Abdullah called it a powerful statement about the confidence students and families are placing in the institution.

SDG 4 · Quality education — Mechanism: institutional program