Message from the President

On September 27, 2008, the Board of Trustees agreed that Bay Ridge College will be a two-year residential junior college for Young Men of Color.

This decision commits Bay Ridge to addressing the need for providing educational opportunities for young men of color. Research point out that this student population lags behind other male peers in every area of economic advances because of lack of achievement in their academic development. The future of America is intricately tied to the future of this population. In a globally competitive economy, America needs all hands on deck! We have no people to discard, be they yellow, red black or white, male or female. Research also shows that students of color, both male and female, excel in single-gender educational environments. Morehouse College and Spelman College, two of our more notable Historically Black, single-gender colleges, have been graduating young men and women who have gone on to excel in every area imaginable.

There are many reasons our young men are not achieving academically. We can blame the home, the schools, society or the young men themselves. Whatever the cause, now is the time to take action to offset the impact of the current trends of destruction. Every year, the prison population, as well as the ranks of under-employed and unemployed, are filled with young men of color especially African-American and Hispanic. At the same time, fewer of these males attend and graduate from the Nation's colleges. Many families and community leaders search for solutions to this dilemma.

Bay Ridge College is positioning itself to be part of the solution. Currently, Morehouse College is the only institution of higher education solely committed to a single-gender college focusing on the education of young men of color. Bay Ridge will be the second, with a proposed two-year residential junior college program. The college will offer an Associate of Arts degree, transferable to four-year colleges and universities. Currently, we are working with several colleges and universities to position Bay Ridge as a potential feeder school, providing these institutions with mature and academically competent young men who will complete their chosen courses of study at these institutions.

Bay Ridge's curricula will focus on Transformational Teaching and Learning for Change™ practices that create "student scholars" who will be successful at traditional four-year colleges and universities and in the world of work beyond their postsecondary studies. Our highly structured approach to education will utilize the Cognitive Restructuring Model™ (re-programming) that combats previous failures in students' academic achievement.

We will also work with faculty and staff to create a learning community that celebrates our various cultures and traditions that continue to sustain us through the current ills that plague the communities from which many of our student scholars will evolve. Bay Ridge is a child of the Civil Rights Movement, and we must prepare our sons to continue to fight for justice, equal opportunities and to liberate the oppressed though literacy as demonstrated by both Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Paulo Freire.

Our vision and mission is clear. Our goal is to build a world-class technologically advanced college campus to educate, equip and empower African-American young men, ages 18 to 21.

Our first phase will cost 10 million dollars. These funds will be used to complete the building of a 50,000-square-feet educational center, build and refurbish residential housing, and increase our educational endowments.

With you as a partner, we believe we can accomplish our mission and reopen the campus for the fall of 2013 for 300 to 500 deserving students. Support Bay Ridge and join a movement to help provide educational opportunities for our youth by giving online today. I encourage you to visit our web site often to learn of our progress.

We are at risk of losing a generation of promising young men. This leaves not only their local communities, but the global community, at risk of losing brain- and values-based power that could solve many of our pressing problems and propel us into the society we all hope to develop and pass on to future generations. Join Bay Ridge College-now-in our efforts. Our collective future depends on it.

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