St. Augustine's luring west coast students with the HBCU experience

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- Raleigh's St. Augustine's University is expanding its recruiting reach bringing the HBCU experience to the West coast. St. Augustine's is launching its new HBCU Urban Access Hub this week.

The hub is a new collaboration with community colleges nationwide that aims to provide a new pipeline to a 4-year-college for students who live in places where there is no historically Black college or university..

St. Augustine's announced an agreement to launch the hub in Fresno, California. There is not a HBCU in Fresno. In fact, there is only one HBCU in the entire state of California.

"We know there are individuals wondering if it is possible to have a HBCU experience here in Fresno. And we're saying, you know, if there's any way to make this happen, we're on it, we're definitely on it," SAU President Dr. Christine Johnson McPhail said.

The Urban Access Hub program offers community college students guaranteed admission to St. Augustine's University with community college transfer grants of about $9,000 a year.