When I first came to Transy five years ago, one of the central themes I introduced was opening doors. The obvious metaphor is that education opens doors to our students by empowering them to make choices about the direction their lives take. Our education liberates students to move beyond some of the restrictions that society imposes on those without an education.
Our students have more choices to chart their own path because, not only do they develop skills that open doors to jobs, they develop understanding about how things work, about the structures of society, about the challenges that need to be addressed, and most of all about themselves and who they most want to be.
The work Bryan Station High School and its academies are doing to empower individuals goes hand-in-hand with our mission at Transylvania and we value that work.
We also value students’ potential to do even better work and their potential to make a difference in the world. We want them to stay right here in Lexington and study with us at one of the best schools in the country. We want them to come to Transylvania.
So beginning this year, students who graduate from Bryan Station’s Academy of Information Technology and are admitted to Transylvania will receive an automatic minimum, renewable scholarship of $18,000 per year.
As a Transy student, they may choose any of our 46 majors, but can also continue studies in the field through our Computer Science program or Digital Liberal Arts initiative.
Fifty years ago, Transy graduated its first computer science students. Our graduates work as software engineers, database managers, system administrators, and even research directors and corporate executives.
The field has changed drastically in those 50 years — IT is integrated into every facet of our daily lives. It has changed the way we work, the way we communicate, the way we live.
So last year, we launched our new Digital Liberal Arts initiative — to teach students how to use digital technologies and to study how they affect every aspect of the world. We’re innovating to support our students’ academic experience… with tools and spaces dedicated to cutting-edge digital technologies.
This scholarship is just the first step to success. Academy graduates accepted to Transy are also eligible for additional merit-based scholarships and financial aid opportunities. The average financial aid package for incoming students is approximately $27,000 a year, making the actual costs of college more affordable.
It is important to keep in mind also that our students are also more likely to graduate in four years when compared to other Kentucky colleges. Almost 70 percent of Transy’s first-year students graduate in four years, as opposed to an average of 19.6 percent at public universities and 34.2 percent at other private institutions.
We believe so strongly our students will graduate on time that we have the Pioneer Pledge—a four-year guarantee that if a student follows the steps and still doesn’t graduate on time, we’ll pay for them to finish.
A little over a month ago, I welcomed our Class of 2022 to campus. It’s the most diverse class in Transylvania’s history and almost 18 percent are first-generation college students.
I shared with them that one of our goals is to help them find meaningful employment. But our mission is to help them make a meaningful life.
We hope that through the partnership we’ve announced with Bryan Station, more Defenders will choose to do just that by joining our family of Pioneers.