I want to personally welcome you and thank you for visiting Sojourner-Douglass College's website. As president of Sojourner-Douglass College, a community-controlled institution of higher education, proudly established by community residents to empower community residents to assume leadership in community institutional and economic development, I extend greetings from the entire Sojourner-Douglass College family.

Each of us walks through life and confronts obstacles and frustrations and brick walls that seem insurmountable; each of us knows the loneliness of trying to solve life's problems single-handedly. When challenged by such difficulties as those we face today, those that threaten not only our peace and tranquility but sometimes our very existence, each of us then understands the pain of isolation and the incredible burden of leadership and responsibility.

You now have an institution to which you can turn. The purpose of Sojourner-Douglass College is to provide a learning model that will aid students in increasing their capacity for self-development and self-expression, and will facilitate their engagement in effective social action as members of the world community. We engage in transformational education that resurrects the student and the community, restoring both and instilling the tools to generate new life.

The focus of our educational philosophy is on how we learn to negotiate and act on our own purposes, values, feelings, and meanings rather than those we have uncritically assimilated from others to gain greater control over our lives, and our communities as socially responsible, critical thinking decision makers.

Student's learning methods engage the community where learning can be reconciled with action and study, a concept that reflects student growth through social and academic utility. Rather than viewing education as an end, we view it as a means by which the community enhances its social, economic, and cultural development.

I hope you share our vision. It is only a matter of time, I feel, before the entire community will recognize what we have come to know, and replicate the work we are doing. That you have visited our website means you have already taken the first step towards the future you deserve.

This is your institution. We invite you to inquire about our academic and/or our professional development programs or to volunteer at the College. There are many important tasks that volunteers can perform. If you are interested in helping out, please call (410) 276-1844 ext. 341, to speak to Ms. Jumoke Boston, who is our Volunteer Coordinator this year.

Thank you.
Charles W. Simmons, Ph.D.
President