For years, Houghton College has immersed itself into the overall welfare of the Buffalo refugee community. Two years ago the college started up a satellite location at First Presbyterian Church (Symphony Circle) called Houghton College Buffalo. The program is designed to attend to the educational needs of factions of the refugee community. To date, the two-year associate program has been so successful that students are graduating with associate’s degrees in just two years… debt free.
Since launching the initiative, the first graduates are right now coming online. While the initial class was relatively small, the success rate was enormous. 80% of the 16 original students will be moving on. That’s a significant achievement, especially when, according the college, “The national average for community college graduates who earn associate degrees hovers around 4 percent.”
The intent of the West Side class location was to provide affordable higher education to these economically vulnerable and culturally marginalized groups without forcing them to leave their new communities.
Even better, the students will be graduating debt free thanks to federal, state and Houghton College grants. Next, the students will be making a choice as to whether they will continue on to achieve a four-year degree, or directly enter into the workforce.
Incredibly, come September, the school will be able to accommodate 60 students and will be taking over another floor of the church. According to the college, there is a future capacity to enroll 200 students.
If you stop to think about it, if the success rate continues, and the school grows as it intends on doing, then we could be looking at a win-win for the refugees and for a historic church that could certainly benefit from housing a tenant of this nature.
For more information on Houghton College Buffalo, visit www.houghton.edu/buffalo or call 716-222-9615.