By Jessica Easthope
Sabrina Tayeh isn’t Catholic, she’s a practicing Muslim, but at St. Francis College her faith is accepted and embraced.
As a rising sophomore, Sabrina says she remembers applying to St. Francis, knowing she was being looked at as an individual.
“It made my admission here more genuine, it was more about who I was and getting to know me and my experiences before that.”
That’s how St. Francis College looks at every prospective student, regardless of race, religion or financial status. Robert Oliva the vice president of enrollment management says in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning affirmative action, St. Francis is more committed than ever to inclusion.
“Overturning affirmative action has actually allowed St. Francis College to reaffirm and double down on our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, values that are intrinsically Franciscan,” Oliva said.
At St. Francis college 65 percent of the school are students of color and every student admitted receives some kind of tuition assistance. Figures Ali Scott the director of marketing, government relations and community affairs says are some of the ways the school keeps to its Franciscan values.
“We are about making sure everyone has an opportunity to get the education they deserve,” said Scott.
After the decision, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops called on Catholic colleges and universities to uphold their commitment to education access.
“It is our hope that our Catholic institutions of higher learning will continue to find ways to make education possible and affordable for everyone, regardless of their background,” read a USCCB statement.
And Sabrina says maybe the decision will force other colleges to do what St. Francis has done all along.
“I think that this will have an opportunity for colleges to actually get to know the people that they’re admitting more rather than just the statistics they have on paper,” she said.
Sabrina works in the admissions office, she says if anyone applying to college feels like supreme court decision hurts their chances, St. Francis College might be the place for you.