Program Celebrates Its First Graduate, among Other Successes
By Matthew Burglund
When she heard she would be the first student from the first cohort of the Crimson Scholars Circle to graduate from IUP, Victoria Alao needed a moment.
December graduate Victoria Alao
She thought about the path that brought her to IUP, her struggles when she got here, the support she needed and received, and the metamorphosis she experienced on campus.
And when Tom Segar, vice president for Student Affairs, congratulated her a few days before her December 2024 graduation and pointed out her unique role in IUP history, she finally understood what she had accomplished.
“When Dr. Segar told me that,” she said, “I had this realization of how far I had come. The resilience I had was something that I didn’t know I had when I came to IUP. He said it was a full-circle moment for the Crimson Scholars Circle, but it was a full-circle moment for me, too.”
Using the resources of the Crimson Scholars Circle—a program created in 2021 to prepare and support first-year Black and Brown students who may be underprepared for college—Alao progressed from an uncertain learner to a college graduate. And she did it in just three and a half years.
“That’s a beautiful story in itself,” said Roger Briscoe ’09, M’10, D’23, executive director of Student Inclusion and a member of the team that oversees the Crimson Scholars Circle. “I always talk about having that personal drive to succeed, and she has it. It’s intrinsic with Alao. If you have that drive, you can accomplish bigger and better things than you ever thought.”
Team-building exercises are part of the Crimson Scholars Circle’s early immersion week.
Considering the obstacles Alao overcame to get to commencement, her accomplishments are all the more impressive.
As a teenager, she immigrated to the United States from Nigeria in January 2020, about two months before the COVID-19 pandemic started. Soon after she started at her new American high school, Alao and the rest of the world went online, and she didn’t take a single class in person until she arrived at IUP 18 months later. So, naturally, she had some concerns.
“I didn’t know what to expect or what it would look like,” she said. “I was really far from home, and it was my first time leaving my family. I didn’t know if I’d fit in.”
But she did, and she flourished.
With start-up funding from an anonymous alumni donation, the program brings Crimson Scholars to the Indiana campus a week before Welcome Week, the traditional program that acquaints first-year students with college life. Briscoe said many of the Crimson Scholars come from urban areas and may have to deal with poverty and physical and mental health issues just to get through high school. So when they come to college, they are often ill-prepared for the rigors of classes, labs, study sessions, term papers, and exams.
“They come here needing the baseline for understanding how things here work,” Briscoe said. “That’s another reason why the Crimson Scholars Circle is so beneficial—because it gives each student a community that supports them in every way possible.”
First-year Crimson Scholars and their mentors met in February. From left: Iya Nealy, Venitta Okoro, and Ciani Lane.
During their initial college experience, the students meet one another, bond through activities, are introduced to resources for support, and generally get their feet wet before they dive into college life.
Community and mentoring are key components of the program. Every student is assigned a peer mentor, an upper-level Black or Brown student who can share experiences and advice.
“There is this feeling of support, knowing that you have people around you who want you to succeed,” said Isaiah Perdue, who joined the Crimson Scholars Circle’s third cohort in 2023 and has gone from mentee to mentor in the two years since. “That first week at IUP was, for me, different from anything I ever experienced. I built so many relationships that helped me then and still do today.”
That first week with the Crimson Scholars Circle was more than helpful for Alao; it was transformative.
“It really helped me understand how college would work,” she said. “Plus, I was able to meet people who looked like me as soon as I got to campus. From that first week, I made friends I’ll have for a lifetime.”
A Cook Honors College member majoring in biology with the goal of becoming a doctor, Alao took the head start provided by the Crimson Scholars Circle and jumped into everything IUP had to offer. She joined the Student Government Association and the Pan-African Student Association and served as president of the IUP chapter of the American Medical Student Association. She enjoyed her classes and built relationships with her professors and with staff members.
“The support is amazing,” she said. “Having Dr. Segar and the staff there to help us was beneficial. That first year, I got the exposure I needed, and I found the community I needed.”
The graphs compare (1) Crimson Scholars Circle students, (2) a control group of Black and Brown students who came to IUP with a similar grade point average but did not participate in a scholarship program, and (3) all other students. Good academic standing means a cumulative GPA of 2.0 or higher.
In addition to regular meetings with their peer mentors, first-year students attend weekly sessions on topics such as financial aid and career development. Support is also available in subsequent years. There are three meetings each semester with all the cohorts, as well as networking, community service, and other activities.
Majoring in finance and planning to work on Wall Street after graduation, Perdue said his experiences in the Crimson Scholars Circle have elevated his IUP experience.
“I have to give it a lot of credit,” he said. “I don’t think I’d be in the position I am in today without it.”
Success seems to be a common thread among the students in the CSC. Briscoe said the program has evolved as it adapts to student needs and follows data to reveal solutions to student issues. There is proof that the Crimson Scholars Circle is helping students achieve their goals: In three key statistical categories based on first-semester performance—Good Academic Standing, Academic Probation Rate, and Academic Dismissal—students showed improvement in all three categories from the program’s first cohort to its third. Statistics on the fourth cohort are not yet available.
“I definitely think the program has accomplished what it was designed to do,” Briscoe said. “The way it’s set up, the only way for it not to accomplish that is if the students did not take advantage of everything we have for them.”
Alao is grateful for the Crimson Scholars Circle and its many resources, which include scholarships to offset the cost of attendance. She made the dean’s list every semester except one, and by taking summer classes, she managed to finish her IUP journey a semester before most students typically do.
After graduation, Alao landed a job as a medical assistant at Indiana Regional Medical Center. She plans to spend the next year or so preparing for the Medical College Admission Test and then to go to medical school.
She credits the Crimson Scholars Circle and its people for the bright future she has in front of her.
“I think being here a week earlier than most of the students and being in the Crimson Scholars Circle really helped me succeed,” she said.