VOORHEES UNIVERSITY: THE NEXT LEVEL OF EXCELLENCE

BY PRINCESS GADSON

Major plans are in motion for Voorhees University to expand its ties within the Denmark, SC community through its Becoming Beloved Community Initiative.

Voorhees University, formally known as Voorhees College, is a small HBCU affiliated with the Episcopal church and located in Denmark, a city in Bamberg County, South Carolina.

It is ranked number 26 by US News and World Report’s 2022-23 List of HBCUs.

“[We] are part of the community, and we intend to share and to make certain that their needs become our needs, their pains become our pains, and certainly their joys become our joys,” Dr. Ronnie Hopkins, President of Voorhees University said.

Dr. Ronnie Hopkins became the 10th president of Voorhees University in 2021. Before his presidency, he was hired at Voorhees as the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and a tenured English professor.

Hopkins obtained a bachelor’s degree in English from North Carolina Central University, a master’s and doctoral degree from Michigan State University and completed postdoctoral studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The Bath, North Carolina native’s career in public and higher education spans nearly three decades.

In 2021, Voorhees University acquired the property of Denmark-Olar

Elementary School, located just two minutes away from the University. The former Denmark-Olar Elementary School building will house Voorhees University’s Becoming Beloved Community Initiative, which will include the University’s Rural Community Development, Institute for Women’s Empowerment, Entrepreneurship, and Advancement, and the Institute for Social and Environmental Justice for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

“We certainly are happy to have acquired that property. We want to make certain that the community benefits from it,” said Dr. Hopkins. Hopkins also shared that within five years, Voorhees University will also erect a new campus and community center which will provide for the community a bowling alley, skating rink, movie theater, ballroom, business incubator space, and a space for the University’s student government.

“Voorhees University will have a new living and learning center so that we can accommodate the growth that we expect,” he continued. “[We] will facilitate in partnership with the city of Denmark and the county of Bamberg a hotel in Denmark to provide for our citizens in the community.”

Hopkins’ leadership mantra at Voorhees is The Next Level of Excellence.

“As soon as you think you’ve reached the pinnacle of the heightened level of excellence, we need to go to the next level,” he said.

Under Hopkins’ first year of leadership, Voorhees College became Voorhees University; launched their first graduate program, Master of Education in Teaching and Learning; and increased enrollment by 15%.

“Spring semester to spring semester this year, enrollment has increased by 21% - so we’re moving in the right direction.”

Dr. Hopkins credits his HBCU experience at North Carolina Central University for playing a major role in shaping who he is today.

“I don’t believe going to a non-HBCU that I would have been so connected to a faculty that saw so much in me that I didn’t even see in myself. I believe had I gone to a traditionally white institution, I would’ve gotten lost in the cracks. I wouldn’t have gotten the love, attention, and experiences that I got at NCCU,” he explained.

Dr. Hopkins is passionate about instilling the power of service into the students at Voorhees University. A lesson Dr. Hopkins learned as an HBCU student is “Whatever accomplishments you think you earned; you didn’t earn them on your own.”

“There are people that will pray and have prayed for you. There are people that supported you, but certainly at the institution, North Carolina Central University, there were people that served as models and mentors that guided me along the way,” he said.

Dr. Hopkins is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. and has a nonprofit organization called Possible Worlds Foundation, where he assists individuals who have been impacted by homelessness, incarceration, or HIV/ AIDS.

To combat the plague of divisiveness among HBCUs, Dr. Hopkins says HBCU presidents and alum should continue to demonstrate working as family.

Dr. Hopkins says the presidents of each of South Carolina’s HBCUs work together and refuse to let anyone pit them against each other.

“We all work together to ensure that we are supporting one another,” he said.