Community Captains

by Eddie Sonnie

I love Christopher Newport; this place is awesome. However, one thing about our university that makes me a bit sad is the fact that most students come from northern Virginia (NoVA, as they call it) or the Richmond area. There are fewer people like me from the nearby Hampton Roads area who go here.

But that’s about to change. About two weeks ago, CNU announced the Community Captains Program, which is really exciting if you live in Newport News. The Community Captains Program helps up to 75 qualified students from the Newport News area receive admission to the university. This program is open to first-generation college students, as well as those who qualify for free or reduced lunch.

That’s pretty awesome if you ask me. I love all my fellow Captains now, so it makes me really happy to know that I can share the name Captain with more people, people who grew up in my neck of the woods. In addition, a lot of these captains will be first-generation college students, like me! It’s really great that we are putting in the effort to get more people involved in college education, and this program really says a lot about how much our university cares about the Newport News community that hosts us.

The Community Captains program will do so much good for our university. The Newport News area is very diverse, as is most of Hampton Roads, and by having this program in place, we can not only give back to the community and help future college students find their ways, but we can also increase diversity and continue growing our university.