September 29, 2025
In 2024, Hampden-Sydney College received a Truist Charitable Fund grant for $300,000 to support the development and operation of the Truist Empowerment Center, an inter-departmental, cross-community platform to develop and recruit local talented young men for future matriculation to the College and support the retention of current students.
Managed by the Hampden-Sydney Office of Culture and Community (OCC), the Truist Empowerment Center completed its first year of operation this summer having developed a robust portfolio of programming and engagement opportunities. The mission of the Truist Empowerment Center at Hampden-Sydney is to enhance the recruitment and preparation of students from underserved communities in Southside Virginia, all while providing invaluable opportunities for Tigers to engage in mentorship and peer leadership.
With a pool of nearly 2,000 regional high school sophomores and juniors to recruit from, Hampden-Sydney is investing in local talent, offering sessions around financial aid, college-level academic expectations, college life, athletics, and career planning. In the last five years, the College has recruited 63 students from the Southside Virginia area with a goal of increasing this number significantly.
To achieve this goal, the OCC has developed a three-tiered student success pipeline rooted in well-accepted educational research and tailored to support the unique needs of Southside Virginia recruits. Phase one of the pipeline is the Emerging Leaders in Transition to Excellence (ELITE) program, a K-12 outreach initiative where Hampden-Sydney students mentor promising local young men. Last year, ELITE operated in Prince Edward County High School, Cumberland High School, and Randolph-Henry High School, with plans to expand into the remaining five Southside Virginia counties. This strategic growth aims to build a comprehensive, place-based access pipeline for young men historically underserved by higher education.
This past schoolyear, Hampden-Sydney Brother4Brother mentors hosted regular workshops at participating schools with sessions focusing on themes of college exploration and campus life, career and major selection, discovering personal purpose, and building confidence and leadership skills. Workshop attendance averaged 30 participants with nearly 200 students being engaged over the course of the year. Campus community members supported both potential students and their families as they look to the future by hosting workshops on college readiness, financial literacy, and FAFSA preparation.
One of the mentors in the ELITE program is Prince Edward graduate Camden Libby ’27, who has seen both the possibility and the roadblocks within the Southside Virginia talent pool firsthand. “I had a lot of mentors growing up, and I saw the possibility of college because I grew up around Hampden-Sydney,” says Camden, whose father is Water/Sewer Operator Steven Libby. “But a lot of my friends who had the potential to be scientists or professors or anything they wanted to be just didn’t have the same exposure or example that I benefited from. We have the opportunity to create that lifeline for local students and show them that a Hampden-Sydney education is possible for them.”
Phase two of the pipeline is the ELITE Summer Bridge Program, where local young men are invited to campus starting their sophomore year of high school, offering intentional exposure to college life and academic expectations through structured summer experiences. Each year builds on the last, reinforcing cultural connection, academic confidence, and career awareness—all before matriculation.
“Our summer bridge program is designed to open doors for at-risk students in the local community by introducing them to the college experience in the summers before matriculation,” says Dean Nicholson, who grounds her work in empowerment and self-efficacy. “These early experiences with campus life and college-level instruction give students a chance to build confidence, understand expectations, and see themselves thriving in a supportive environment. By the time they arrive as full-time students, they don’t just hope they can succeed—they know they can, because they’ve already done it.”
The culminating phase of the pipeline is the Man-to-Man Project, a comprehensive first-year experience designed to ensure that young men who enter Hampden-Sydney are not only admitted, but retained, affirmed, and empowered. Man-to-Man launched this fall with a whopping 246 students in the freshman class participating with 31 upperclassmen mentors. All first-year students will be paired with an upperclassman who has been hand selected by a faculty and staff committee to become a Man-to-Man mentor. Beyond mentorship, the program incorporates bi-weekly peer-to-peer character development sessions, academic coaching, and leadership training designed to help students find their voice, shape their values, and understand their role in shaping campus culture. As students progress, they are encouraged to become mentors themselves—creating a cycle of peer-led success and local ambassadorship for the College.
The Truist Empowerment Center was made possible by the advocacy and support of Trustee Thomas Ransom ’00. “I’m so proud of the Hampden-Sydney Truist Empowerment Center and what we’ve been able to accomplish over the first year,” Ransom says. “At Truist, our purpose is to inspire and build better lives and communities, and one way we deliver on our purpose is to support a wide variety of causes. The Center is absolutely helping people build better lives, which creates a better community. The staff of both H-SC and Truist Charitable Fund have been unbelievable in their dedication to providing financial literacy and other tools to empower Virginians. I’m excited to see us impact even more people in year two of the Hampden-Sydney Truist Empowerment Center.”
Hampden-Sydney’s commitment to forming good men and good citizens extends well beyond the campus gates as it invests in the local community that has supported and bolstered the College throughout the centuries.
About The Truist Charitable Fund
The Truist Charitable Fund (“TCF”) is committed to Truist Financial Corporation’s (NYSE: TFC) purpose to inspire and build better lives. TCF was established as a donor-advised fund and is administered by The Winston-Salem Foundation. TCF invests in local community organizations, focusing on grants that support initiatives and programs in the areas of educational opportunity, leadership development, career pathways, small business and community services. To learn more about Truist’s purpose, visit Truist.com/who-we-are/about-truist.