Earlier than she ever stepped right into a college president’s workplace, Dr. Tomikia LeGrande understood one thing about energy that doesn’t present up on résumés.
It lived within the soil.
In rural Georgia, the place her household labored land that they had fought to personal, she noticed how entry to property and schooling might form generations.
Years later, sitting on the helm of Prairie View A&M College, that very same understanding guides her. Expertise will be discovered all over the place, however alternative might not. Closing that hole, she believes, is the actual work of upper schooling.
“I’ve this connection to historical past, legacy, and land for the manufacturing of not simply meals, but additionally generational wealth,” LeGrande mentioned. “I grew up in a household the place love abounded, however alternatives weren’t all the time as prevalent in my neighborhood. That made me need to perceive why alternative was not as equally distributed as expertise is on this world.”
Rising up
As a low-income, first-generation faculty pupil, that perspective would later information her work in greater schooling.
At Savannah State College, the place she studied chemistry, LeGrande’s trajectory shifted throughout an opportunity encounter with the college’s president, who requested about her future plans.
Her response, half-joking, was daring. She would possibly need his job in the future.
His reply stayed together with her, “Put together properly and are available get it.”
From that second, LeGrande started constructing a profession that blended pupil advocacy and institutional management.
She earned a grasp’s diploma in chemistry from North Carolina A&T State College, the place she additionally started recruiting college students into graduate packages. She went on to carry management roles at Virginia Commonwealth College, the College of Houston-Downtown, and Winston-Salem State College, specializing in enrollment and pupil success.
Now, as president of Prairie View A&M College, LeGrande goals to proceed constructing on her previous achievements and increase alternatives for college kids.
Main PVAMU
LeGrande turned president of Prairie View A&M in 2023, following the tenure of Dr. Ruth Simmons, who elevated the college’s nationwide profile.
Now, LeGrande is concentrated on what she calls the establishment’s “subsequent degree,” a imaginative and prescient outlined within the 10-year strategic plan, “Journey to Eminence: 2035.”
This contains changing into a top-tier public traditionally Black college, reaching an esteemed analysis standing, admitting extra college students, and guaranteeing commencement charges stay excessive.
At present categorised as a Analysis 2 establishment, Prairie View goals to achieve Analysis 1 standing, an elite designation held by just one HBCU within the nation, Howard College.
“Our college is dedicated to participating in proactive and concerted efforts to extend our analysis contracts and grant quantities, whereas additionally graduating extra college students and increasing the sorts of analysis performed on our campus,” mentioned Dr. Magesh Rajan, vice chairman for analysis and innovation at PVAMU. “Their tireless efforts in securing funding, publishing impactful analysis, mentoring the following era of students, and fostering innovation have been instrumental in sustaining our establishment’s place among the many nation’s high analysis universities.”
“On this local weather, what I’ve mentioned to our campus and what I say is that, as an establishment, we stay dedicated to our mission…offering alternative to advance. When there are questions on DEI and limitations, I oftentimes return to, can we nonetheless fulfill our mission with new restrictions? Should you learn the laws for what it’s, there’s nonetheless area for us to do the issues that actually personify PVAMU as a singular establishment.”
– Dr. Tomikia LeGrande, President of Prairie View A&M College
For LeGrande, status is barely a part of the aim.
“There are such a lot of folks within the state of Texas who suppose very extremely of Prairie View,” she mentioned. “However the additional east you transcend the Mississippi, and the additional west you transcend Arkansas, most individuals usually are not as acquainted with Prairie View. We need to elevate their consciousness and deepen their notion to know that excellence lives right here.”
LeGrande added that extra college students coming into faculty over the following 10 years will likely be first-generation, lower-income, or from rural communities.
“That’s who Prairie View focuses on,” she mentioned, with almost 18% of Prairie View college students coming from households who made about $20,000 or much less per 12 months.
Progress brings each alternative and strain
Below LeGrande’s management, Prairie View has seen a surge in demand, reaching 10,085 college students this fall, up from 9,821 in 2024 and 9,415 in 2023. For the previous three years, the college has had a ready checklist.
“Having a ready checklist, what does that imply?” she mentioned. “It doesn’t imply that you just’re making an attempt to be extremely selective. It means that there’s extra curiosity in your establishment than you may accommodate. That’s an awesome place to be in.”
Whereas that progress alerts rising nationwide recognition, it additionally introduces new challenges, significantly round sources and sustaining high quality.
Balancing enlargement with entry stays a central rigidity. LeGrande has prioritized partnerships with group schools to create various pathways for college kids who can’t be instantly admitted, guaranteeing entry isn’t misplaced even when capability is proscribed.
A “tradition of care” mannequin
On the core of LeGrande’s technique are pupil success and enrollment.
In fall 2024, Prairie View launched “PV Cares,” a complete assist mannequin that assigns each undergraduate pupil to a three-person workforce: An instructional advisor, a monetary counselor, and a profession coach.
The aim is to deal with obstacles past teachers, significantly for college kids navigating monetary insecurity or unfamiliar methods.
“If you consider who we serve, offering entry is not only opening the door; it’s also about assist inside and out of doors the classroom,” LeGrande mentioned. “Our college contained in the classroom are continuously fascinated about…how do they should redesign their curriculum to ensure it’s getting ready college students for the workforce of tomorrow, not simply of right now. They’re actually intensely concerned in fascinated about synthetic intelligence, about provide chain administration, and different high-demand fields.
The monetary element is particularly crucial. About 81% of Prairie View college students graduated with debt in 2023, a actuality LeGrande is actively working to vary by means of elevated scholarships and philanthropic investments.
“When a pupil will get a scholarship from the establishment or from a donor, it says you consider in them,” she mentioned. “It says that you just consider that they’re succesful and that you just’re investing in them. That’s a really highly effective instrument for a pupil who could be nervous about whether or not they have sufficient. Intrinsic motivation is likely one of the most vital components for a pupil to have a push to a level.”
Navigating politics
LeGrande’s presidency comes at a time when greater schooling, significantly public establishments in Texas, is dealing with rising political scrutiny round curriculum and variety initiatives.
Her method, she mentioned, is rooted in readability of goal.
“Politics to me is about the way you handle competing priorities and various pursuits that won’t have originated with you,” LeGrande defined. “On this local weather, what I’ve mentioned to our campus and what I say is that, as an establishment, we stay dedicated to our mission…offering alternative to advance. When there are questions on DEI and limitations, I oftentimes return to, can we nonetheless fulfill our mission with new restrictions? Should you learn the laws for what it’s, there’s nonetheless area for us to do the issues that actually personify PVAMU as a singular establishment.”
