Equity and Inclusion Programs at Bard College support scholars from a variety of backgrounds who seek to attain a rigorous liberal arts education. With the guidance of professional staff and peer mentors, scholars can create a path of personal and academic success at Bard. If you'd like to help support our students in their academic pursuits, please consider making a gift.
The philosophy of the Equity and Inclusion Programs remains consistent with the College’s desire for diversity to be part of the learning experience of all students from a wide variety of backgrounds. Our office recognizes that students with identities historically underrepresented in higher education seek to attain a rigorous liberal arts education and often need support to realize this aim. Such students bring to the College a wealth of knowledge and insight not necessarily gained in the classroom. Our scholars benefit from the Bard experience, just as Bard benefits from their presence. The Equity and Inclusion Programs work closely with HEOP, BOP, ECO, and Posse Scholars (from Atlanta) on campus. To learn more about Posse, visit possefoundation.org.
Scholarship Programs
We offer scholarships to high-achieving, low-income scholars from all 50 states. If you think Bard College might be right for you, please call or e-mail us! [email protected]
Bard's Arthur O. Eve Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP), which began in 1969, is one of the oldest and most successful programs of its kind in New York State. HEOP is sponsored jointly through a grant from the New York State Education Department and Bard College. Many students aspiring to attend college face a reality of few options and fewer opportunities due to a lack of economic and educational resources. HEOP seeks to confront this reality. In this regard, Bard’s BEOP Office is unsurpassed in its financial commitment to its students. (HEOP and its activities are supported, in whole or in part, by the New York State Education Department.)
In 2008, Bard expanded its commitment to access and to equity in higher education through the creation of the Bard Opportunity Program Scholarship (BOP). Bard Opportunity Program Scholars may come from all 50 states and possess a high level of achievement in academics, leadership, and the potential for success in a competitive academic environment. Often BOP scholars exhibit a nontraditional profile, and do not posses the financial means to afford a college such as Bard. Learn more about BOP
Bard Opportunity Program (BOP) Scholarship
In 2008, Bard expanded its commitment to access and to equity in higher education through the creation of the Bard Opportunity Program Scholarship (BOP). Bard Opportunity Program Scholars may come from all 50 states and possess a high level of achievement in academics, leadership, and the potential for success in a competitive academic environment. Often BOP scholars exhibit a nontraditional profile, and do not posses the financial means to afford a college such as Bard. Learn more about BOP
The BEOP Office commits to providing BOP scholars with the academic and financial support necessary for success at Bard. A full-tuition scholarship, with grants and loans cover the cost of attendance. BOP recipients also receive a small stipend each semester to help purchase books and supplies. The office fulfills this commitment through sustained academic support in the form of a pre-college summer program, workshops, and tutoring, as well as through career development, internships, and alumni/ae networks.
Bard College Posse Scholar Sakinah Bennett ’21. Photo by Shocarra Marcus
The Posse Arts Program for Students from Puerto Rico
The Posse Arts Program recruits, trains, and supports cohorts of students interested in majoring in the creative arts.
Bard College now offers full-tuition Posse Scholarships to students from Puerto Rico in partnership with the Posse Foundation and Lin-Manuel Miranda and the Miranda Family Fund. The first class of Posse Arts Scholars began at Bard in the fall of 2022.
Bard High School Early College to Open New Campus in Brooklyn, New York
In September 2024,Bard High School Early College (BHSEC) will open its newest campus in the Brownsville/East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. Like BHSEC’s other campuses, which now total nine campuses across six states, BHSEC Brooklyn is a public high school where students can earn up to an associate’s degree from Bard College, with 60 transferable college credits, alongside their New York State Regents diploma, entirely tuition free.
Bard High School Early College to Open New Campus in Brooklyn, New York
Bard College President Leon Botstein joins Saskia Brutsaert, Daniel Weisberg, Janet Peguero and community leaders and students in last year's ribbon-cutting ceremony for Bard High School Early College Bronx. The new Bard High School Early College Brooklyn opens September 2024. Photo by Danny Santana Photography
In September 2024, Bard High School Early College (BHSEC) will open its newest campus in the Brownsville/East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. A campus of the Bard Early College network, this new high school early college was approved by the New York City Panel for Education Policy in a unanimous vote in February. With the recent opening of BHSEC Bronx in the fall of 2023 and its fall ’24 opening of BHSEC Brooklyn, Bard College has doubled the number of its New York City BHSECs in the past year. Like BHSEC’s other campuses, which now total nine campuses across six states, BHSEC Brooklyn is a public high school where students can earn up to an associate’s degree from Bard College, with 60 transferable college credits, alongside their New York State Regents diploma, entirely tuition free. This model enables high school students to pursue an intellectually inspiring course of study in the liberal arts and science while earning credits towards a two-year head start on higher education at no cost to students or families.
“We are excited to launch a new campus in Brooklyn as we expand Bard College’s partnership with the NYCDOE,” said Dumaine Williams, Vice President and Dean for Early Colleges at Bard. “The new campus will allow the core components of the Bard Early College model, including providing students with rigorous college level coursework, deep immersion in the liberal arts and sciences and close contact with faculty who are active scholars and practitioners in their fields, to be accessible to even more students and families in New York City.”
“Our family was thrilled to learn that Bard High School Early College is establishing a Brooklyn campus,” said prospective BHSEC Brooklyn parent Meghan LeBorious. “We are huge fans of the model and I think that the school would be a great fit for our son, who is very excited to apply.” BHSEC Brooklyn represents a significant expansion of Bard’s work and impact in New York City, expanding its reach from two locations to four locations across the city’s boroughs within just two years. Through the partnership and leadership of New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) Chancellor David Banks, BHSEC Brooklyn has established a formal agreement with NYCDOE to prioritize enrollment for students from some of Brooklyn’s most economically disadvantaged neighborhoods including Brownsville, Ocean Hill, East New York, East Flatbush, Canarsie, New Lots, Bushwick, and others. Four out of every five seats at the Brooklyn campus will be dedicated to students living in these neighborhoods. Similarly, BHSEC Bronx prioritizes admission to South Bronx residents, and BHSEC Manhattan and Queens reserve a majority of seats for students who qualify for free/reduced price lunch.
The Brooklyn campus will ultimately serve up to 500 students, prioritizing enrollment for local Ocean Hill/Brownsville-area residents. In the 2024–2025 school year, the location for BHSEC Brooklyn is 301 Vermont Street, making the school immediately accessible to young people in Ocean Hill, Brownsville, East New York, and other Brooklyn neighborhoods. For its first year, BHSEC Brooklyn will enroll 125 students entering 9th grade and 25 students entering 11th grade. The admission application for rising 9th or 11th graders opened on March 18 and is available on MySchools. The deadline to upload the Bard assessment is April 19. Learn more and register for the BHSEC Brooklyn Open House on Thursday April 4 here.
The new BHSEC Brooklyn builds on more than 20 years of successful partnership between Bard College and the City of New York. At the request of city leaders, in September 2001 Bard launched its high school early college network by opening the first Bard High School Early College. Since then, the success of the BHSEC Manhattan students, combined with local community demand for outstanding public education options, has led Bard to open additional early college campuses in the Bronx, Queens, Newark, Cleveland, New Orleans, the Hudson Valley, Baltimore, and Washington, DC. The College has awarded more than 4,000 AA degrees to BHSEC students across the Bard Early College network, where over 3,000 students are currently enrolled. More than 95 percent of BHSEC students, the majority of whom are first-generation college students and Pell eligible, graduate from high school with at least one year of tuition-free, transferable college credit from Bard.
Bard College Receives $55,926 NetVUE Grant from the Council of Independent Colleges to Establish Bard AMP Hub to Amplify Vocational Exploration and Meaning-Making Initiatives
Supported by the Council of Independent Colleges and Lilly Endowment Inc., through their Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education NetVUE program, the Bard AMP Hub will aim to foster a vital and sustainable network of campus partners, capable of and dedicated to engaging students in conversations on amplifying meaning-making and purpose in their lives.
Bard College Receives $55,926 NetVUE Grant from the Council of Independent Colleges to Establish Bard AMP Hub to Amplify Vocational Exploration and Meaning-Making Initiatives
Bard College first-year students during the Language and Thinking Program, an intensive introduction to the liberal arts and sciences that takes place every August. Photo by Karl Rabe
Bard College has received a $55,926 grant from the Council of Independent Colleges and supported by the Lilly Endowment Inc., through their Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE) program, to establish the Bard AMP Hub, which aims to foster a vital and sustainable network of campus partners, capable of and dedicated to engaging students in conversations on amplifying meaning-making and purpose in their lives. The Bard AMP Hub will serve as a means of connecting various programs and initiatives through which students currently engage in vocational exploration on campus—from initiatives within the Language and Thinking, First-Year Seminar, and Citizen Science programs to those within the offices of the Dean of the College, Dean of Student Affairs, Dean of Studies, Career Development, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and Disability Access Services.
Building upon successful efforts to engage key faculty, staff, and administrators from across the undergraduate curriculum and cocurriculum, the NetVUE grant will expand the scope of vocational engagement to professionals throughout the College and focus on professional development opportunities designed to support students in cultivating meaning-making and purpose in their life and work. Faculty, staff, and administrators will have the opportunity to join reading groups, attend keynote talks, and engage in workshops, including reflection workshops and facilitator training workshops, all towards earning a Bard AMP Certificate of Completion. Certified faculty and staff who have completed a facilitator training workshop would then be credentialed to facilitate future reading groups and workshops, creating a sustainable stream of leaders to carry forward future iterations of programming. Nicholas Alton Lewis, associate vice president for academic initiatives and associate dean of the College, and Antonio Ortiz, visiting instructor in the humanities and program associate in the Office of the Dean of the College are the project leaders.
“We are incredibly grateful to NetVUE for their generous support. Through the program development grant we hope to foster a campus-wide network of professionals dedicated to engaging students in conversations and practices that invite self-reflection, that explore meaning-making and purpose across the various curricular and cocurricular landscapes of learning in the undergraduate experience,” said Nicholas Alton Lewis.
Post Date: 03-21-2024
Bard College Selected to Host a Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Campus Center
Bard College is partnering with the American Association of Colleges and Universities to develop and host a new Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) Campus Center. Guided by a common vision, each of the TRHT Campus Centers is developing and implementing a visionary action plan that engages and empowers campus and community stakeholders to uproot biases and to inspire the next generation of leaders and thinkers to advance justice and build more equitable communities.
Bard College Selected to Host a Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Campus Center
Photo by Karl Rabe
Bard College is partnering with the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) to develop and host a new Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) Campus Center. Bard College is one of four institutions to be selected through a competitive process to host new TRHT Campus Centers. Guided by a common vision, each of the TRHT Campus Centers is developing and implementing a visionary action plan that engages and empowers campus and community stakeholders to uproot biases and to inspire the next generation of leaders and thinkers to advance justice and build more equitable communities.
“Inclusive Excellence at Bard aims to empower students, faculty, and staff to explore their intersectional identities to holistically develop their own inclusive practice,” said Dean of Inclusive Excellence at Bard College, Claudette S. Aldebot. “Establishing a Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) Campus Center at Bard will provide us the perfect opportunity to foster and enhance our commitment to inclusive excellence and racial justice while also expanding our efforts beyond Annandale. We are excited to work with Bard Network partners through the TRHT framework. The work of inclusion belongs to us all and we are eager to move forward.”
Through its TRHT Campus Center, Bard will continue to expand this work by providing, for example, Rx Racial Healing Circles in which participants share personal stories to open dialogue in action and connect to our shared humanity. Rx Racial Healing Circles will include not just the undergraduate College but also the Bard Master of Arts in Teaching Program and the Bard Early Colleges in the Mid-Hudson region.
“We’re thrilled to partner with these four new host institutions,” said AAC&U President Lynn Pasquerella, “and we look forward to supporting their efforts to promote racial equity and healing on their campuses and in their communities.”
Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers play a vital role in the national TRHT effort to address historical and contemporary effects of racial inequities by building sustainable capacity to promote deep, transformational change. With the shared goal of preparing the next generation of leaders and thinkers to build equitable and just communities by dismantling the false belief in a hierarchy of human value, each campus center uses the TRHT framework to implement its own visionary action plan for creating new narratives about race, bias, and difference in their communities and promoting racial healing and relationship building through campus-community engagement.
Beginning in 2017 with an inaugural cohort of centers at 10 AAC&U member institutions, the TRHT Campus Centers effort has grown into a dynamic and diverse network of host institutions, including community colleges, liberal arts colleges, HBCUs, minority-serving institutions, faith-based institutions, and large research universities. The goal of AAC&U’s TRHT Campus Centers effort is to partner with higher education institutions to develop at least 150 self-sustaining, community-integrated centers. The four newest centers—Bard College, Antioch University, Cuyahoga Community College, and Elizabethtown College—bring the total number of TRHT partner institutions to 71.
Launched by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) effort seeks to help communities embrace racial healing and eliminate conscious and unconscious beliefs in a hierarchy of human value. The TRHT effort promotes inclusive and community-based healing activities and policy designs that seek to change community narratives and broaden the understanding of diverse experiences among people. More information about the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s TRHT effort can be found here.
Post Date: 02-12-2024
Are You an OEI Alum?
Equity and Inclusion Programs, formerly known as BEOP, is currently home to over 120 students. Reconnect with our office by joining our LinkedIn group to learn about news, events, opportunities to connect with our office, and so much more. We would love to know where you are now and what are you doing!