CHARLOTTE, N.C./JUNE 26, 2026 — Long before the first PowerPoint slide clicked on in Brayboy Gymnasium, the morning had already found its theme.
President Valerie Kinloch stood in front of a gym full of incoming Golden Bulls and their families on June 26 and did something more powerful than a welcome speech — she told them her own story. A first-generation student from a working-class family in Charleston, South Carolina, Kinloch said she wasn't sure college was even an option for her.
"When I got to Johnson C. Smith University, the light came on," Kinloch told the crowd. "When I went to my freshman conference, it was a moment for me where I was able to say, 'This is where I belong.' ... I love the university. The university loved me."
It turned out to be the line that the rest of the day would echo, family after family, student after student, almost without anyone planning it that way.
"JCSU Chose Us"
Christian Freeman drove in from Warren County to watch his daughter, Destiny, start her first year. It's not his first time doing this — he has another child enrolled at JCSU as well.
"It's great, man. Us coming from a small town like Warren County, for any of our kids to go to college is a great thing," Freeman said. Asked why JCSU, specifically, he didn't reach for a brochure answer.
"Like the president said — she didn't choose JCSU. JCSU chose her," he said.
Robin Phifer Jr. felt something similar watching his daughter, Deanna, walk into orientation. JCSU wasn't her first choice on paper — she'd considered FAMU and Johnson & Wales — but something pulled her back.
"It feels good. You know, get to see all she's accomplished, all her goals," Phifer said. "She just fell in love with Johnson C. Smith."
A Brotherhood, a Home, a Horizon
For the students themselves, the language of belonging showed up again and again — even from students who came to JCSU for entirely different reasons.
Kamryn Theresa West Pettigrew said the deciding factor was simple. "Everybody made me feel loved and welcome," she said. "It pretty much just felt like home."
Sophia Leanne McKnight chose JCSU for its sports management program, calling it one of the strongest in the country for her major.
Alexa Rosario Beltran came to JCSU on a football scholarship — he's a kicker and punter for the Golden Bulls — but says the connection that kept him here wasn't about the game.
"Whenever I came here for a visit, I just got a connection — this caring and loving," Beltran said. "It was just a brotherhood here." As a Hispanic student, he says he's also looking forward to broadening the community around him. "I just wanna expand my horizon."
The People Behind the Welcome
Behind every check-in table and HUB station was a current student or staff member working to make that feeling of home real on day one.
Courtlyn Armani Simpson, a rising senior serving as a Sit Lux and GBA advisor, said her biggest piece of advice to incoming students is one she had to learn herself.
"I wish somebody would've told me the connections that I make are going to be very valuable throughout my school year," Simpson said. "Keep those relationships ahead of graduating." Her goal for the day: pass three years of hard-won knowledge on to students just starting theirs.
Nichole Patterson, Assistant Director of First-Year and Second-Year Experience, Family Engagement, and Living Learning Communities at the Center for Student Success and Academic Excellence, said the most common surprise for new students isn't a building or a program — it's the people.
"I think students are probably often surprised about how helpful we are, and the feeling of home that they experience when they come here," Patterson said. Her goal for orientation day was straightforward: "to inform students of how their Golden Journey can be the best it can be if they engage with us. We are here to make that path smooth."
Four Years, Fully Lived
Later in the morning, a parent in the crowd — Frank Grimes — asked President Kinloch directly: what does it actually take for a student to succeed in four years at JCSU?
Her answer doubled as a closing thought for the whole day. The four years go by fast, Kinloch said, and the students who get the most out of JCSU are the ones who fully immerse themselves in it — in the classroom, in the community, in the relationships that, as Kinloch put it, will matter long after graduation.
By the time the Golden Bull Academy class of incoming students sat down for lunch at Millennium Dining Hall, the morning's question had basically answered itself. Whether it was a parent repeating the president's own words back to her, or a freshman calling it a brotherhood, the same idea kept surfacing: at Johnson C. Smith University, you don't just choose a school.
Sometimes, it chooses you.
