St. Francis College Graduates More Than 300 Students This Spring
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St. Francis College awarded 335 students undergraduate and graduate degrees this spring, capping off an academic year that began with welcoming the College's largest ever first-year class and ending with the promise of a significant re-opening of campus facilities for the fall 2021 semester.
"Our most recent cohort of graduates are simply extraordinary. They persevered through an historic pandemic and the restrictions that it brought, demonstrating that achievement is possible even with daunting obstacles," said Jennifer Lancaster, Ph.D., Vice President for Academic Affairs and Academic Dean. St. Francis College instructed most classes online and limited access to campus buildings, to help mitigate spread of COVID-19 this year. "This spring's graduates represent the very best of Franciscan values and an unwavering commitment to learning. It's our true privilege to grant them their hard-earned degrees."
In fall 2020, St. Francis College welcomed 747 first-year students and another 158 as transfer and new graduate students, bringing the total new full- and part-time students to 905, an increase of more than five percent over the prior year's new student count and a record for the College.
This spring, St. Francis College conferred degrees across more than 20 disciplines, including in the four master's programs it offers: accounting, psychology, and management and a MFA in Creative Writing.
The College awarded 61 students B.S. degrees in nursing, the highest number among the disciplines in which the College awarded bachelor's or master's degrees.
The other highly awarded degree programs are:
- Management, with degrees awarded to 37 students, including 8 who earned M.S. degrees.
- Psychology, awarded to 26 students, including 10 who earned master's degrees either on their own or as part of the combined B.A./M.A. in psychology.
- Biology, awarded to 23 students.
- Accounting, awarded to 20 students, including 11 who earned master's degrees either on their own or as part of the combined B.S./M.S. in accounting.
The academic honors bestowed on the spring class of 2021 underscores the high achievement of the graduates. Fifty-five earned summa cum laude, the highest academic honor. Magna cum laude and cum laude honors were awarded to 54 and 48 students respectively. Thirteen students earning degrees completed the College's rigorous Honors program.
SFC also graduated 19 students as part of The Robert J. McGuire Scholarship program, which launched in 2015 thanks to the generosity of Fred and Judy Wilpon and other benefactors to ensure that students with academic promise and financial need receive financial support to cover tuition all the years they attend the College.
The spring class of 2021 includes the first 13 graduates to take part in SFC's Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program (CSTEP) Last year, the New York Department of Education selected SFC to launch and run CSTEP, a program that helps prepare students from under-represented populations for careers in medicine, health and other fields that require professional licenses. SFC began enrolling students in CSTEP in fall 2020.
St. Francis College's 2021-22 academic year begins on September 8, 2021. This spring, Miguel Martinez-Saenz, Ph.D., SFC President, announced that the College plans to offer more than one-half of its classes in person this fall, and will re-open campus facilities including the library, the cafeteria and student study areas after having been largely closed since March 2020. The College also announced that students must be vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition to enter campus buildings in the coming academic year.