LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Spalding University, the first predominantly white institution in Louisville to admit Black students, and Simmons College of Kentucky, Louisville’s only historically Black college, have supported each other for decades. 

What You Need To Know

  • The presidents of the schools signed a memorandum to better serve students  

  • The partnership will focus on student life, academic programs, and fiscal affairs

  • Simmons College of Kentucky is the city’s only historically black college 

  • The two schools have supported each other in the past 

On Thursday, the presidents of the two schools signed a memorandum to officially become partners. 

Looking back, Kia Moore, a senior business major at Simmons College, could not imagine that she would be where she is today. 

“August of 2016 I had my lung removed,” Moore said. “They found a tumor on my lung.” 

Dealing with her health and a low grade point average, she struggled to get admitted into a college until she applied to Simmons College. 

“They see something that you don’t see, or that you I guess are too scared to see, that they see and they bring that out of you and so it just it really is really inspirational,” Moore said. 

The senior is just weeks away from graduation.   

“My GPA is a 4.0. I took five classes last semester and got straight A’s in all of them this semester this time,” she said. 

Moore said her college has opened doors of opportunities. 

Just weeks before graduating with a business degree, a new one has been announced. 

The college is partnering with a neighboring school, Spalding University, to merge student life and engagement, academic programs, professional development and campus and fiscal affairs.  

“It means that I have another set of networking tools and another set of educational help to get me through and really be able to zone in and be proficient in my area of vision and goal that I want to do,” Moore said.

Moore plans to attend Spalding University in the fall to get a master’s degree in education. 

Her goal is to open a childcare center and set an example for her two daughters. 

“It means so much like just for my kids to be able to know that their mom started something and finished it,” Moore said. 

Moore will travel to Washington, D.C. in April to serve as National Presidential Fellow for the Center for the Study of Presidency and Congress.

It’s another opportunity that she credits to Simmons College. 

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