Spelman College is proud to announce the expansion of its partnership with the newly renamed National Education Opportunity Network (NEON), formerly the National Education Equity Lab. Since Spelman joined the network in Spring 2023, the program has rapidly grown from one class and 50 students to two classes and nearly 300 students in 2025.

Spelman has helped educate 542 NEON scholars from 33 high schools across 15 cities over the past two years. Twelve of the NEON scholars later enrolled at Spelman after graduating high school. The College is on track to enroll an additional 600 scholars in the program for the 2025-2026 academic year.

The growth has been outstanding. To be able to offer a college-level course to high school students in underserved communities has been transformational,” said Andrea Lewis, Ph.D., director of the Student Success Program and an associate professor of education at Spelman. “Spelman has always been community-oriented, but this has taken our mission to the next level. It speaks directly to high school students’ continued interest in HBCUs and recent national trends in increasing admission rates at HBCUs.”

The partnership launched with a course titled ‘The Education of Black Girls,’ taught by Dr. Lewis. This fall, Spelman introduced a second NEON course titled ‘African Diaspora and the World,’ taught by Chatee’ Omísade Richardson, Ph.D., assistant professor and coordinator of field and clinical experience in education at Spelman.

As part of the partnership, 14 Spelman students serve as teaching fellows in the program, engaging with the high school students by sharing their knowledge and skills with the scholars. According to a recent survey shared by NEON, 100% of the Spelman fellows from Spring 2025 said serving as a teaching fellow was “one of the most valuable experiences they had in college that year.”

“With 60% of NEON scholars identifying as female and 93% of students self-reporting as students of color, we are honored to not only bring rigorous courses but also ones that have proven to be deeply impactful for our scholars,” said Laura Moore, chief higher education officer with NEON. “The education of Black girls extends beyond the classroom in ways course offerings may not. We’ve had co-teachers, students and teaching fellows express the intergenerational impact it has had on them to be able to discuss topics of race, gender and class and how it has changed and not changed over time.”

Click here to learn more about the NEON program at Spelman.