The VFIC’s New Horizons program is a strategic initiative with two objectives:
a) to help the 15 Member Colleges to further diversify their student bodies, and
b) to expand college access and opportunity for students from lower-income, rural or minority families, or for students who would be the first in their family to attend college.

Grant support from Altria, Genworth Financial, Markel and other leading corporations and foundations continue to make this program possible.

One of the core programs in the New Horizons initiative is a multi-year collaboration with Partnership for the Future (PFF), a remarkable college readiness program focused on helping inner city Richmond minority students prepare for, and get into, college. Surveys at the beginning of the collaboration showed that few of the PFF students were aware of Virginia’s independent colleges, and that those who knew of them thought that these institutions were outside their range of college options. So the objective of the New Horizons program is to make the PFF students aware of the VFIC colleges, make the admissions staffs of the college aware of the talent pool represented by PFF, and thereby to help open the doors of these colleges for these students.

For more information on the program contact: Emily Lowry