WASHINGTON — The U.S. Coast Guard signed a memorandum of agreement with Virginia State University Wednesday as part of the Coast Guard’s Minority-Serving Institutions Partnership Program. This partnership agreement is designed to optimize outreach and engagement efforts and have them work in conjunction with the Coast Guard’s overall civilian and military officer recruitment efforts.

This agreement will also assist VSU, a Historically Black University, by providing additional tuition-saving choices and academic options and solutions for VSU students. In addition, this agreement provides significant research opportunities for VSU and the Coast Guard to explore.

Central to this partnership is the Coast Guard’s College Student Pre-Commissioning Initiative scholarship program, which is available to students enrolled at Minority-Serving Institutions, such as VSU. There are currently three CSPI students enrolled at VSU.

The Coast Guard’s Executive Champion for this initiative, Rear Adm. Kevin Lunday, assistant commandant for Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Information Technology (C4IT) and commander of Coast Guard Cyber Command, is committed to ensuring this very important initiative is not only successful, but serves as the benchmark for future engagements with other strategically-located Minority-Serving Institutions. This partnership was spearheaded by Ms. Tammie Perry of C4IT, who focused efforts to expand outreach and support for VSU.

Also serving on this team is Lt. Eunice James, a VSU alumna, who is stationed at Coast Guard Sector North Carolina at Wilmington, N.C., as the Waterways Management Division chief. C4IT will serve as the lead Coast Guard command, working closely with all Coast Guard and VSU stakeholders to forge and enduring collaboration.

VSU is one of more than 100 Historically Black Colleges and Universities and offers 55 baccalaureate and master’s degree programs and three certificate programs within five schools: the College of Agriculture, the Reginald F. Lewis College of Business, the School of Engineering, Science and Technology, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the College of Graduate Studies, Research and Outreach.

More information about CSPI can be accessed here: https://www.gocoastguard.com/active-duty-careers/officer-opportunities/programs/college-student-pre- commissioning-initiative.