Who We Are

The Bethune-Cookman experience is centered on student success. You create a vision for your future. You work personally with great teachers and get hands-on intellectual and personal development in a small-university community. You are surrounded by support. You turn your vision into reality.

And you feel Bethune-Cookman’s culture as an HBCU—learning and growing in an environment where the African American experience is understood, where the richness of African American culture is affirmed, explored, celebrated and advanced.

Leaders

Student success leads to career success. Bethune-Cookman graduates become leaders in their fields – arts, business, education, health sciences and more. Judges and engineers. Composers and business executives.

And, as a Bethune-Cookman graduate, you will carry with you a powerful legacy—vision, resilience, success and a commitment to service.

History & Roots:

Vision. Resilience. Success.

There’s a history behind all this. There are deep, strong roots to the legacy.

Our founder, Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, started the University in 1904 with $1.50 and faith in God. But her vision to provide the kind of education that builds better lives was strong. Against the odds, her resilience, creativity and entrepreneurial spirit were unwavering and her impact unquestionable.

Dr. Bethune dedicated herself to a life of service, to educating African-Americans and to advancing civil rights. 

Her spirit guides us today – and Dr. Bethune’s powerful presence looms large on campus and beyond.

Service

An advisor to Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry S Truman, and an early leader in what became the civil rights movement, our founder drove resolutely toward making the world a better place, and toward shaping the future. That is in addition to her dedication to educating African-Americans and changing society. That, too, is tightly integrated into how we teach, learn and think today at Bethune-Cookman. As our motto says, “Enter to Learn. Depart to Serve.”

In the tradition of Mary McLeod Bethune, and reflecting our affiliation with the United Methodist Church, we are focused on developing leaders of conscience in an embracing community.

Future-focused

Creative. Innovative. Entrepreneurial.

Bethune-Cookman is future-focused, helping you to power up for a changing world. And the world is indeed changing fast. The economy is transforming at a dizzying pace. Forces like technology and globalization constantly remake the world of work. Many of today’s jobs will transform—or disappear—just a few years from now.

So we work on helping you develop the kinds of skills that will be enduring. Skills that characterized our founder, in fact—like creativity, innovation and entrepreneurial thinking. The skills it will take for you to lead as the world changes. The skills that drive success no matter what field you’re in.

We aim to be the nation’s top HBCU for developing future-forward, 21st-century mindsets and capabilities, preparing students not only for that first job but for a lifetime of leadership, fresh thinking, adaptability, and growth.