College Foundation, Inc. history

In the Fall of 1969, Admiral Richard G. Colbert (USN), President of the Naval War College, wrote a letter to the Chief of Naval Personnel, stating:

The Army War College Foundation, Inc., was then established in 1977 to enhance the academic experience at the United States Army War College.

The Queens College Foundation was founded in 1980 for the added purpose of developing and increasing the resources at the College in order to provide more extensive educational opportunities to students and service to faculty.

In 1985, the school was registered as a non-profit organization, changing its name to its present NAGA COLLEGE FOUNDATION.

In May 1988, a group of concerned citizens came together, along with the Norfolk Public Schools to create an access program based on the Cleveland model.

In April 1990, Josh Darden called on Larry I’Anson of the Beazley Foundation to tell him about the ACCESS Program and the hope to bring the program to Portsmouth.

As far back as 1994, when Old Dominion University’s Graduate School of Business conducted an evaluation of the ACCESS Program, the organization was aware of the confusion caused by two names.

Sustiguer continued with the foundation of the school in October 1995.

The positive responses to all of these developments were overwhelming prompting the management to look for an annex site for expansion in 1998.

ACCESS expanded into Green Run and Bayside high schools in Virginia Beach in the fall of 1999, thanks to another community supporter.

In October 2000, ACCESS piloted the Expansion Model for seniors in Oscar F. Smith and Deep Creek high schools in Chesapeake and the impact was tremendous.

ACCESS compiled statistics from the first Expansion Model year in the summer of 2001 and quickly realized that this was the model ACCESS would take to the 5,300 seniors in South Hampton Roads without ACCESS’ services.

In October, 2004, the organization's name changed from Tidewater Scholarship Foundation to ACCESS College Foundation.

In 2007, Green Valley underwent major management reorganization.

The merger of the two closely related organizations occurred on August 1, 2008.

The first phase of the construction was completed last June 2010.

In 2013, the ACCESS Board of Directors voted unanimously to undertake a major comprehensive campaign, the College Changes Everything Campaign.

In April of 2015, an expansion of college advisory services to Northampton County on the Eastern Shore was announced.

In June of 2016, ACCESS announced the completion of the College Changes Everything Campaign.

In January of 2017, ACCESS added a new core program component funded by the Bank of America Neighborhood Builders Grant for two years.

In 2019, thanks to generous funding from the Obici Healthcare Foundation, ACCESS expanded its services to Western Tidewater school districts.

© Naval War College Foundation 2020 501(c)(3)