Faith Shamley is making history twice. Not only is she Morris Brown College’s 2026 valedictorian. She’s also part of what the Atlanta-based HBCU calls its “Restoration Class.” Shamley is among a group of 93 students who were among some of the first students to enroll at the institution after it regained its accreditation in 2022.
The nontraditional transfer student created a path of her own. She initially enrolled in another HBCU after graduating high school in 2019, but left after a short time before deciding to enroll in her grandfather’s alma mater.
“I decided to go back to school about three years later,” she explained. “I went back to school because I saw that Morris Brown was coming back, and I said, ‘Okay, this seems like an amazing opportunity. I get to be a part of history.’ So yeah, the rest is literally history.”
Despite Morris Brown’s past financial mismanagement and its near-closure, the graduate said attending was one of the best decisions she’s ever made and that she had full confidence in the institution.
”I actually had no concerns because of what I understood, a glimpse of what it took for them to even get there,” she explained. “So in my head I’m like, ‘They literally wouldn’t let anything happen ever again.’”
