Ralston College had much to celebrate this past week. Aside from conferring Masters of Arts in the Humanities degrees to 26 students within its its third consecutive class, the college has been granted candidacy for accreditation by the New England Commission of Higher Education.
NECHE’s guide on Becoming Accredited is clear in noting that while candidacy is a formal affiliation with NECHE, but it “is not accreditation nor does it assure eventual accreditation.”
Ralston’s CEO Ashley Bradford served as the point person with NECHE on the accreditation process. He stated the primary advantage of the accreditation process had been the self study requirement which had Ralston closely examine and document all of its years of work, decision making and policy governance.
“There’s something really rewarding in that,” he said.
Ralston President Stephen Blackwood agreed that the practice was beneficial to assess the college’s “overall coherence with respect to adherence to the mission.” He also said it was helpful to look at models of external institutions with respect to NECHE’s nine Standards of Accreditation.
Both are optimistic about the next phase of the process toward accreditation. They also underscored the collective accomplishment of Ralston’s latest graduates, which celebrated admittance to their Master of Arts in the Humanities with a procession and ceremony at St. John’s Episcopal Church on May 17.
Blackwood said some graduates plan to become teachers at the K-12 levels, often in classical schools. One alumnus does intend to teach at the university level while several others plan to work in the arts. Other new alumni are going on to internships while others will continue or start entrepreneurial ventures. For those who plan to expand their studies in philosophy or theology either through further graduate studies, the college’s candidacy for accreditation may add yet another element to their applications. Bradford, though, said, “Not having candidacy or accreditation, historically, hasn’t prevented our students to enter into that competitive space very prepared.”
Commencement ceremony: Forsyth to St. John Episcopal
Blackwood said that Ralston views the admittance of degrees as transformational and more like a degree of membership rather than a transactional piece of paper. “So [the] graduation ceremony is really about bringing about that transformation and celebrating that,” he said.
The ceremony began with a procession that started at the the soon-to-be removed and renovated Forsyth Park fountain. According to a press release from Ralston, the academic procession replicated a “centuries-old tradition that connects the university to its town.” College officials, including President Stephen Blackwood, marched in full regalia together as “a symbol of unity and a formal, festive celebration of student achievement.”
The procession traveled along Bull Street passing by the Noble Hardee Mansion at 3 W. Gordon St., which Ralston formerly owned prior to selling it to Three West Gordon, LLC which shares its 90 Park Ave., Floor 29, New York, New York address with Abdiel Capital Advisors. The procession then concluded at St. John’s Episcopal Church, which “kindly, makes their space available for us to hold our ceremony,” said Blackwood.
Though Ralston is not an officially religious-affiliated organization, it has ties to the Episcopal church in that the majority of its Board of Governors have connections to the church at both local and national levels.
The River Street Brass Quintet as well as a local organist and a local bagpiper provided music throughout the ceremony, as well.
On to the next chapter
Mariia Stepaniuk said her plans post-Ralston will center around her forthcoming foray into motherhood. “I’m expecting a child,” she said in an emailed statement. She feels that studying at Ralston, “thinking deeply about the philosophical questions in life – has already contributed to my sense of wonder about this.”
A self-described curious kid who read a lot, she grew up in Kyiv, Ukraine. During an interview with the Savannah Morning News last fall, she said that she became interested in math and physics in middle school, went on to a good high school and wound up studying linguistics before traveling the world. She wound up studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for her undergraduate studies in computer science. Though not looking to pursue a masters degree, she came across Ralston through a podcast and found that it aligned with her desire to also learn more about philosophy, literature and languages.
“I am also very much planning to keep learning languages (improving my Greek, learning Latin, and perhaps some modern languages as well), as well as reading great books,” she wrote more recently. She may, later in life, pursue another degree in philosophy or classics.
Another recent alum, Will Paschal also chose to study at Ralston because he felt something was missing beyond his Georgia Institute of Technology studies in math. Going from the small town of Madison to the big city of Atlanta, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, he felt disconnected from the communal experience of his youth. So, as he considered graduate programs he sought out an institution that could offer what Ralston would refer to as fellowship.
A lucky chance studying Plato in a rare humanities class at Georgia Tech coupled with the teachings of mathematician Paul Erdős, led Paschal to view math as a form of truth seeking not unlike philosophy. As a Ralston fellow next year he will be doing a research project in mathematics.
Ralston’s transformation and urban campus
Savannah’s Ralston College is named after St. John’s former Rector William H. Ralston Jr., who, according to the college’s website, “was a man who believed we are all worthy of redemption and transformation.” Ralston College has experienced a financial transformation over the last few years as it has also pursued accreditation.
Back in 2021, Ralston College received $549,264 in charitable contributions and had expenses totaling $759,730 for a negative net income of $207,918. It’s latest 990 tax filings show a net income of $2.25 in 2023 which is actually down $6.3 million from 2022. The college’s net assets year-over-year increased from $3,589 in 2021 to $10,818,253 in 2023. The biggest jump came from an increase in charitable donations in 2022. In a November 2024 interview Blackwood said “the better part of a couple hundred donors” had supported the college.
As of late, the college has sold or listed a number of properties and moved to what officials have called a “lease-first approach” when it comes to properties. They claim that leasing rather than owning allows Ralston to reinvest more in its academic programming. The college’s urban campus now encompasses 36,500 square feet across three buildings:
- 17 W. McDonough St. (leased from Gregory M. Parker, Inc.)
- 134 W. Whitaker St. (leased from Richard Kessler’s Kessler Whitaker LLC)
- 26 E. Gaston St. (leased from Richard Kessler’s 26 E Gaston LLC)
The college previously operated the Musgrove House, 121 W. Gordon St., as an inn. It and properties at 115, 117 and 119 W. Gordon St. are all listed for sale by Seabolt Real Estate.
The college also sold a Gothic church at 115 W. Bolton St. along with the Noble Hardee Mansion to the same buyer based out of New York. The sale agreement included language that allows Ralston to lease back the first floor and top floor of the Noble Hardee Mansion for three years at $2,500 per year as well as an option for the Paideia Institute to lease the second and third floor for a period of ten years at $4,000 per year. The institute describes itself as a “nonprofit educational organization dedicated to promoting the study and appreciation of the classical humanities, with a focus on Latin and Ancient Greek languages and literature.”
As Ralston continues to evolve, Bradford said attaining full accreditation will allow the college to have a more international cohort by admitting international students who regularly show interest in the college.
Blackwood said the college had over a thousand expressions of interest for the upcoming cohort of 28 students. The next class’s over-arching theme will be “fellowship.” He said that can refer to the “relations between human beings and their communities, friendship, but also…other relations in nature, relations between animals, our relation to the world and the reality.”
Tuition at Ralston is $60,000. All admitted students are eligible for full scholarships to cover both tuition and living expenses.
Joseph Schwartzburt is the education and workforce development reporter for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at JSchwartzburt@gannett.com and JoeInTheKnow_SMN on Instagram.