COLUMBIA, SC – Dr. Kimberly Singletary describes herself as a “willing worker.” Yet, the new director of the Benedict College Honors Program is a visionary and transformational leader on campus.
The Benedict College Honors Program began in 1986 to increase the academic rigor, offerings and visibility of the best and brightest scholars. With nearly 100 scholars currently in the program, Dr. Singletary is expected to bring a new energy to the program.
Dr. George A. Devlin, associate vice president of academic affairs, says, “We are extremely proud to welcome Dr. Kimberly Singletary as director of the Honors Program. Dr. Singletary brings innovative ideas, collaborative experiences, and an enthusiastic desire to work with our students. Under her leadership, the Honors Program will provide challenging classroom experiences, innovative research, international awareness, expanded partnerships and internships, and intentional service to the College that will make a difference in the lives of our scholars. Indeed, the Honors Program will continue to represent “TheBESTof BC!”
Academically successful students are invited to be inducted into the Honors Program based on their freshman first-semester GPA. Students with a 3.4 GPA or higher are eligible for the full scope of courses and resources available through the Honors Program.
“Dr. Singletary’s enthusiasm for teaching and learning, attentiveness to details, and dedication to achieving outcomes reflect exactly what we want for our honors students. We are excited to see and support the next chapter of excellence for the Honors Program under Dr. Singletary’s leadership,” says Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Janeen Witty.
To support the needs of Honors scholars, Singletary outlines three goals for her new role: to increase the number of scholars, raise the visibility of the program and develop impactful opportunities for students. Singletary says, “I want them to enjoy their time with the Honors Program, but I also want them to be able to leverage those opportunities to further their career once they graduate from Benedict College. I want to make sure that I’m providing every resource available to them, any type of internship opportunity, any type of scholarship opportunity, any type of grant opportunity that can be available to them in their chosen field of study that they have opportunity to attend these functions and workshops.”
Singletary was introduced to the Honors Program in the 2024-25 academic year when she served as coach of the Honda Campus All-Star Challenge (HCASC) Team, an academic team that competes for national bragging rights every April in California. Benedict’s team was the only HBCU team from South Carolina to compete in the 2025 competition. “Although we didn’t get far enough in the finals, but that’s all right because we’re going back,” says Dr. Singletary.
She shares how instrumental the HCASC coaching experience was for as a coach and cheerleader. “I think that one of the blessings of working with the HCASC team is just to see the overall hustle, I would say, of these students, the amount of additional [preparation] that they take on just to show their academic abilities is just amazing to me,” says Dr. Singletary.
Dr. Singletary earned a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education, and she is a certified educator with six years of teaching and auxiliary leadership experience in South Carolina schools. Her accolades during that time include being named Teacher of the Year. She earned a master’s degree in educational technology to combine her love for teaching with her second passion, working with computers and software. Dr. Singletary saw an opportunity to make a more significant impact on education through a role at South Carolina Educational Television to train teachers in the Palmetto State and host a television show.
Benedict College attracted Singletary in 2021 with a library IT manager position that presented her with an opportunity to combine education and technology. Once her background in education was discovered, faculty in the School of Education, Health and Human Services began collaborating with her on projects, and in 2022, Dr. Singletary became a faculty member.
Dr. Singletary started her role as Honors Program director on July 1 and anxiously awaits the beginning of the school year for the return of Honors scholars.