Dear Thorobred Family,
Homecoming is more than returning to a place. It is renewing the relationships, memories,
and shared purpose that make Kentucky State University home.
This week, generations of Thorobreds are gathering for Homecoming 2026 as we celebrate the University’s 140th anniversary. This year’s theme, “The Legacy Looks Good on Us,” honors the people who have carried Kentucky State forward through their learning, leadership, service, and steadfast belief in this institution.
A legacy, however, is not something we simply inherit. It is something entrusted to us.
Founders’ Day on Friday gives us an opportunity to remember the vision that established the State Normal School for Colored Persons in 1886 and the generations who expanded that beginning into Kentucky’s only public HBCU and the Commonwealth’s 1890 land-grant university. Their work created pathways to education and opportunity that continue to reach across Kentucky and beyond.
Homecoming makes that history present. Alumni return with stories of friendships formed, mentors remembered, challenges overcome, and lives shaped here. Current students see themselves as part of something larger than any one class or generation. Faculty and staff are reminded that their daily work will become part of the Kentucky State story others carry with them.
To carry that inheritance forward, we must ensure that today’s students encounter the same transforming possibility. That means keeping a high-quality education within reach, surrounding students with the support to persist and succeed, and connecting rigorous classroom learning with hands-on experiences, research, internships, partnerships, and opportunities to lead. It also means putting our knowledge to work in service to communities throughout the Commonwealth.
Homecoming belongs to everyone who has loved, served, sustained, or found possibility at Kentucky State. I am grateful to the alumni, students, faculty, staff, families, friends, and Frankfort neighbors who will fill our campus with energy and pride this week.
Welcome home, Thorobreds. As we celebrate 140 years, may we honor what has been entrusted to us and carry it forward with confidence, purpose, and care.
Together, Onward and Upward,
Koffi C. Akakpo, Ph.D.
President
Kentucky State University