Montgomery, Alabama · Founded 1963
“Montgomery's other HBCU — not Alabama State — a two-campus technical college that trains nurses, welders, chefs, and electricians for real jobs.”
Full live stream of the May 8, 2025 commencement at the Renaissance Hotel, downtown Montgomery — the school's own broadcast of its biggest annual day.
Live stream of the May 8, 2026 graduation from the Renaissance Montgomery Hotel; the newest entry in the school's commencement broadcast tradition.
Live stream of the 2022 ceremony from the Montgomery Performing Arts Center — shows the pre-Renaissance era of commencement staging.
Recap of the 2023 gala celebrating 60 years since the legislature authorized Trenholm Tech in 1963 — the college publicly claiming 1963, not the 2001 merger, as its birth year.
Alabama Community College System feature on Jarius Sumpter, whose automotive instructor and the Trenholm program put him to work at Reinhardt Collision before graduation.
The school's own channel version of the Sumpter story, branded 'The College for Real Careers' — Trenholm's recruiting message in one student.
ACCS feature on Ashley Johnson: high-school dropout to Trenholm GED student to associate's, bachelor's, and master's degrees — and her own business.
WSFA (NBC Montgomery) segment with Dean of Health Science Cheryl Davis on the college's breast cancer awareness event — Trenholm's health sciences division in the local news.
Class of 1980, LPN program — Assistant Professor of Neurology and assistant director of the Comprehensive Stroke Center at Johns Hopkins Hospital and School of Medicine; a nationally recognized stroke expert.
Class of 1982, Keypunching — counselor at Bishop State Community College with 22 years in the Alabama Community College System, leading student services, registration, and new-student orientation.
Class of 1982 — first-generation college student from Montgomery who chose Trenholm over Birmingham-Southern for affordability; rose to Executive Assistant to the Alabama Community College System Chancellor. Credits the college's old bus service for removing the transportation barrier for low-income students.
Class of 2006, Dental Assisting — owner of Rodock Dental Studio, a dental laboratory in Prattville specializing in state-of-the-art removable dental appliances and prosthetics.
Class of 2012, Graphic Design Technology — marine and wildlife artist and owner of Fishtails, blending classical drawing with digital technique; credits professor and mentor Spencer Arington for pushing him outside his box.
Culinary Arts — chef and culinary arts instructor at A.H. Parker High School in Birmingham; coaches students through national culinary competitions. Says Trenholm mentor Chef Katrice Small 'poured into' him and he now teaches the same way.
Adult GED program — dropped out of high school, earned her GED at Trenholm, then an associate's, bachelor's, and master's degree; now owns her own business. Featured by the Alabama Community College System as the face of the adult-education pipeline.
Automotive student featured by the ACCS for landing a career-track job at Reinhardt Collision before even graduating — the 'choose Trenholm, start your career early' story the system uses to recruit.
Nursing Dean / Dean of Health Sciences at Trenholm State; named by college-review publications among the college's notable figures for building its health sciences division and the Baptist Health partnership.
The Alabama Legislature passes Regional Vocational and Trade School Act 673 in 1947, authorizing regional vocational and trade schools across the state. The law sits quietly for years, but it becomes the legal foundation for the Montgomery County trade school that follows. Without this act, there is no John M. Patterson Technical School — and without Patterson, there is no Trenholm State as it exists today. It is a reminder that this college was born from industrial policy, not ivory-tower ambition.
The Montgomery County Board of Revenue and the City of Montgomery purchase 43 acres at the junction of the Southern Bypass and U.S. 231 South to site a new regional trade school. The school is named the John M. Patterson Technical School, for the sitting governor, John Malcolm Patterson. Land is bought in 1961 under the authority of the 1947 Act. Everything about the project reflects a segregated Alabama: a publicly funded trade school, built for white students.
The $1 million John M. Patterson Technical School opens on September 4, 1962, at 3920 Troy Highway in Montgomery. Accredited by the Council on Occupational Education, it offers trade courses — and under Jim Crow, its classrooms are for white students. Patterson will keep that identity for decades, even after the law changes around it. The school's eventual merger partner is being built, quite literally, on the other side of town for the students Patterson won't take.
Governor George Wallace pushes a three-bill act through the legislature that transfers control of Alabama's two-year schools from the state to the governor's office. The legislation is a power grab, but it also unleashes expansion: trade schools and junior colleges multiply across Alabama, and the law allows $1.5 million to be allocated to the construction of each new school. Trenholm State's origin story is inseparable from this act. The same political machine that fought integration is now funding the Black trade school that Montgomery's Black community has been waiting for.
In May 1963, the Alabama State Legislature authorizes a second Montgomery technical college, to be built nearly nine miles from Patterson at 1225 Air Base Boulevard on 35 acres. It is named H. Councill Trenholm State Technical College for Dr. Harper Councill Trenholm, the towering Black educator who led Alabama State College from 1925 to 1960. Trenholm was a Morehouse (1920) and University of Chicago (1921) graduate who served 21 years as executive secretary of the American Teachers Association, helped merge it with the NEA, and — in a painful chapter — expelled Alabama State students and fired faculty who joined the sit-in movement, drawing sharp criticism from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Naming the new school for him plants it firmly in the Black educational tradition of Montgomery.
Construction of the $1.25 million Trenholm campus is completed and classes begin in August 1966, with the City of Montgomery and the Montgomery County Board of Revenue contributing to construction costs. Like Patterson, it is accredited by the Council on Occupational Education — and like Patterson, it is segregated: Trenholm Tech's trade courses are for Black students. Two publicly funded trade schools now sit nine miles apart in the same city, one white and one Black, mirror images of the system that built them. (Some histories date the founding to 1965, when construction was underway; the college itself counts 1963 — its authorization year — as its birth, holding its 60th anniversary gala in 2023.)
By action of the Alabama State Board of Education, the John M. Patterson Technical School is renamed John M. Patterson Technical College in 1974. The new title reflects a statewide elevation of trade schools into the postsecondary system. Patterson is still the predominantly white institution across town from Trenholm. For the next quarter-century, the two schools run parallel tracks, duplicating programs in the same city.
Thad McClammy becomes president of Trenholm State Technical College, leading the school for fourteen years until 1995. He will later serve Montgomery in the Alabama House of Representatives as a Democrat, one of the rare college presidents to move from campus administration to the legislature. His tenure ends in controversy that will shadow the school for decades: a state lawsuit over a no-bid construction contract, an audit finding hundreds of thousands misspent, and his firing.
Alabama's attorney general sues McClammy, charging that as Trenholm president he awarded a $438,914 contract for building improvements without following the state's competitive-bidding rules. A subsequent state audit finds he had misspent more than $700,000 at the college, and he is fired as president. The case drags on for nearly thirty years before finally settling in 2026, when McClammy agrees to pay the state $65,000 in reimbursement. It remains the darkest administrative chapter in the college's history — and a cautionary tale every Alabama college president since has known by heart.
On April 27, 2000, the Alabama State Board of Education, on the chancellor's recommendation, approves the intent to merge John M. Patterson Technical College and H. Councill Trenholm State Technical College. The merger is part of a statewide push to eliminate duplicated community college programs. The proposal sparks real debate in Montgomery: the two schools have been culturally shaped by segregation and integration since their beginnings, and people argue fiercely over what the merged college should be named and which campus should be the main one.
On April 26, 2001, the State Board votes to consolidate the two colleges as H. Councill Trenholm State Technical College. The name is a deliberate strategic choice: keeping the historically Black college's name preserves the school's Title III-B federal funding eligibility. The Trenholm campus at 1225 Air Base Boulevard becomes the main campus; Patterson at 3920 Troy Highway becomes the additional campus. Dr. Alma Freeman serves as interim president from April to November 2001, steadying the new institution through its first months, before Dr. Anthony L. Molina takes over in November 2001 as the first president of the consolidated college. The Council on Occupational Education grants approval for the merger in March 2002.
Sam Munnerlyn is approved as president in December 2007, ending the Molina era. Munnerlyn is no outsider — he has spent more than four decades with the school, and he will lead its most transformative stretch. Over the next twelve years he will win the accreditation that changes everything, grow enrollment by 30 percent, renovate nearly 70 percent of the college's buildings, build a downtown culinary presence, launch a registered nursing program, and pipe interns into jobs at Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama. When he retires at the end of 2019, the college is unrecognizable from the one he inherited.
In December 2014, Trenholm State is granted initial accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) to award associate degrees, with transfer credit for eligible courses retroactive to January 1, 2014. This is the single most important academic milestone in the school's history: it stops being merely a technical certificate shop and becomes a true degree-granting community college whose credits transfer to four-year universities. Every nursing student, every transfer student, every dual-enrolled high schooler since stands on this decision.
In May 2015, H. Councill Trenholm State Technical College officially becomes H. Councill Trenholm State Community College. The rename catches the title up to the reality SACSCOC created the year before: this is now a community college in the full sense, with associate degrees, transfer pathways, and a workforce mission. The Patterson name survives only as the Patterson Campus. After fifty years, the merger is complete in everything but memory.
Sam Munnerlyn steps down at the end of 2019 after 12 years as president and more than 40 with the school, leaving behind SACS accreditation, 30 percent enrollment growth, and a mostly renovated campus. Anita Archie — former chief of staff to Montgomery's mayor — is named interim president in January 2020 and holds the college through the first year of the pandemic until May 2021. It is a caretaker stretch, but a steady one, and the college emerges without losing the momentum Munnerlyn built.
Dr. Kemba Chambers is appointed president in May 2021, the sixth leader of the merged institution. She moves fast: within two years she will buy the college's third instructional site, cut the ribbon on a state-of-the-art manufacturing center, and lock in a nursing pipeline with Baptist Health. Her presidency marks the moment Trenholm State stops consolidating the merger and starts expanding again — this time on its own terms, as a majority-Black HBCU community college in Alabama's capital.
2023 is the busiest building year in the college's modern history. On January 19, Trenholm State and the River Region FAME chapter cut the ribbon on the Advanced Manufacturing Training Center, with eleven training sections running students from introductory manufacturing skills to advanced production, troubleshooting, and robotics, backed by Festo Didactic equipment. In April, the college purchases the Blount Property in Executive Park on Eastern Boulevard as its third instructional site — the future Healthcare Training Facility, which will house all 14 of Trenholm's health sciences programs, the largest collegiate healthcare lineup in the River Region. In May, the college and Baptist Health launch the LPN Immediate Impact program, with cohorts training inside Baptist Health's Institute for Patient Safety and Medical Simulation Building and guaranteed career pathways at Baptist Health. That fall, the college holds its 60th Anniversary Gala, celebrating sixty years since the legislature authorized Trenholm Tech.
Spring commencement on May 9, 2024, at the Multiplex at Crampton Bowl is one of the largest in school history: more than 300 certificates and degrees conferred, with over 200 graduates walking. The class tells the whole Trenholm story in one room — 52 adult-education students earning high school equivalency diplomas, 45 dual-enrolled high schoolers already holding college credentials, and career students in fields from medical assisting to welding to culinary arts. Student speakers Iverson White (Automotive Technology) and Thaddaus Sneed Jr. (Computer Information Systems Support) speak to how the college moved them from where they started to where they're going. President Chambers calls the ceremony 'a testament to the College's commitment to academic excellence.'
The Spring 2025 commencement is held Thursday, May 8, 2025, at 1:00 p.m. at the Renaissance Hotel on Tallapoosa Street in downtown Montgomery, and streamed live on the college's YouTube channel. The move from Crampton Bowl to the Renaissance signals how the college now sees itself: a downtown institution with a healthcare training facility on Eastern Boulevard, a manufacturing center, and a graduating class that feeds directly into the River Region's hospitals and factories. The tradition holds — one ceremony, every division, the whole community invited.
Two big wins land in 2026. In August, Trenholm State joins Drake State (Huntsville) and Lawson State (Birmingham) — all three historically Black community colleges — on a $500,000 National Science Foundation grant to build STEM and semiconductor-manufacturing pathways, the SEED collaborative running October 2026 through September 2029. In September, the White House announces $21.26 million in one-time federal funding for 13 of Alabama's 14 HBCUs, with Trenholm State receiving $1,381,133. Spring 2026 commencement, streamed live from the Renaissance Montgomery Hotel on May 8, keeps the newest tradition going. Sixty-three years after the legislature authorized it, the little trade school built for Black students in a segregated city is training the region's nurses, machinists, and semiconductor technicians.
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No Greek-letter organizations; H. Councill Trenholm State Community College is a two-year technical/community college in Montgomery, Alabama. Its catalog's student-life section lists honor societies (Phi Theta Kappa, Alpha Beta Gamma), the Student Ambassadors, and campus royalty — no NPHC or other Greek-letter chapters appear anywhere in the catalog, student-life pages, or press coverage.
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Ribbon cut January 19, 2023, with the River Region FAME chapter and Festo Didactic. Eleven training sections take students from introductory manufacturing skills to advanced production, troubleshooting, and robotics, with hands-on lab equipment matching real factory floors. President Chambers framed it as a recruiting tool for manufacturers: a reason for companies to join the River Region FAME chapter and hire Trenholm graduates.
In April 2023 the college bought the Blount Property in Executive Park on Eastern Boulevard, its third major instructional site. The building becomes the Healthcare Training Facility, consolidating all of Trenholm's health sciences programs — 14 at the time, the largest collegiate healthcare lineup in the River Region, with four more planned — in one centralized location near hospital partners Baptist Health, Jackson Hospital, and the Nursing Home Association. Moving health sciences out frees the Trenholm campus to develop a Workforce Development Training Center aimed at West Montgomery.
Launched May 2023, the Licensed Practical Nursing 'Immediate Impact' program puts Trenholm cohorts through didactic and clinical instruction inside Baptist Health's Institute for Patient Safety and Medical Simulation Building and affiliated Baptist Health facilities, with Baptist Health committing career opportunities to enrollees. Dean of Health Sciences Dr. Tracie M. Carter called it an authentic collaboration to push qualified nurses into a workforce facing immediate shortages.
The Alabama Community College System put the renovation of Patterson Campus Building F out to bid in fall 2022 (Seay, Seay & Litchfield, architects), with the pre-bid conference held in Building E's multipurpose room. Part of the ongoing capital refresh of the 43-acre Patterson site, which serves as the college's additional campus.
A new registered nurse program begins in fall 2019, capping the Munnerlyn era's academic expansion. Alongside the existing LPN, medical assisting, radiologic technology, sonography, EMT, and respiratory programs, the RN launch made Trenholm the River Region's deepest bench of collegiate healthcare training — the foundation the 2023 Healthcare Training Facility was bought to house.
Across Sam Munnerlyn's twelve years as president, nearly 70 percent of the college's buildings were renovated while enrollment rose 30 percent. The wave modernized both the 35-acre Trenholm campus on Air Base Boulevard and the 43-acre Patterson campus on Troy Highway, and included establishing a downtown Montgomery presence for the culinary arts program — putting Trenholm's chefs and students in the city's commercial core.
Trenholm State joins Drake State (Huntsville) and Lawson State (Birmingham) on a $500,000 National Science Foundation grant, the Semiconductor Exposure, Exploration, and Development (SEED) collaborative, running October 2026 through September 2029. The three historically Black community colleges will build educational pathways into semiconductor manufacturing and advanced technology — new instructional models, applied science capacity, and direct career-development ties for students in one of the country's fastest-growing industries.
Announced September 24, 2026, at a White House event: $174 million in one-time federal funding for HBCUs nationwide, with $21,259,618 split among 13 of Alabama's 14 HBCUs. Trenholm State's share is $1,381,133 — real capital for a school that has historically run lean on a technical-college budget.
In April 2026 the college announced dual enrollment plus early college offerings with a community information session, widening the pipeline that already lets Central Alabama high schoolers take Trenholm courses free of charge. Dual-enrolled students have become a signature part of commencement — 45 of them walked in the record 2024 class.
The college celebrates 60 years since the legislature authorized Trenholm Tech in 1963 with an anniversary gala, recapped on the school's YouTube channel. The gala doubles as a statement of identity: the merged college now publicly claims the 1963 authorization — not the 2001 merger — as its birth year.
Leadership is lean and Montgomery-rooted: the last three presidents include a 40-year school veteran (Munnerlyn), a mayor's chief of staff (Archie, interim), and Chambers. Faculty standouts surface through students — nursing instructor Cynthia Caldwell draws the school's top RateMyProfessor marks, and automotive instructor David Smith is cited for hands-on training that feeds the Hyundai and collision-repair pipelines.
In office since May 2021; led the 2023 expansion wave (manufacturing center, healthcare training facility, Baptist Health nursing partnership).
Oversees the college's 14 health sciences programs; public face of the Baptist Health LPN partnership.
Academic operations lead; quoted on the Baptist Health LPN Immediate Impact launch.
Runs the career-tech division and the college's side of the River Region FAME advanced-manufacturing partnership.
Named by alumnus Chef Steven McIntyre as the mentor who changed his life — advocated him into a premier restaurant job and modeled the teaching he now practices.
Trenholm is a commuter school with no housing — students drive in from Montgomery and the River Region, many of them working adults and first-generation students (43% first-gen). The student body runs about 60% female and roughly 68–78% Black, with most attending part-time. Free dual enrollment pulls Central Alabama high schoolers onto campus, and the adult-education GED program is a genuine second-chance pipeline — one graduate went from dropping out to a master's degree and her own business. Clubs and service organizations exist, but the social center of gravity is the classroom and the job at the end of it: this is a school where the pageant, the SGA, and the welding lab all serve the same motto, 'The College for Real Careers.'