An online education pioneer has selected St. Petersburg for its first standalone, immersive in-person learning site in the institution’s 54-year history.
Albany, New York-based Excelsior University opened its St. Petersburg campus Oct. 20 at 9400 4th Street N. Students can now enroll in hybrid Bachelor of Science in Cybersecurity, Master of Science in Cybersecurity and Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering Technology degree programs, with classes beginning Jan. 5.
Excelsior University St. Petersburg will also open enrollment for health care programming in early 2026. President David Schejbal said a “convergence of various opportunities” led to the school choosing the city to host its new facility.
“We have a significant contingent of current Excelsior students who live in that region,” Schejbal told the Catalyst. “Nearly 40% of our students are either active members of the military or veterans.”
He noted that roughly 850,000 veterans live between St. Petersburg and Orlando, “so there’s a huge market there.” Schejbal also credited Florida’s higher education system, but said state universities are “packed.”
“We think that the programs we want to bring down there, including electrical engineering, tech, cybersecurity and nursing, are just top job degrees that will serve the community well,” he added.
Founded in 1971, the not-for-profit university emphasizes lifelong learning and prioritizes serving students who are historically underrepresented in higher education. Excelsior has a main campus in Albany, and its academic programs are registered with the New York State Education Department. The school has also received additional licensing for Florida-based programs.
Excelsior boasts over 200,000 graduates, with nearly 17,000 residing in Florida. The “brick-and-mortar complement to the institution’s history of innovation in distance and online education” will allow faculty and staff to strengthen relationships with 500 current students who live in the state.
Schejbal said employers increasingly seek “job-ready employees” who have “all the theoretical skills” and in-person training. “And it’s hard to get hands-on experience in a purely online course.”
For example, Schejbal said lab training would help prepare electrical engineering technology students to work in data centers or server farms. Excelsior wants to provide enrollees with “opportunities to go back and study on their own if they want, or with a faculty member to get some information outside of the classroom but within a lab setting.”
“Veterans really benefit a lot from being able to be with each other,” Schejbal continued. “We know that many veterans are struggling with similar issues.”
He also called face-to-face interactions a “very powerful incentive for learning” for all students, “especially these days with AI (artificial intelligence) when people can learn a lot on their own through online experiences.”
Schejbal explained that the New York Board of Regents established the formerly public university to help adults complete degrees and assist veterans returning home from the Vietnam War. “From the beginning, we were very closely connected to serving the military, and that relationship has continued ever since,” he said.
The St. Petersburg facility is now in the “counseling and engagement phase.” Schejbal realizes Excelsior is “not a household name in Florida yet.”
However, officials are already discussing growth plans. “If this facility becomes popular, and we discover other needs in the greater Tampa region, we might want to set up a couple of other campuses … to make it easy for students to attend in-person classes after work, on a Saturday morning, whatever works for them,” Schejbal said.
He stressed the importance of students attending school where they feel comfortable and welcome. Excelsior prioritizes building a “sense of community” and connections.
“Our motto right now is ‘you belong here,’ and we mean that,” Schejbal added. “We don’t care where you come from. We don’t care what your background is. We want students to feel comfortable here and like this is their learning home.
“And we’ll take good care of them.”
The U.S. Department of Education has approved Excelsior to offer federal financial aid. The school has myriad accreditations, a 54-year track record, and Schejbal noted it’s “not somebody’s corporate pet peeve – we’re the real deal.”
He said Excelsior is expanding “into different parts of the country because we have students in many parts of the country. The only difference here is that we are setting up a physical location in addition to teaching students online in Florida.”
This content provided in partnership with StPeteCatalyst.com
