Suburban students travel to Black colleges: 'Now I can see it for myself'
Hannah Douglass wasn't certain she wanted to attend college after graduating from Fairport High School. Mostly she was resigned to it, she said, because it was important to her mother.
That changed earlier this week, when she and nearly 300 other students from the Monroe County suburbs took a trip to Washington, D.C., to visit historically Black college and university (HBCU) campuses, among other sites. At Morgan State University in Baltimore, she felt comfortable; at Howard University in Washington, she felt awed.
"With Howard, you can just tell it's a place of Black elegance and excellence," she said. "Before, I was just going to go to college to make my mom happy. Now I can see it for myself."
The three-day trip also included a trip to the National Museum of African American History and Culture as well as more standard stops like the White House and Arlington National Cemetery. It was almost certainly the first time such a trip has been organized for suburban students of color.
It grew out of a student survey conducted several years ago at Fairport High School. Black students there reported a lesser sense of belonging at their school compared to their more numerous white peer. Tanya Wilson-Thevanesan, the deputy superintendent for school improvement and community engagement, convened some of them to determine the reason.
"Some of the kids asked if we could invite HBCUs to come up here," she said. "And I told them: 'I can do you one better.'"
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Students in the Rochester City School District often visit HBCUs on class trips to Washington, D.C. In the city more than half of students are Black; in suburban districts, meanwhile, the percentage ranges from 21% in East Irondequoit to 1% in Honeoye Falls-Lima; Fairport is one of eight suburban districts with 5% or fewer Black students.
Wilson-Thevanesan invited every local suburban district to participate. Brighton, East Rochester, Greece, Penfield, Rush-Henrietta and West Irondequoit all sent students, as did University Prep Charter School for Young Men in Rochester. The districts covered all but $20 of expenses for the students, with the Urban League of Rochester and the Konar Foundation helping with some of the cost as well. There were 295 students and 37 chaperones spread across seven touring buses.
Jada Crocker, an 11th grader and president of Fairport High School's Black Student Union, said the trip solidified her commitment to attending an HBCU. Her first choices are North Carolina A&T or North Carolina Central.
"Almost everything I know about my people I learned on my own or my dad taught me," she said. "On an educational and cultural level, I could learn about my people, with my people, from a professor who looks like me."
Isaac Britt is a biracial 10th grader at Fairport who has grown up in a mostly white family. The high school's first Black Student Union meeting, he recalled, was the most Black people he'd ever seen together in one place in his life.
"I've never really felt connected to that thing that's literally inside of me," he said. "Compared to Fairport, (the HBCU campuses) were a whole lot different. Just the vibe of the place."
Another trip is already scheduled for next year, Wilson-Thevanesan said, this time to visit HBCUs in Philadelphia.
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Contact staff writer Justin Murphy at jmurphy7@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Monroe County NY students who are Black visited HBCUs to learn more
