LBUSD High School Students Experience What it’s Like at Louisiana’s HBCUs
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Posted By: S. Moore on January 04, 2023 Nearly 40 Long Beach high school students recently got to take a trip to Louisiana during their fall break and visit and experience life on HBCU campuses — part of the local school district’s ongoing efforts to improve equity and academic achievement for Black students. The recent nine-day HBCU tour was the first one to be organized under the Black Student Achievement Initiative, a Long Beach Unified School District program that launched in 2021. The initiative analyzes and uses data to identify areas of need, and set plans and actions to create more support for Black students to excel academically, as well socially and emotionally, according to a presentation to LBUSD’s Board of Education in fall 2022. In the 2021-22 Learning Acceleration and Support Plan, LBUSD allocated $750,000 to develop a Black Student Achievement Advisory Committee, which also launched last year, to recommend additional support for Black students. That money allowed various programs to develop, such as the Sankofa Summer Academy, Black College Expo and the HBCU Discussion Panel. It also allowed LBUSD high school students — of any grade level — to take part in the HBCU tour trip at no cost, said Elyssa Taylor-Stewart, an administrator at the district’s Office of Equity, Engagement and Partnership, who was also a leader in the nascent advisory committee. “It was an amazing trip,” Taylor-Stewart said in a recent interview. “Our students have written letters to our administration sharing how the experience benefited them, what they got from it and how it changed their lives. “Many of them,” Taylor-Stewart added, “got a better understanding of historically Black colleges.” HBCUs are institutions that were established prior to 1964 with the principal mission of educating Black Americans. These institutions were founded and developed in an environment of legal segregation and by providing access to higher education, they contributed substantially to the progress Black Americans made in improving their lives, according to the U.S. Department of Education. HBCUs have produced 40% of all Black engineers and 50% of all Black lawyers in America — as well as 80% of judges. And 70% of Black doctors in the country attended an HBCU, according to a proclamation from President Joe Biden, which he issued in honor of National Historically Black Colleges and Universities Week, which was Sept. 18 to 24. During the LBUSD college tour, students visited multiple Louisiana campuses, including Grambling State University, Southern University, Dillard University, Xavier University, and even predominantly White institutions, such as Louisiana Tech University and Louisiana State University. At some schools, like Grambling State, Long Beach students received a tour of the campus by the university president or by college students who made themselves available to answer questions and share their experiences of attending an HBCU, Taylor-Stewart said. A highlight for many of the students, staff and parent chaperones was attending the Bayou Classic, a rivalry football game between Southern University and Grambling State in New Orleans. The students also attended the Battle of the Bands, which, Taylor-Stewart said, is a big part of the social and cultural environment at a Black college. There were also step-show competitions between the Black sororities and fraternities. “Exposure is so important; it opens students’ minds and their hearts to new and different things,” Taylor-Stewart said. “Exposing students to different experiences is really important.” Khalil Reese, a junior at Poly High School, said his favorite college was Grambling because of the welcoming environment. He also said the overall experience will prove crucial when he decides what to do after high school. “The trip opens your mind to more possibilities other than UCs or colleges in California,” Reese said. It makes you think a lot broader and it’s just a good way of putting yourself out there into what it would be like to go away for college and how that experience would be. “It was so much fun,” he added. “It’s something that you don’t want to miss out on.” Experiencing the sense of community and identity at the HBCUs, meanwhile, impacted both students and chaperones. “I really enjoyed the Bayou Classic game between the two schools,” said President Morgan Barnes, a Poly senior. “Just seeing so many Black people come together was so cool, and as far as the campuses, we got the chance to sit down and eat with some of the students, which was a good experience.” The trip to Grambling was such an indelible experience, Morgan Barnes said, that she decided to apply to the university. By the time she made it back home, she had received an acceptance letter. Her father, Charles Barnes, was a chaperone on the trip and said he was proud his daughter had the opportunity to see the university before she applied. “We don’t have a whole bunch of HBCUs in California,” he said. “So if that’s an option that kids are considering, I think they have to be able to see it for themselves before they make that leap because it is a change.” The Black Student Achievement Advisory Committee, Taylor-Stewart said, is planning to take students on another HBCU tour in the summer. She encouraged students to start thinking about why they would like to be part of the trip and how it would impact and benefit them as Black students at LBUSD. “There are things we can do differently to support our Black students,” she said, adding that she’s grateful to know the committee has the support of the Board of Education and the community. “We have their support and we’re doing what we can to move forward and we have a lot more to do,” Taylor-Stewart added. “I am really grateful and excited about where we are going.” SOURCE Press-Telegram If you enjoyed this article, Join HBCU CONNECT today for similar content and opportunities via email! |
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