Just the opinion of an HBCU grad.

Growing up watching TV shows such as the Cosby’s, Martin, Living Single, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and my all-time favorite a Different World. I never really notice the subliminal messages of the actors wearing their HBCU paraphernalia until I went to one and would watch the reruns of the shows.

Being a little black girl in South Central Los Angeles growing up during the Los Angeles riots and knowing that there were certain areas that you shouldn’t drive through because of gang activity was very alarming.   The thing that stayed consistent was that I was able to come home and get lost watching a black family on TV.

Not only black but in all shades of black.  A doctor for a father and a lawyer for a mother they were involved in their children’s lives, they wanted the very best for their children, along for them to learn lessons in life that would allow them to be great men and women in society.  This was my Cosby experience like most the show, this allowed me to see that I could be and do anything regardless of my skin color

The whole drive behind me wanting to go to an HBCU was created while watching ‘A Different World’. Even though I thought Hillman was a real HBCU, watching the characters during the show left an everlasting impression on me.

Which motivated me to pursue going to an HBCU. I didn’t have the luxury of having parents that went to an HBCU or and relative I knew personally that went to an HBCU I just knew I wanted and needed to go. I made my decision to transfer from a traditional College to an HBCU after my first six months of being at that traditional college for my next year.

When people hear how an LA girl left and move to North Carolina for school it’s like I blew their minds.  They ask me why I left home. How did I find my school or what made me leave Los Angeles to come to North Carolina

The answer is simple I wanted to go to an HBCU. I wanted what I saw at Hillman. I wanted to be surrounded by other like-minded individuals that look like me. Striving for excellence, which was about something more than just sitting on the stoop gang banging. I didn’t want to be another statistic. I wanted the love and support that I had seen while watching ‘A Different World’ I wanted my Different World experience.

I left my traditional college, my family and everything I knew to pursue a greater opportunity to better myself for my community. I did my research. I gathered the list of all HBCUs. I begin to look at them and see what their purpose was. What they stood for, and how it would fulfill the yearning I had.

I looked at their environment, the Legacy, their community, and yes the weather.

I narrowed my decision down to two colleges:  one in Texas and the second one was North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University after a person on a blog mentioned to me that they had a great accredited accounting program. I took steps of faith and I begin my process I sent my application and prayed that God will open up the doors whatever way he wanted me to go.

Getting my acceptance letter from both colleges was the most amazing day because it meant to me that I was accepted into a legacy of excellence and now I would have my Different World experience.

People laugh at me when I tell them that the decision on where I was going was narrowed down off of the website of A&T. I love that they showed a diverse community of students. It wasn’t just African-American students that were plastered on the website but it was a cohesive collective community of students that wanted to be excellent.

When I arrived in North Carolina that was the day I moved on campus I didn’t even do a campus tour. I just paid my money and move with my families help into my A&T dorm (Haley Hall).

Finally arriving on campus and walking around I was able to feel the pride of what it meant to be an Aggie. What it meant to be in HBCU student. Throughout my Aggie experience, I’ve seen African American students, African students, Caucasian students, Asian students, Latino students, and everybody had the same goal to strive for excellence. I know I had made the best choice of coming to this Elite School.

Being in the environment of this HBCU allowed me to experience the Legacy that the school had to offer. I had the opportunity to be involved in different organizations that gave me encouragement. To know that along with God all things are possible that I only have to take an idea and create a possibility for myself.

My HBCU gave me even more confidence to be myself, love my skin. To not make excuses about my hair. Knowing that I’m just as good as anybody else regardless of my background. To have a professor that had worked in the public sector but came back to give back to students and make them equip for the world.

It gave me the ambition and the drive to do anything that I set my mind to. This is the recipe of what an HBCU gives to its students. It demands that you come out of the ‘cannot’ into the ‘I can’.

The HBCU Community is so rich with love, encouragement, inspiration, and motivation. This is the recipe behind each HBCU, this recipe is just like a great gumbo that cannot be mass-produced. HBCUs takes their time to cultivate each ingredient in their students so that they work well together.

An HBCU student is not someone you can easily torn down. HBCUs is not something that can be replaced.  They are not something that should be changed unless it’s for the betterment of the organization. Through the change does not mean that each HBCU has to lose their identity either.

HBCU’s did not ask to be established but rather they were founded as a solution to keep Blacks and Whites separate. Many people who do not understand the ingredients or the background of HBCU question why institutions like HBCU’s are still around as if  we’re the one trying to keep a separate identity.
We as Black people have never felt the need to keep our identity separate rather it was forced upon us and we took it with grace and turned it into victory. We don’t ask for you to merge or delete the history of our traditional colleges that have been around for hundreds of years.

So now that you’re ready to have your kumbaya moment we have already had, you’re ready for us to let go.  Why should we have to disintegrate our Legacy to make others feel comfortable?

HBCU are just like the people they serve they are a diverse group of institutions that produce diverse students there is nothing ugly about an HBCU other than the mindset of an ignorant individual that knows nothing about it

If you would like to be a part of #HBCUFridays please submit your stories, thoughts, experience, finding love at an HBUC to me at- indigometellus@gmail.com

For more information on HBCU click the link: http://hbcuconnect.com/colleges/