My Identity + HBCUs

Before I searched through the Digital Archives, I thought about what was important to me. What made me me? What do I feel has been a running theme for a large amount of my life up until now. HBCUs. Growing up the daughter, granddaughter and niece of HBCUs graduates, I first took for granted the validity and importance that they held. I thought of the people in my life, who were HBCUs graduates, as great people by default. I thought my family was chosen for some reason to be filled with people who were forces within their community, mentors to the young, filled with wisdom and vigor that I had yet to had saw in such a volumes . Ego filled I know. My family, and those who they surrounded themselves with, weren’t always coming from the best of backgrounds. They weren’t apart of Jack and Jill, their father didn’t own a corporation, but they all had something in common. HBCUs. HBCUs, at a young age, didn’t serve as something so special because I was surrounded with so much of the culture: the homecomings, The Yard, the community. I had been surrounded with it my whole life, but it took me experiencing it myself to truly see how special it was. Attending Grambling State University as a transfer from a PWI was one of the best decision I have ever made in hindsight. I was able to experience the feeling of lacking that I felt at a PWI and the transition, was undeniable. The career building, the family orienting, the community and the drive that I have received from attending an HBCU is something that will continue to stick with me and be apart of my identity throughout my career as a Black professional no matter what. Before becoming a HistoryMaker, one of the writing prompts asked of me in the application process was to find myself in the archives. This video was one of the videos I found. Though not mentioned, I always found myself coming back to the video to remind me of my experience as an HBCU and my duty as a soon-to-be HBCU graduate.

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