HBCU Caravan Comes to Mt. SAC
October 23, 2024 - 04:40 PM
The spirit of “the Yard,” including a drum line and hip hop performances, is coming to Mt. SAC on Monday as part of the HBCU Caravan College Fair. The event will be held in the Multicultural Center from 4 to 7 p.m.
For the second year in a row, Mt. SAC was selected to welcome the caravan, which is part of the California Community College to Historically Black Colleges and Universities initiative. As part of an agreement signed in 2015, California community college students who complete certain academic requirements are guaranteed transfer to a participating HBCU.
According to the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, there are just over 100 HBCUs recognized by the U.S Department of Education. Representatives from 20 of the most well-known HBCUs will be at Mt. SAC.
“A lot of folks don’t know about these schools because they are in the South or East Coast,” said Mercedes Cunningham, Special Projects Manager for the Center for Black Culture & Student Success. “With this event, our students will have an opportunity to talk to people from schools they haven’t heard of and will able to learn that going to an HBCU is a viable pathway.”
HBCUs, like Clark Atlanta, Dillard and Virginia State, are looking specifically for
California community college students to transfer to their campuses, Cunningham said.
“We’re really excited because these are really good schools who want our students,”
she said.
Last year, two Mt. SAC students transferred to HBCUs: one to Alcorn State University
in Mississippi and another to Clark Atlanta University. The year before, two students
transferred to Tennessee State and Langston University in Oklahoma.
In addition to the college fair, performances by LA Drumline and Tommy the Clown, known as the “godfather of Krumping”, will bring next-level energy and excitement to the evening. “There is so much cultural vibrancy to HBCUs and we’re bringing that to campus this year,” Cunningham said.
