Graduation Speech : A College Application And Writing An Essay Essay

Thesis: HBCU’s are necessary for the future of democratic America because they better prepare African American students as individuals and for the workforce.

retention and graduation rates, the NCAA rolls out new rules and regulations”. Black Issues in Higher

HBCUs were originally created to educate and uplift African Americans to the same levels of success and their other racial counterparts. The institutions were created to afford all African-American students, the same chance and opportunities to reach academic and social success. They were created in times within history, when African Americans could not enroll in traditionally “white” post-secondary institutions. Currently, there are 105 diverse HBCUs (insert source for information). Each institution has distinct missions and rich legacies. They vary in size, enrollment, financial creditability and stability, curriculum and degree programming as well as, operational effectiveness (Hibel, n.d.). HBCUs serve some students who would not normally be accepted into other institutions because of their academic and socio-economic status.

Well when you look at the ethnic percentages of HBCUs and PWIs it is very well clear that Caucasians make up most of the PWIs campus while at HBCUs, African Americans are the total campus. Same aspect, different ethnic group. Let’s break it down a little further. At PWIs, most of the scholars are from the state of the university that they are attending and when you get to an HBCU, their scholars are from all over. Numerous think that there is no diversity at HBCUs but they are mistaken. The students that attend HBCUs bring their own slag, music, state cultures, and much more. The diversity goes farther from the different shades of skin one they bring to the campus.

“Historically Black Colleges and Universities, or HBCUs, have played an important role in enriching the lives of not just African Americans, but our entire country.”(Keller) What Ric Keller states here is an opinion that outlines a compelling fact about HBCUs that along with several other significant information that may come as a surprise. Essentially, the great debate between the choice of whether an Historically Black College and University or Predominantly White Institution is more beneficial or not can become a pondering interrogation. Each acronym defines itself, Historically Black Colleges and Universities(HBCUs) were established by the means of providing an education for predominantly African American students. Whereas, Predominantly White Intuitions(PWI) serve to instruct and educated the opposite or in other words those of Caucasian descent.

One undergrad student who is now a senior, Cassandra Skinner, tells how her choice to attend an HBCU was difficult due to the misconception that these types of schools were “ghetto” or “ratchet”. But after her first semester, and being on the cheerleader squad, she realized that this is where she belonged, with “her

Tyree had started out performing strong, but soon his grades began to fall. He transferred to Howard University and changed his major from pharmacy to journalism. Tyree criticizes his peers still attending Pittsburgh saying “Where many of my African-American peers at Pitt had downsized themselves to just ‘getting along,’ ‘passing the grade’ and ‘rubbing shoulders’ with White America, I still wanted to compete to be the best.” Tyree argues that unlike students at PWIs, students at HBCUs have a more competitive nature because they are focused on academics and do not settle for just a passing grade. He also argues that although people may work just as hard at a PWI as they would at an HBCU, they have more opportunities to succeed, and become better leaders. The faculty at HBCUs provides the students with support they need to perform at a high level. This support results in students interacting with other peers, and also increased GPAs. Also, students at HBCUs are more likely to graduate and have more desire to go on and fulfil a career. Student graduation rates are high considering HBCUs only comprise 2 percent of colleges in the United States. 22.5 percent of all bachelor’s degrees, 11.9 percent of all master’s and 18.9 percent of all professional degrees received by African-Americans are from HBCUs. Since eighty percent of African Americans in college attend PWIs, it

HBCUs are more sensitive to the various cultures and encourage students to associate and learn about the different nationalities and cultures. HBCUs faculty and administration tends to offer more encouragement and support for students having difficulty; they help these students to reach their full academic potential. “In 1992, Walter Allen reported that black students who attend HBCUs have better academic performance, greater social involvement, and higher occupational aspirations than black students who attend PWIs. On black campuses students emphasize feelings of engagement, extensive support, acceptance, encouragement, and connection. Allen also found that HBCUs communicate to black students that it is safe to take the risks associated with intellectual growth and

Historically Black Colleges and Universities, or HBCUs, have played an important role in enriching the lives of not just African Americans, but our entire country.”(Keller) What Ric Keller states here is an opinion that outlines a compelling fact about HBCUs that along with several other significant information that may come as a surprise. Essentially, the great debate between the choice of whether a Historically Black College and University or Predominantly White Institution is more beneficial or not can become a pondering interrogation. Each acronym defines itself, Historically Black Colleges and Universities(HBCUs) were established by the means of providing an education for predominantly African American students. Whereas, Predominantly White Intuitions(PWI) serve to instruct and educated the opposite or in other words those of Caucasian descent.

African American students enrolling in HBCUs experience better outcomes such as general satisfaction with their experience, higher grade, psychological adjustments, etc than those African American students enrolling in PWIs while Whites attending PWIs experience better outcomes such as higher grade, psychological adjustments than those white students attending in HBCUs. African American students found more comfortable and friendly environment at HBCUs while White students found more comfortable and friendly environment at PWIs. Students attending in HBCUs seems to be more satisfied with college experience because of their involvement on Colleges/Universities compared to those students attending in PWIs. African American students attending HBCUs wanted just to complete their degree as compared to students attending PWIs. White students wanted to read more as compared to African American students. In the context of educating African Americans in Specific field, HBCUs became more successful in providing access and retaining students through graduation compared to PWIs. Students attending HBCU has outcomes like tutoring other students, higher GPAs, gradating with honors, and

In an effort to increase diversity in certain job fields and corporations, companies will primarily look at historically black colleges and universities first. At a finance panel at Howard University’s school of business, a black MIT grad stated how her twin sister, who attended Howard, got more job offers than she did. There is a misconception that historically black colleges and universities lack proper training and job preparation. This most likely stems from people still believing that only white people are capable of success or teaching other people success. HBCU’s provide opportunity to students who may not have been exposed to those opportunities’ otherwise. Looking at graduation rates at non HBCU’s, black students at PWI’s have a lower graduation rate compared to their white counterparts(npr.org). When it comes to diversity most people assume diversity in color but there are more ways for places to be diverse. There is a lack of diversity at PWI’s when it comes to race, culture, and most importantly socioeconomic

Albritton, T. J. (2012). Educating our own: The historical legacy of HBCUs and their relevance for educating a new generation of leaders.

The purpose of this paper is to argue based on the founding principles for their establishment, HBCUs hold no educational justification to continue in the midst of the twenty-first century. Frist, the paper will cover a brief historical context around the founding principles of HBCUs. Next, legislation that allowed them to thrive and maintained existence will be presented. To conclude, implications for HBCUs and potential next steps will be presented. Historically Black Colleges and Universities were an instrumental educational piece for African American during the 19th and 20th century, they are not longer relevant in the 21st century

Students attend school starting at pre-school then kindergarten, kindergarten to first grade and leading up to middle school then high school, the classes and teachers are supposed to prepare them for the next level. With the correct preparation and tools, after graduating high school, many students have their mind set on attending college as the next level. However many African-American male students who do have the ability to graduate high school, are not prepared for their next level which is college. Due to the quality of these schools “the school districts in urban neighborhoods have fewer academic offerings, less qualified teachers, out of date materials and lower quality curriculum” (WOOD, J. (2011), results in the poor education of the minority students attending them. Also due to the different academic and environment backgrounds that white and black students come from, many teachers are unaware of how to teach black students and how to gain their attention in the classroom. Other than

In order to study the need of a racially and culturally diverse college campus, the journey and battles fought must be dicussed. While there is a lack of diversity on college campuses today, they are not completely devoid of people of color. However, there was a time when college campuses were one hundred percent Caucasian. Jonathan R. Alger, Jorge Chapa and a team of researchers conducted studies on various college classrooms. They then went on to publish their findings in a book titled Does Diversity make a Difference? The purpose of their paper was to discuss the importance of diversity and reveal the effects of non-diverse campus. They begin their book by taking a look into the history of diversity in America. The start of the Civil Rights movement along with President Lyndon B. Johnson’s war on poverty took place in the mid 1960s. These events forced the country to face the reality of the people of color in America. These Americans of color did not have equal access to education, jobs, housing, or other valued resources (Alger et al. 2000). College administrators and faculty were starting to understand the necessity of a diverse campus. The realized that people of color had just as much to offer to the United States as the Caucasian majority. During that time, “many higher education faculty members and administrators were deeply concerned that abandonment of race sensitive admissions and hiring, at a time when most minority groups continue to be unrepresented in higher education, will severely limit campus diversity and would undermine the learning environment for all students.” (Alger et al. 2000). Additionally, a lot of the traditionally white colleges and universities were provoked and questioned by the concerns of their students. The universities and colleges began to notice their inability to extend the same educational