Local church gives students opportunity to learn about HBCUs

GOLDEN TRIANGLE, Miss. (WCBI) – It was a chance for high school students around the Golden Triangle to check out historically black colleges and universities in Mississippi and beyond.

North Side Christian Church in West Point hosted an HBCU fair with representatives from over a dozen historically black colleges and universities.

Students were able to find out about financial aid and national and local scholarships.

They were also able to get assistance with online applications and information on Greek Life.

Sherrell Drake spearheaded the event.

“HBCU’s were created for African Americans. And often because of the area in which we live students aren’t introduced to those schools. We pretty much EMCC, Mississippi State, Ole Miss and ICC but our church family wanted to take the opportunity to show children that there are options outside the Golden Triangle area,” said Drake.

Vince Davis is a church member and attended two HBCU schools in the state of Ohio.

“The historically black colleges and universities was an advantage to me first of all because they just showed me a lot about my history,” said Davis. “I was allowed to gain a lot of information and it just help build me up so that when I did graduate I was able to go out into the society and be a successful person.”

And HBCU schools sold the idea of developing personal relationships between students and faculty.

“Alcorn takes the time the energy and the effort in investing in each person individually. You’re not just a number, you’re not just a social security number. They invest in you and they invest in your entire family,” said Alcorn State University representative Temeka Shannon.

“Regardless of what they’re studying to make sure they have the help and the nurturing enviroment in order to succeed. A lot of times class ratio most HBCU’s a lot of times student-teacher ratio is very important. I know at our school it’s 1 to 16 but also we have programs put in place to help mature throughout their college years,” said Jackson State University representative Chaid Thomas.

“I think that HBCU’s have always been the elasticity and the focal point of any educational emphasis. So that is one of the reasons why I think that some of these students should start the HBCU’s because at an HBCU you’re your name, not a number,” said Tougaloo College representative Joel Swan.

The church’s parking lot was made into a tailgating experience for the prospective students.