{"id":7500,"date":"2023-11-27T08:00:26","date_gmt":"2023-11-27T14:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.everylearnereverywhere.org\/?p=7500"},"modified":"2023-11-27T08:46:51","modified_gmt":"2023-11-27T14:46:51","slug":"how-this-political-science-major-is-breaking-down-stigma-around-hbcus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everylearnereverywhere.org\/es\/blog\/how-this-political-science-major-is-breaking-down-stigma-around-hbcus\/","title":{"rendered":"How This Political Science Major Is Breaking Down Stigma Around HBCUs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Where Anissia Fleming grew up, she was surrounded by predominantly White institutions like Middle Tennessee State University, the University of Tennessee, Mississippi State University, and the University of Alabama\u2014and those are some of the places she and most of her classmates considered.\u00a0But during the Covid-19 pandemic, Fleming received a letter from Tennessee State University, a public HBCU in Nashville, offering her a full scholarship, even though she hadn\u2019t applied. Fleming believed this was a sign that TSU was where she was meant to be. Since then, she has had several surprising discoveries about HBCUs.<\/p>\n

For example, she says, \u201cThere is a stigma that students should not prioritize HBCUs when it comes to their college search. But HBCUs are just as equipped as PWIs [predominantly White institutions] to produce engineers, doctors, political leaders, nurses . . . . The list goes on and on. There is this idea that if you go to an HBCU, you are not getting the highest quality of higher education that you could be getting. This stigma attached to HBCUs is just not true.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fall 2023, Fleming is an intern with Every Learner Everywhere\u00ae, working on a research project to develop a profile of HBCUs with a goal of understanding why Black students choose to attend them and what PWIs can learn from HBCUs to better serve their Black students. Fleming\u2019s part of the project includes examining previous research and scholarship on HBCUs and interviewing educational and student leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m seeking perspective on why Black students who attend HBCUs tend to be more satisfied with their college experience and more successful in their careers after college than Black students who attend predominantly White institutions,\u201d Fleming says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am enjoying my research because not only can I shine light on my own institution, but I can let people know that HBCUs are more than what they were founded for during the times when segregation was legal,\u201d she continues. \u201cHBCUs are valuable for so many different reasons and their historical foundation only makes them more important in our country. I commend HBCUs for fighting and standing up for what they believed in and not letting integration take away the fundamental reasons why they were founded.\u201d<\/p>\n