HBCU Healthcare Pathways

November 12, 2024

Erin, an academically accomplished high school senior (GPA 4.5; ACT 33) attending the Kennesaw Mountain High School Academy of Mathematics, Science, and Technology Magnet Program has earned leadership and community service hours as a high school intern with our foundation. Erin’s most recent responsibility was serving as a researcher on this project. Erin, who has aspirations of attending medical school, shares her perspective regarding what she learned through her research.

Prior to researching graduate school and medical school pathways through HBCUs, I had little preexisting knowledge of such HBCU pathways, specifically into medical school. When Mr. Wynn asked me to research these pathways. I believed that even if such pathways existed, they would be either out of reach for the majority of students, or scarce to find. Through my research, I have found myself to be wrong on both accounts. I was astonished to learn how successful HBCUs are in creating such pathways and how accessible they are to students who want to plan pathways into graduate school, medical school, dental school, optometry school, veterinary school, or nursing school. I am confident that such pathways also exist for law school, but that was outside of my research focus. The purpose of these pathways and partnerships is to rid students of socioeconomic barriers that prevent them from pursuing higher education and to provide assurance that if they commit themselves to doing the work to meet the admissions criteria for their desired program that they will be assured of the opportunity to fulfill their dreams.

HBCUs have partnerships with graduate schools within and outside of the United States. Several even have partnerships with Ivy League schools. These partnerships can come in the form of early assurance or dual degree programs. Early assurance for a premed student would mean that a student would get to apply to medical school early so that a medical school would be able to offer them an early decision and a guaranteed spot. For some programs, you can choose whether or not to take the MCAT. This is a great opportunity because applying to medical school is very expensive and filled with stress and uncertainty with such low medical school admissions rates. Applicants can spend thousands of dollars in transportation expenses traveling to medical schools for in-person interviews, MCAT study tools and preparation fees, exam fees, and so much more without any guarantee of being accepted into medical school. I learned that many early assurance programs invite students to all-expenses paid summer programs where they can receive a stipend, attend MCAT preparation classes, and gain research experience. 

Dual degree programs allow students a guaranteed pathway to receiving an undergraduate and graduate degree, or undergraduate and medical degree. Many such programs are not only guaranteed, but take less time and cost less money than would otherwise be required. For me personally, being assured of the institution where I will earn my undergraduate degree and the institution where I will earn my graduate degree or attend medical school prior to graduating from high school allows me to plan both my long term career goals and short term academic, leadership, and community service goals.

Many HBCUs are not only amazing in the sheer number of partnerships they have developed, but the reverence with which they are referred to is nonpareil and featured on the websites of their partner institutions. Take for instance, Jumoke Dumont’s article, “50 Years of Medicine: The Brown-Tougaloo Partnership,” which describes the Brown University-Tougaloo College partnership.

“For 154 years, Tougaloo College, a historically black college (HBC) in Jackson, Mississippi, has played a leading role in the education of Black scientists and health professionals in the South and beyond. 

The private liberal arts college is among the top US schools for the number of graduates with doctoral degrees in STEM fields, and its alums form 40 percent of Mississippi’s African American physicians and dentists.

Brown became an active partner in this tradition in 1976 when it established the Early Identification Program in Medicine for Tougaloo (EIP). An expansion of the historic Brown University-Tougaloo Partnership (BTP), the EIP identifies Tougaloo undergrads for early acceptance to Brown’s MD program. 

The EIP in Medicine for Tougaloo is one of the BTP’s longest-standing active programs. It has produced two generations of physicians — MDs who are leaders in their fields and the communities they serve.”

During my research, I discovered that one HBCU had partnerships with 16 graduate schools (Xavier University of Louisiana), thereby providing 16 different pathways to early assurance and dual degree programs. My research for this project dispelled any preexisting notions I previously held regarding the quality of education or scope of opportunities offered at HBCUs. I left the project with a much deeper understanding of how committed HBCUs are to not only the success of their students, but in creating leaders like Vice President, and presidential candidate Kamala Harris, who has already had a global impact. These schools work hard to ensure that after their students receive their undergraduate degree, they have the best opportunities for continuing their education into graduate school, medical school, law school, or beyond. 

I hope that you will learn from reading this book, what I have learned— why HBCUs have such a rich and long history of producing Black professionals in virtually every career field from education to medicine and from the arts to STEM. The amount of support and tools HBCUs provide to help students pursue their educational and career aspirations is such an important feature of HBCUs. Based on indisputable outcome data, their strategies are arguably more effective for African American success than those of other highly selective schools.

Erin N.
Kennesaw Mountain High School Class of 2025
Academy of Mathematics, Science, and Technology 

How to Plan Your Career or College Pathway

November 12, 2024

Planning a career or college pathway is not easy. While this book is only 128 pages, many teachers and counselors have concerns that there is too much reading and the concepts are too difficult for middle school and high school students to grasp. While I understand such concerns, my experience is that students are not only capable, but are receptive to the guidance being provided in this book. I recently spoke to classes of 9th grade students at a high school in Columbia, South Carolina where I asked students in each class to write a narrative response to the question, “What are your dreams and aspirations after high school?” 

While there were many students who failed to write anything, and other students who only wrote one or two sentences about becoming rich or becoming a professional basketball or football player, there were a good number of students in each class who wrote introspective and self-reflective narratives.

“My dream is to become a choreographer at my own dance studio. It has been a dream that I have had since I was young. I am willing to put in whatever it takes to achieve my dream, no matter what. I love dancing, which has been my passion since I took my first steps.”

“My dream is to become a veterinarian and to own my own veterinarian clinic. I recognize that I have to overcome obstacles that I have in math and science. Today, after writing about my dreams and considering the obstacles, I now know the importance of working more closely with my math and science teachers who can help better prepare me for college.”

“My dream is to enlist in the Navy and pursue the Nursing Corps option. However, prior to today, I hadn’t thought about how I would actually achieve my dream. Now I know that to pursue the Navy Nursing Option, I will need to research each of the colleges that offer the NROTC Scholarship, and that have nursing programs. I will also need to know the type of academic performance I will need throughout high school to qualify for the scholarship. All in all, I now know that having a dream requires a lot more than just talking about your dreams!”

“My dream is to become a legendary comic book creator, artist, author, director, and horror film creator. My inspiration is Stephen King and Eiichiro Oda. My favorite kind of horror is Analog Horror, which depicts themes of VHS tapes and old school cartoons/movies.”

At the end of each class, students remained behind asking questions about what they could do to pursue their dreams. We talked about the available career pathways at their school, the type of classes they should take, and how to build their résumés to make themselves competitive job, college, or scholarship applicants. During the discussion about grades, every student acknowledged that they were not earning the grades of which they were capable. They were not engaging in their classes as well as they could. They were not studying at home or preparing for tests as well as they could. These students were repeatedly, and consistently, acknowledging that their work ethic was not aligned with their career aspirations.

I raised another question, “Why aren’t you doing the things that are consistent with [following] your dreams?” The common response was that they had not made a connection between what they were doing in school today and the future they dreamed of having for themselves.

My final question prior to the students leaving was, “If I wrote a book providing step-by-step guidance as to how to maximize the available choices in your school or school district to follow your dreams, would you read it?” Not only did every student respond, “Yes!” It was the look in their eyes that they wanted someone to help them to plan their way toward their dreams.

The students who will benefit most from this book are students who either have aspirations for the future, or want to identify the type of career pathways in which they can earn a living and enjoy the work. If you are such a student, but find the reading difficult, then read a few pages at a time and begin with the chapters that reflect your aspirations the most. If your career pathway is not covered in the book, then focus on the basic information about how to choose your middle school and high school classes and how to take maximum advantage of the CTE/CTAE or college prep classes available in your school or school district.

The table above lists the 16 career clusters reflected in The National Career Clusters Framework, which serves as an organizing tool for CTE programs. The clusters represent 79 different career pathways. If you are entering, or have already entered high school through one of these career clusters, then focus your efforts on taking the Interest Profiler presented in the chapter, “What Are Your Interests?” to confirm that your chosen pathway is aligned with your interests.

Maximizing the opportunities during middle school and high school to explore career clusters or CTE/CTAE classes, especially those reflective of your gifts, talents, and interests can provide important considerations for the career or educational pathway you choose to pursue after high school, which should help determine the classes that you take during high school. 

The important consideration is that any of these career clusters can lead to pathways into the workforce, military, or college. Regardless of the career cluster you choose, you will have options of multiple career and occupational opportunities within a career cluster, such as technician, teacher, scientist, or veterinarian, as well as pursuing a workplace certification, associate’s degree, bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, or MD/PhD. Your choice provides your context for learning. 

For every student who has dreams and aspirations for the future, even if you do not know what that future looks like, I have written this book with you in mind. I have also written, “Career or College Pathway: Individual Graduation Plan,” providing further guidance in planning and tracking a pathway toward your dreams for your future. 

HBCU STEM Pathways

November 12, 2024

Most students are aware that the acronym STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, however, few students have been introduced to the range of careers that fall within each of these categories. Healthcare careers, which also fall under the broad category of STEM, are addressed separately in Vol II of this series, HBCU Healthcare Pathways. In that book, The National Center for Health Workforce Analysis, “State of the U.S. Health Care Workforce, 2023,” profiles the underrepresentation of Blacks in the healthcare workforce where Blacks represent only:

  • 13.7% of Nurses
  • 5.3% of Physician Assistants
  • 4.1% of Dentists
  • 4.1% of Physical Therapists
  • 2.7% of Chiropractors
  • 1.9% of Pharmacists
  • 1.5% of Veterinarians

Similarly, the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics’ 2023 report, “Diversity and STEM: Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities,” profiles  the underrepresentation of Blacks across the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics workforce where Blacks represent only: 

  • 9% of Scientists & Engineers
  • 6% of Social and Related Scientists
  • 6% of Computer and Mathematical Scientists
  • 4% of Biological, Agricultural, and other Life Scientists
  • 4% of Physical and Related Scientists

Whether you are reading this book because you are considering a college major in STEM or exploring potential careers in STEM, this book will provide insight into both the obstacles and opportunities through HBCUs into graduate school or into the workforce. Whatever obstacles experienced by students in K-12 schools, HBCUs have a history of successfully preparing Black students for careers in STEM. Dr. Claudia Rankins, Program Director at the National Science Foundation, in “Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs): NSF’s Role in Building Capacity for STEM Education and Research,” reports that while HBCUs only enroll 9% of Black undergraduate students, they graduate:

  • 29.9% of Black students in Agriculture
  • 27.8% of Black students in Physical Science
  • 25.5% of Black students in Mathematics
  • 24.7% of Black students in Biological Sciences
  • 17.2% of Black students in Engineering

The underrepresentation of Blacks in STEM careers has far reaching implications for families and communities. Rakesh Kochhar and Mohamad Moslimani in “Wealth gaps across racial and ethnic groups,” note the huge gaps in wealth and homeownership between racial groups. 

Average Household Wealth by Racial Group:

  • Asians – $320,900
  • Whites – $250,400
  • Hispanics – $48,700
  • Black – $27,100

Percentage of Home Ownership by Racial Group:

  • 70% of Whites own their home
  • 58% of Asians own their home
  • 47% of Hispanics own their home
  • 40% of Blacks own their home

Increasing household wealth and expanding homeownership can be profoundly impacted by attaining an undergraduate degree in virtually any STEM career. The Georgetown University report, “The College Payoff: Education, Occupations, Lifetime Earnings,” (Carnevale, Rose, & Cheah, 2011) estimates lifetime earnings for an undergraduate degree is between $2 million and $4 million in all of the following STEM careers:

  • $4 million – Pharmacists 
  • $3.9 million – Aircraft Pilots & Air Traffic Controllers
  • $3.7 million – Computer & Information Systems Managers 
  • $3.6 million – Software Engineers 
  • $3 million+ – All Engineers 
  • $3 million – Computer Scientists & Programmers 
  • $2.8 million – Architects
  • $2.5 million – Registered Nurses
  • $2.3 million – Agricultural, Biological, and Life Scientists

Whether or not you believe that a career in STEM is the right career for you, this book will provide guidance in exploring these careers, salaries for these careers, level of education required for these careers, the type of college curriculum associated with these careers, HBCUs considered leaders in preparing students for these careers, and how to match your interests to potential career pathways.

Study Skills and Learning Strategies

November 12, 2024

Whatever career or college pathway you choose, you must study as part of the learning process. However, “studying” and “learning” are different. Yet, doing both well is essential to whatever your chosen career or college pathway.

What is Studying?

Studying means “to read, memorize facts, attend school, etc., as part of the process of engaging in intentional efforts to acquire knowledge.”

What is Learning?

Learning means “to develop the ability to recall information from memory and apply
to new situations.”

Like pursuing a career, learning how to study and learning how to learn will require work. Whether you aspire to become an auto mechanic or a heart surgeon, both require that you develop successful study routines and learning strategies. The same is true of whether you plan to enter the workforce, enlist in the military, or enroll in college after high school. This book can help you develop a planned approach to studying that will help you to become a better learner.

If you are not interested in learning about the research supporting the study skills and learning strategies being presented, then choose whatever study routines and learning strategies you believe will work best for you and begin experimenting. Whether you want to become a better student in a class, learn how to achieve a higher ACT or ASVAB score, or learn how to repair an engine or fly a drone, studying and learning are essential to your success.

You must commit. Pursuing a career or college pathway requires that you make a commitment to studying and learning. Whatever your current grades or test scores, every student can benefit by becoming a better learner. Even medical school students discover that both, making it into and through medical school, requires that they become better learners.

If you are an athlete, consider this as your playbook. If you are a chef, consider this as your recipe book. If you are an automotive or diesel mechanic, consider this as the manufacturer’s repair manual. Whatever career or college pathway you are pursuing, you will need to study and learn—this book can help you to do both better. Throughout the book are links to videos to further assist in identifying, understanding, and implementing the study skills and learning strategies that work best for you.

There are 3 components of learning (illustrated on the following page):

  1. Encoding: how you receive information.
  2. Retention: how you retain or store information.
  3. Retrieval: how you retrieve or recall information from memory to apply to a situation such as solving a problem, demonstrating a skill, or answering questions on a test.

There are 3 times in which learning occurs:

  1. In the moment: when a teacher, parent, or career instructor is talking.
  2. In your own time: when you are studying a subject or practicing a skill.
  3. When demonstrating what you know: when baking a cake, repairing an engine, driving a truck, flying a drone, playing an instrument, making a presentation, or taking a test. 

Your actions during the times in which learning occurs determines how easily information is received (encoded), retained (retention), and will later be recalled (retrieval) from memory. The strategies provided in this book will require effort and are intended to be difficult. University of Pennsylvania Professor Angela Duckworth, developer of the grit scale, describes this process as “Effortful Learning.” UCLA Professor and cognitive researcher, Robert Bjork, describes this process as “Desirable Difficulties.” These two processes relate to all learning, whether in a classroom, computer lab, music studio, or truck driving course. Strenuous athletic workouts develop skills, increase endurance, and build stronger muscles. In the case of learning, effort and difficulty build stronger memory pathways through each of the 3 stages of encoding, retention, and retrieval resulting in deep levels of learning and fast retrieval of information.

Why Attend an HBCU

November 12, 2024

The fundamental principle in which this, and the other books in the Why Attend an HBCU series are written, is the adage,

Give someone a fish, and you feed them for a day.
Teach someone to fish, and you feed them for a lifetime. 

To teach someone to fish, the teacher must be knowledgeable about the “process” of fishing. To keep from starving, the student must be willing to both learn and apply the process. Teaching a process to someone follows the principle of “backwards mapping,” which means to begin with the end in mind, i.e., not starving. With not starving as the end goal, the process evolves from working backwards to plan how you will catch fish. In regard to attending an HBCU, or any college, if the goal is avoiding student loan debt, then working backwards requires developing a set of strategies for identifying, applying, competing, and receiving enough scholarship money to close your financial aid gap, thereby avoiding student loan debt. 

The fact that 80 percent1 of students enrolling in HBCUs are using student and Parent PLUS loans to pay for college, suggests that the majority of students attending HBCUs are not being taught how to pay for college. There is an important distinction between students who ask “Where do I get scholarships?” versus “How do I get scholarships?” While this may appear to be a matter of semantics, it is far from it. The person who asks, “Where do I get a fish?” is asking a very different question than the person who asks, “Can you teach me how to fish?” 

Collectively, the books in the Why Attend an HBCU series provide comprehensive guidance in matching to the right HBCU and  the right scholarships. While you will be introduced to many scholarships throughout this and the other books in the series, the purpose is not to give you a comprehensive listing of all available HBCU scholarships, but to teach you how to identify, apply, compete for, and be awarded enough scholarship money to avoid student loan debt. Fully benefiting from the information being presented requires a level of intellectual curiosity driven by seeking answers to such important questions as: 

  • Which school or program is the right fit for my educational and career aspirations? 
  • Which schools are the right fit for my financial need? 
  • Which schools are the right fit for my unique situation and circumstances? 
  • Which scholarships are the right match to my body of work? 

These are only some of the many questions to be asked and answered in identifying the schools that are the right fit for earning a 4-year degree to enter into the workforce or in preparation for attending graduate school, nursing school, dental school, medical school, or law school.

While HBCUs share many commonalities, they are no more homogeneous than is the Black community. They represent public and private institutions. Public institutions rely primarily on funding from state legislatures and are governed by boards appointed by the governor of the state in which the school is located. Private institutions tend to be smaller and more personalized. Some schools guarantee on-campus housing for all four years, while other schools only guarantee on-campus housing for first-year students (or students from schools/states with transfer agreements). Some schools have a huge focus on athletics, other schools less so. Some schools have a long history of producing students who go into STEM, while other schools have a long history of producing students who go into education. 

Admission rates at HBCUs also widely vary. While the acceptance rate at Alabama State University is 97 percent, 42 miles away, the acceptance rate at Tuskegee University is only 30 percent.2 Similarly, the acceptance rate at Morgan State University is 85 percent, 678 miles away, the acceptance rate at Spelman College is only 28 percent.3 Collectively, the books in the Why Attend an HBCU series provide guidance in researching HBCUs and identifying the schools, programs, and campus communities that represent the best match to your educational and career aspirations, and provide the best opportunities to meet your financial need. The information spans across 7 areas: 

  1. The historical significance of HBCUs, as well as their current role in combating the assault on truth and facts, particularly as they pertain to African and African American history.
  2. Scholarship opportunities that are supportive of, or unique to, attending an HBCU (institutional, corporate, and private).
  3. The range of opportunities available through an HBCU  into the workplace or in preparation for graduate school, nursing school, dental school, medical school, or law school.
  4. How to research schools, majors, and their relationships with employers in various career fields.
  5. The concept of “body of work” and its role in maximizing a student’s scholarship, internship, research, or graduate school opportunities.
  6. Financial literacy of students and parents in understanding college costs and the burden of assuming student and Parent PLUS loan debt that may take a student’s entire working life to repay and deplete a parent’s wealth accumulated over the course of their entire working life. 
  7. Successfully applying for scholarships is part of a process supported by a high quality self-presentation (i.e., résumé/CV, email signature, cover letter, recommendation letters, well written essays) resulting in the submission of “high quality” applications.

The information provided in each of these 7 areas will prove invaluable for the student who is looking beyond being offered admission to a particular HBCU to identifying scholarships, being a competitive candidate for internships, developing networks with HBCU alumni throughout the public and private sectors, and taking advantage of the many partnerships between the United Negro College Fund,4 Thurgood Marshall College Fund,5 and hundreds of companies offering scholarship, mentorship, and employment opportunities. 

While attending an HBCU can provide a welcoming space and certainly one that enriches the “Black experience,” it can also serve as a launching pad for graduate school, nursing school, dental school, medical school, law school, and employment opportunities uniquely available to HBCU students. After being introduced to the plethora of opportunities available to HBCU students, the forward thinking student will look beyond getting admitted and begin building the type of résumé or curriculum vitae (CV) that will make them a competitive candidate for these opportunities.

HBCU Scholarships

November 12, 2024

This book supports the Why Attend an HBCU series. As Sydnee wrote in A Student’s Perspective, there are many educational and scholarship opportunities available at HBCUs for students who are willing to invest the time in researching schools and programs. Unfortunately, most students are driven primarily by either HBCU brand names, schools that are close to home, or applying to multiple schools through the Black Common Application without devoting sufficient time and attention to researching costs or matching to scholarships. The far too common result is students scrambling and parents experiencing anxiety over the costs, AFTER, students have applied to college. The HBCU Facebook Group, “Black, Brown & HBCU Bound,” reflects many such posts by dismayed students and parents:

“My daughter has been applying for scholarships, consistently, but she just isn’t having success. She will be an incoming freshman at Hampton U and has strong stats- 4.0 gpa, 12hrs dual credit, 30 ACT, 200+ service hours, heavy ECs, etc, etc, etc. Her results def got her into the universities she applied to and she has received merit THAT WE ARE TRULY THANKFUL FOR, but there is still a gap we are seeking to close. She’s won a couple of local awards, but the large sums of money that folks often reference have definitely eluded our household. We invested in her k-12 education thinking it would all be recouped at graduation/college. Deep, deep SIGH. I appreciate this space so very much.”

“I am in the same boat as you. My daughter is attending Hampton as well and the same exact things you have said applies to my daughter as well. It’s sad and frustrating.”

The 2024-25 direct costs to attend Hampton University is $44,900. However, this is less than the actual Cost of Attendance after including the costs of books, personal expenses, travel expenses, and health insurance.

“I am the mother of a rising senior (class of 2025)….we live in Texas, and she is ranked in the top 10% of her class with an ACT score of 29, and SAT score of 1300….she plans to retake both next month. Her #1 HBCU choice is Spelman, and her #2 is Howard. She wants to study political science as she wants to be a lawyer. She is very involved in school clubs, student body president, and is doing her 2nd law internship at a local law office. I know the cost of these two colleges is very expensive so I am looking for any advice from someone who has been in a similar situation.” 

“My son did receive a merit scholarship however it is not enough. He has been applying for scholarships, but has not received any. Any suggestions? Desperate parent.”

The Howard University website is out of date showing the most recent Cost of Attendance as $52,524 for the 2022-23 academic year. The Spelman College 2024-25 Cost of Attendance is $57,221.

If any of these students are planning to attend graduate school, law school, or medical school, they could enter graduate school with well over $150,000 in student and Parent PLUS loan debt. If you are a student who has already been offered admission to an HBCU, but still find yourself with a significant financial aid gap, this book will expand your understanding of how to become a competitive scholarship applicant, how to identify HBCU-specific scholarships, and how to significantly increase your chances of closing your financial aid gap with multiple scholarships.

If you are a high school student yet to apply to college, this book will help you develop a scholarship plan well in advance of applying to colleges and for scholarships, and provide guidance in matching to the ‘right’ scholarships and the ‘right’ colleges.

If you are a community college student planning to transfer to an HBCU, this book will provide you with similar guidance as if you were applying to college as a first-time freshman, but expanding to incorporate transfer scholarships and HBCU-specific scholarships for which you would qualify based on your transfer status as a first-, second-, or third-year students. 

If you are currently attending an HBCU, this book will provide guidance in identifying and applying for scholarships that have been awarded to the many students with whom we guided into an HBCU and continue to guide them through their undergraduate program in preparation for applying to graduate school.