BGA STUDENTS TOUR HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES

October 7, 2012—On a rainy Sunday night families gathered outside the South Boston Educational Complex to bid their kids farewell as Boston Green Academy students departed on a four-day, three-night tour of some of the nation’s most prestigious historically black colleges and universities.

Chartered by bus, thirty students and four chaperones made the trek down to Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland; Howard University in Washington, D.C.; Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia; North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina; and North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro.

By touring all five campuses, students learned about each school’s founding history, historical buildings and academic programs.  They were also exposed to a taste of college life as they ate in dining halls, talked with current college students and participated in open forums with professors. But not only did the trip expose BGA students to college life; it exposed them to the idea of college life away from home.

“The tour was an eye-opening experience for me.  Before going I was only looking at schools in Boston,” adds one student who attended the tour.  “Since the trip I’m excited to go to schools outside of New England.” And while the tour itself may have lasted only four days, it took months of preparation and hard work to bring it all together.

Julian McNeil, a BGA mathematics teacher, spearheaded the trip and organized the many nuts and bolts of a 34-person tour.  Students came together to fundraise by hosting carwashes during the months leading up to the trip, and additional funding came from BGA staff and Board Members – all coming together to raise over $11,000 to support our students.

After a rainy start, students returned to blue skies in Boston with a new perspective on college life – and a sense that doors were opened to an education they never imagined possible.