Such a prestigious group to explain the experience with the divine nine and hbcus so that our students have an awareness of maybe the foundation of the Divine eyes there’s a very short video if you are able to click on the link I think it’s about two or three minutes
Long and it’s just an overview of the history of how this group was formed if you’re able to play that it could be helpful I think the video may play back better if everybody mutes and turns off their cameras though [Applause] for more than a century black Greek organizations have made their voices
Heard on college campuses and in communities across the country well the founders of these organizations they understood that the pathway forward for us was together through Unity House Democratic caucus chair Hakeem Jeffries joined Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity at the age of 18. and it really was the first
Time in my life that any one of importance and Authority suggested to me that they saw some leadership qualities and attributes within me and it’s a moment that I’ve never forgotten moments like that shared by many in the divine nine the nine black sororities and fraternities that comprise the National
Panhellenic Council vice president Kamala Harris has been outspoken about the impact her sorority has had on her and along the way you find people who help you become your true self for me that was my beloved Alpha Kappa Alpha sisters in an election cycle marked by historic first it’s hard to ignore the
Role these organizations have played Georgia elected its first black senator in America sent a black woman to the White House both members of the divine nine when I look at what Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority Incorporated and other members of the Divine are doing now we’re seeing that they are dedicated to
Voter education mobilization and participation we’re also seeing that even during a pandemic the service never stops groundbreakers and Trailblazers have always in so many different ways been connected to the black fraternity and sorority organizations including the great Shirley Chisholm who was a proud member of the belt for the sigma data
Sorority I have always been a catalyst for change the founders of these organizations or they perhaps could never have envisioned that one day we would Ascend to the highest levels of power and authority in the land including within the Congress and now the White House but I certainly know
They dreamed it and believed that they were laying a foundation for great things to occur but because of my HBCU and divine nine family I know I’m never the only person who looks like me or has had my life experiences even today we are 113 years after our
Founding that is a strong Legacy and we’re still able to see the ways in which the United States does not treat all of its citizens equally have they gotten better definitely they have definitely improved from where they were 113 years ago but can they be improved also yes we are passionate about the
Same issues within our communities within the World At Large and we work together in order to achieve common goals and if that isn’t family I don’t know what is a family that will remain rooted behind members as they embark on their barrier-breaking Journeys Hey NBC News viewers thanks for checking out our YouTube channel subscribe by clicking on that button down here and we represents [Applause] can can you unmute Miss White okay uh do you want to go ahead and start with our presenters absolutely okay so I’m going to go in divine order
And I’m gonna see is is Mr Luke on the call so I’m starting I started with Alpha Phi Alpha because they were the first founded and they’re not on the call so then I’m gonna go with Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority Incorporated if you would share your HBCU experience
And tell a little bit about your organization okay uh greetings everyone so I’m Katrina carp Journey again to introduce myself and I’m a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority Incorporated we were founded January 15 1908 and the idea it is by service and culture that
We go out and we serve the community to uplift women and to bring them into this new frontier so over 115 years of service that we have put out there as a HBCU graduate I came from Southern University and a m College in Baton Rouge Louisiana which is actually my
Hometown so I am from Louisiana and it was literally 10 or 15 minutes up the street from where I went to school and I’ll tell you there’s nothing like being on a HBCU so back then you call it the yard and on the yard you had the human
Jukebox and that was the best van out there you had Bayou Classic with Grambling versus Southern you had the Dancing Dolls you had the step shows you had the Greeks and you had teachers that knew your name if I was failing a class or I didn’t have a good grade in
Something there was a professor waiting and knew my schedule so your schedule says you’re free from this time to this time I want you in my office every day until this grade goes back up and that’s just something that you don’t get at other types of universities in in
Schools that is the experience when you go to an HBCU but you’re not just a person just attending class you are a person with a name a face and they’re invested in you in a way that you’ve never seen before and of course being surrounded by all of your Divine mind it
Doesn’t get any better than that thank you very very much and I’m gonna I’m gonna go out there and I’m just going from fraternity to sorority y’all um next I am going to bring up Omega Psi Phi which is Nate Jones let me find you start talking
I’m here I’m here okay I gotta find you on my screen okay start talking Mr Jones there you go thank you hi everybody I’m glad to be here uh my name is Nathan Jones uh I graduated from Morgan State University uh back in 2008 um there while I was there I was
Initiated into pie chapter of uh of the Omega Sci-Fi fraternity Incorporated um you know I I I was born and raised in Connecticut uh the small town in New Britain Connecticut um it wasn’t a predominantly black community um but it was a diverse Community um you know people from all over the
World but I never really had just a purely black experience um so I knew going out of high school I wanted to go to a predominantly black school in particular a historical historical black uh college or university and I settled on Morgan State because uh you know my my mother’s side
Of the family uh resides in Maryland and I took many trips down there so um you know I go to Morgan State and I’m surrounded by everyone that looks like me um you know and they come from all over the world you know not just the country
But all over the world and they all bring you know a different type of uh um you know a spin to uh you know their culture and and how they contribute to our culture so um you know while I was at Morgan State uh you know I I you know you see all
These Greek organizations you know they’re doing great things on the yard um you know throughout the community but you know there was one organization that always stood out and you know that was a mega sci-fi and and I remember you know doing research on uh on that
Organization and you know I I went to school for engineering I’m currently a uh an avionic system engineer at Lockheed Martin out here in in Low Valley and uh you know back then I was fascinated with everything science and engineering related and come to find out
The first the second the third and the fourth black African-American astronauts were all members of Omega sci-fi and you know I was just absolutely Blown Away by that and you know and it’s really you know the ideals of our fraternity of manhood scholarship perseverance and uplift and you know and how our organization
Um you know strives to be high achievers so you know I was always attracted to that and you know and and you know eventually I was initiated into the into the chat you know into the chapter and um you know and and beyond that I’m doing things for the fraternity out here
In the community um but you know that really joining the pie chapter uh really added to my experience my my my college life um you know outside of just academics but you know socially so um you know if you know if if you’re looking for uh the type of experience that’s um
Yeah I I I will say this a lot of hebcus nowadays are actually a bit more diverse than what you would think um you know I went back to Morgan State and there’s actually a quite a few Asians um there um in even Europeans um so it’s even more diverse now than it
Was when it was back when I was there so uh if if you want like a more I think more well-rounded experience um especially within the Black Culture uh I think you know and HBCU is is the route to go um So yeah thank you Mr Jones
Thank you okay going on next we have Miss D wire for Delta Sigma Theta thank you and greetings everyone so my name is D wire and I teach here um with the Antelope Valley High School District I’m at soar High School Palmdale campus
Um I am a Delta and so I’m sure some of you guys have that question what is a Delta so a Delta is a woman who is committed to Sisterhood scholarship service and social action um Delta Sigma Theta was founded uh January 13 1913 by 22 Collegiate women at Howard University
Um we have more than 3 300 000 initiated members and over one thousand chartered chapters worldwide so my experience with college I graduated from Grambling State University let me say that again Grambling States University um where I um scholarship for tennis I played four years of college tennis I was also an
Athletic trainer at Grambling um so I worked with all the sport teams um being in the uh my major was health and physical education and I minor my minor was health education and administration um but I would say being a part of the athletic training program sports
Medicine program at Grambling I was able to be exposed to a lot of the student body it was a phenomenal experience it was nice going to school and seeing people all around the community that look like me um I was born and raised here in the Antelope Valley so
Um you know coming from a very I feel it was diverse um I went to school out in Little Rock and so we had a a pretty good mixture of nationalities in the Little Rock area um so going to Grambling was a great experience
Um I loved it I um was made there at Grambling State University Delta Iota chapter and so yeah oh and you know grades were important let me just say that I I forgot all the educational part um but yes um the educational side of things was phenomenal because
Um as one of the speakers said uh before being in a smaller class setting you got to know your professors you got to know um the administration in the school and so it was just a phenomenal phenomenal experience being able to go to the football games basketball games it
Didn’t matter what sport it was it was like always exciting so yeah thank you very much Miss wire and next we have Ron Wilson um with Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Incorporated and he did correct me I put his school wrong so let me make sure I get his
School correct it is not Alabama state it is Alabama a m University Mr Wilson where yes I can can you hear me yes all righty so um I almost hung up when I saw that because um that was slapping the face putting that weird behind school next to
My name but uh because Alabama state was My Rival I went to Alabama I’m graduate of Alabama a m University um so um I’m sorry I’m just jumping on a little late are we just doing introductions are we giving up yeah you’re just telling you got one minute
To discuss your quick snippet of your HB of your college experience and about Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Incorporated you got one point half minutes let’s go all right so um what do Alabama a m University is uh part of the swac I’m on a football scholarship I have many opportunities to
Go to other schools to play football I chose Alabama a m because of mainly because of the living facilities to be honest with you um they had some of the best dorms that I compared to the other schools I was looking at there’s nothing like having
Your own bathroom in your room so that was pretty dope for me um that was important um but um as far as the environment goes it was very similar to the same one I grew up in I’m from Mobile Alabama preacher to be exact so um all the schools I pretty
Much went to were predominantly black so when I did go there on official business and things like that um I was extremely comfortable I majored in I actually double majored in Biology and secondary education um I knew I kind of wanted to be a coach and a science teacher so that was my
Major uh coming out of college um I let it all four years of school I met some of my best friends uh that we’re still best friends today um like some of the people said yeah you’re going to get that small class environment where the teachers will know you
Um you’re not just kind of swelled up by the amount of people that’s on your campus um you know everybody that’s there looked like you you know think like you act like you uh which is pretty dope so you don’t stand out and um you know kind of like a you know some
Other ways we may stand out and when we’re a minority uh like I tell a lot of students uh that’s one of the few times or a few chances they’ll ever have to be part of the majority by going to an HBCU um otherwise once you’re in the real
World unless you live in certain cities then you’re going to be a minority and then kind of take you got to carry all that weight on your shoulders um I am a member of Kappa Alpha Psi um I came through um I did alumni chapter with Lancaster Palmdale alumni chapter
Um what time I finished football at a m i played five years of Arena Football so um and then I kind of came back to Kappa um but it’s one of the greatest decisions I’ve ever made as well um our fraternity is all about achievement and I live and die by that
Um everything that I put my name on is all about achievement I want to cheat I want to set goals and Achieve them um you know it’s not all about um and it’s in any human endeavor so it no matter what field um that you’re in you know it’s all
About you know taking those that chance you got and and maximizing as best as possible and and becoming successful with it it’s my time up because can I get keep going yeah it’s a minute and a half you done thank you sir hey I should get extra time since you
Put Alabama state next to me okay I’m Gonna Act hop over to uh Mr Robert Vaughn because I know he said on a time schedule uh with Phi Beta Sigma fraternity Incorporated can you say something so I can pin you hello there you go yes um hello everybody
Um happy to be here thanks for the invite uh just quickly to be honest I uh when I was in high school um I had never heard of black colleges or fraternities sororities none of that and while I was in the in high school a uh a play cousin everybody has the play
Cousin somewhere right so play cousin uh had heard about this program at the one at Morehouse and then uh one at Spelman and so in the summer between 11th and 12th grade she went to Spelman I went to Morehouse for the summer program we took
This class and I just fell in love with the idea of going about college and vacation the major black universities that you can attend and so uh Tuskegee was definitely on that list of Aerospace uh institutions aerospace engineering degree and that probably ended up there and uh it was it
Was a great experience but to be honest being from California being from Los Angeles you know it was it was a rough year for me just the it was just so different just the culture shot was just so different but like everyone said the class sizes are small the relationships
Um you can build very strong relationships over time with people there and with your teachers and it turned out to be a really great experience and I’m so glad that I um that I chose that route and just like someone else mentioned the idea of you
Being in the majority this will you know I work in the Aerospace industry now and you know every company I’ve worked at it’s been I’ve been one of about five you know especially if I’m working on companies I work on Orange County it’s always less than five African Americans
Uh working there and so I’ve always been in the minority just throughout my career but being at uh Tuskegee was an opportunity to be in the majority not just for just just to say I’m in the majority what it what it did for me is honestly it took it just takes away an
Excuse it takes away um when you’re when you’re when you’re doing um when you’re doing what you’re doing in school and you’re having challenges and bumps on the road it just takes away an excuse that somebody doesn’t like me or you know because of my color or
Anything like it just takes that excuse away and and it encouraged me to work harder and do what I need to do and really just to take responsibility um for things that were um happening to me as I was going through uh uh going you know going through college and uh
You know uh you know excuse happen even it was to just push so it was very helpful in spring in 1990 I think Robert you’re in a bad area okay say something now Robert experience you know but I think we got a bad can you all still hear Robert hello
Okay Robert we were getting a bad connection for you towards the end of Phi Beta Sigma part yes can you hear us Robert I think Robert has a bad connection okay for the sake of time hopefully Robert can pop back on I’m gonna go over to is it no nalani no Lonnie yes
You still can’t hear me kind of sorta keep going let’s see Robert okay nolani we’re gonna let you go ahead and and start um we have no Lonnie she is a member of Zeta Phi Beta sorority Incorporated Leilani also attended which school did you attend elani I’m sorry I attended
Gremlin State Kremlin okay I was right so you attended grandma and I forgot yeah Grambling State University go ahead you got your minute and a half um hello everyone again my name is noelani Casey and I attended Grambling State University and that’s where I joined the finest sororities Zeta five
Biggest sorority Incorporated in Fall of 21 and I would say my HBCU experience has been amazing and I wouldn’t change it for anything um for me I chose HBCU because I felt comfortable and I wanted to go somewhere where it felt like home I wanted to attend a school where people look like
Me and I wouldn’t feel uncomfortable for looking like me um around my senior year junior year senior year when I was touring colleges I toured other colleges and it was just look uncomfortable being the only African-American walking around on campus and that just wasn’t something that I wanted so that’s when I started
To look into hbcus and schools that were majority of African-American students so that I could be away from home but still feel like I’m at home and still have that family presence attend HBCU it is amazing the classes are smaller um we are more of a big family we are on
The yard almost every day we’re in the cafeteria almost every day we’re planned soulful music in the cafeteria we’re dancing together we’re having fun together and that’s just the students once I joined the D9 it was even better because then you have another family so you just have families within families
So I can honestly say that as a senior in high schooler if you’re just in high school and you’re thinking about joining ned.org or think about going to an HBCU I would definitely encourage you to look further into that because both are great opportunities and you won’t regret it okay thank you luani
Um I’m gonna Circle back because I saw Mr Luke on the line Mr Luke are you back on the line yes I’m back here can you hear me good yes I need to find you so I can tag you there you go okay Mr Luke is from Howard
University and he is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated good afternoon everyone I apologize can you hear me now yes we are we can hear you all right apologize for being late was coming out of a meeting at work but yes I’m Gerald Luke um member of alpha trying to be
Incorporated the oldest and the coldest the first fraternity black Greek letter organization founded on a college campus in 1906 those also Cole Brothers but um I’m a graduate an alumni of the mecca Howard University and um I really loved my HBCU experience um I decided to go to an HBCU
Particularly Howard because in high school I grew up I grew up in La I grew up in the Avenues in L.A down the street Crenshaw High School but I had two different realities in my life I went to high school at Loyola High School which was a rich white boy High School
Going through four years there bye to more but I applied to Cal Berkeley UC Berkeley applied to Howard I got into both of them however I said I went to Loyola rich white boys and I said I don’t know if I want to go to Berkeley because
I found out that Howard had an H1 girls to guys ratio you are not supposed to tell them that Mr Lou I’m being honest I’m I’m not going I’m not going to sugarcoat it y’all didn’t hear that guys guys you did not hear that stat just understand that
That as far as just your certain things drive you certain ways and sometimes not so good things drive you into directions that are good and so it was a great decision because Berkeley is a great school also but I went to Howard knowing that I was going to get an
Education on a high level with people that look like me which I I got a good education in high school but that was one of the challenges so going to Howard um one thing I want to say real quickly is that at Berkeley I would have gotten an
Education say for example in English certain standards that you get in college and they teach it from what the dominant culture English I would have gotten Shakespeare and Frost and all of those Partners but at Howard I was able to hit the same standards get the same instruction but
It was brought across through the content of people that looked like me like James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison so Arnell Hurston so that’s one aspect to the curricular aspect that you receive at an HP two which is unique to go into a pwi um and then um the whole thing about going to
Um an HBCU and getting your education and um connecting I would say it’s better it’s easier to connect at an HBCU because you’re in an environment that’s more of a a protection if you will before you as opposed to some other schools and that’s just my experience I think that was very
Important so when you go to when you decide on going to college strongly considering because of the level of confession the level of instruction great things are happening at hbcus during the time against things like that but preparing for eign school district and I owe even getting to this level
Um I was part of that to my experience out of agency you because it helped me to come out confident because I was insulated in that environment where I could learn not worry about a lot of things that others are learning when they go to higher education
And so I was able to walk with confidence power teaching that to be confident he um teaches you that to be confident you also receive the benefit of powerful Network Okay so um Mr Luke I think we’re losing you Mr look can you hear me that’s it okay
I’m gonna click that’s it okay we’re losing you okay so I think outside of me I think I got all of our D9 so it says D9 but we only had eight Representatives here today I marked the eight um I am a member of Sigma gamma rho
Sorority Incorporated I am the baby of the sororities we just celebrated a hundred years in 2022 of existence um I went to Palmdale High School like a lot of you I went to Palmdale High School hadn’t had no knowledge of a HBCU or college for that matter I came from a
Huge family but no one had went to college and my track coach said hey you need to go to Langston to me and my best friend and we were like what are you talking about we had no idea we hopped in my little Ford Festiva and hopped on
I-40 never didn’t know where we were going and and ended up and when I say our parents didn’t take us like when I took my daughter to school we did a college visit and all that oh no none of that happened our parents loaded us up on Palmdale Boulevard and my little Tinker
Toy car and we hopped on I-40 and went to Oklahoma when I say that was the best decision we ever made both of us she and I both know if we hadn’t made that decision who knows where we would be right now so you really I know a lot of you and I
Talked to some of my students you’re afraid to take that step out you’re stronger than what you realize you got more in you than what you realize and when you just take that step out you’ve heard everybody on this call talk about going to a family feeling like you’re at home
You got you’re gonna step into a whole new family and a whole new world that you don’t even you didn’t even know existed so really can do your do your research think about going to a HBCU because it is a wonderful experience okay and then like they said you rap into the D9
Um it’s a wonderful connection we’re we you might hear us talk noise all the time all the sororities but there is love there there’s love there I tease Delta Sigma Theta all the time my best friend is a Delta Sigma Theta so we have that connection even though we make we all
Want to say our organization is the best imma say my organization is the best at from here to because to me I joined the best just like everyone on this call said they joined the best but they’re still love there we still come together as a community we come together to work
Together we all have the same principles when you get on those college campuses you’re going to look at the organization that draws you in that you see that you fit in the best okay so don’t worry about just know that we’re here just know that the fraternities and
Sororities are here and you’re gonna have your pick when you get to that campus okay um Miss Pineda yes and I know we have some other D9 on the call but we are stressed for time so I’m gonna toss it over to you and then you have that I I
Um wanna honor our guest time for for being able to share their experiences uh and so whoever is able to stay on the call um you would be able to go into some smaller groups uh because our students probably want to dig in and ask some more about your experiences of speaking
Of stepping into this unique opportunity um one of our schools bsu’s uh Lancaster BSU has uh an idea for us to come together um and so I would ask if Mr Brown if you are on the call um if you could present what Lancaster BSU has in mind as far as Black History
Month uh just I know you have a just a minute to talk about that and then the students are interested they can drop that link uh and or you can have them respond to the link and Mrs White that is on slide number five and then right
After that uh Miss Barlow if you are still on the call and can open up the breakout groups we can have that time with our our speakers and students thank you for that Miss Pineda really quick my name is Colin Brown from Lancaster High School uh and thinking
About Black History Month and knowing how much all of the sites have made this concentrated effort to make you know get bacu the acknowledgment it deserves and really just get together and enjoy each other um in our culture and the things that we have to offer uh Lancaster BSU had the idea
Um to do an Invitational step show during lunch we got the idea after uh Hispanic Heritage Month passed and another site Eastside High School I believe one of their clubs was able to come to our school and uh perform a traditional dance during our Lunch
Period uh and the kids loved it it was an amazing time and I was thinking to myself knowing that some of the other sites have step teams how awesome it would be just to have like a small showcase during the Lunch Period that would be very similar to uh the you know
The HBCU experience of steppers on the yard so what we were thinking is just having four schools at most just come to our site or 3 schools that most come to our site have like a three or four minute step presentation put together you will perform during the Lunch Period
Our kids absolutely get involved there’ll be music and you know the whole nine but um it wouldn’t be like a pep rally situation it would be you know more condensed having kids right there able to interact your students interacting with ours um to all of the advisors please know
That I am aiming for this to be a no headache um event to where I’ve taken care of everything and all that you have to do is just submit the paperwork to your secretary but everything will be taken care of as far as justifications and all of that so there’s no work for
You advisors to do on your side other than make sure that you know your team is ready to go the day of um if any of you all are interested at the site what I’m going to do right now is I’m going to put a link in the chat
Uh and the link is simply just an entrance leak this is nothing that has to happen there’s no pressure for anybody to feel like we got to make this happen it’s just a cool idea that I thought our district could really benefit from so all I’m trying to do
Right now is see what the interest is the tentative date would be Friday February the 17th it would be the third Friday of the month of February um and if your site is interested just know you will be coming together as a group so it’s not an individual just
Stepping from their school but your school step team but I just want to see what the interest would be if it if it doesn’t look like I can get three sites that’s perfectly fine I’m more than happy with just one side if they want to come and have an extended period of time
To do so but uh I really think it would be a great experience for our kids so if you’re interested fill that link out for me let me know your name what site you’re from um if you’re interested in doing this just a simple yes or no and then do you
Think that you have enough time to put some uh something together in two or three weeks just yes or no but uh fill that out for me and hopefully we can do this for each other and have just you know one more event where we can celebrate each other in the month of
February thank you so much all right wonderful thank you Mr Brown and so with the time that we have um if we could take maybe the next 10 or 15 minutes in the small breakout groups uh with our speakers that are able to stay on the call you’ll have speakers advisors and students
Um in those discussions and so anything that comes up about the importance of hbcus uh in the Greek organizations uh is valuable for our students we will be attending the black college Expo on Saturday so this will give them an opportunity to go into that with a more
Informed view of what this is about I’m not sure which advisor is able to open up the breakout groups but if you go to the activities tab this is Barlow or Mrs Dawes or Mr Patterson uh you should be able to open it up for us
And there was also a link in the chat that our speakers could take a look at regarding kind of some of the topics that our students might want to touch upon for hbcus so I don’t have that access um do you miss swipe I don’t have that access
Um I have access I can do that I just um not sure like I could ensure every I’m just checking right now to make sure there won’t be any MD groups so it looks like I think I think it’s good as it is and then if somebody doesn’t get it and
Gets in a room and it it doesn’t work I’ll just come back here um all right I’m gonna click for them to open now so the guests you’re going into the breakout room with the students to answer questions where are the questions the pre questions okay
I did something can someone put me back in the breakout room I did something wrong I don’t know um yeah give me one second and then the lcac gems that’s a Delta that’s Miss Sands but she was there she went some okay did you get um an assignment yet I
Did and then I clicked on something wrong and now I can’t get back in okay I’m gonna take you um let me see let me see what let me see let me move you and see if it works okay did you get one now um oh join yep got it okay you’re welcome
Foreign foreign is this the end of the presentation okay oh I’m the host but I’m not okay well maybe there’s more like yeah I don’t know so Mr Thomas you got you’re you’re a student at Palmdale right yes yeah Falcon blood runs deep I graduated from Palmdale as well so
Phsphs yep you know um Mrs Charles by chance who Mr Charles I don’t really know her but I met her yes the BSU advisor yeah she said she graduated from PHS too probably after me huh way after me um is she that young is she I don’t know Penny right yeah
Yeah she is yeah she was probably after you not way after you though but I probably was already gone yeah you were gone now probably yeah she was telling us the stories about it and things like that oh pH s p Dale we said P Dale he dealt it was the dell
It was the death they stood there I have a lot of traditions from the Dell absolutely that just goes to show you you could do a lot of great things coming from Palmdale yep yeah until I see you now yeah you can still do a lot of great things a lot of people
Don’t like to claim being from out here but I tell people all the time it’s not you know where you’re from it’s where you’re at right right we’ve had a lot of great success come from this Antelope Valley you know people are doing good things and big things so never be
Ashamed of you know you know where you’re where you’re from see and it’s funny that you say that because I first I used to be one of the people I used to be like dang I don’t want to tell people our guys if anything here it’s too good
But now as I like see you as a senior I’m just like it’s not even that bad because half the time like 70 out of what 30 you make a success out of it you know so it’s not nothing to be ashamed of really it’s just something you just seek you know yeah
And hey noey foreign yes that Graham found in the house yes I was trying to get Tiara to log on but she was at a um an event um AIDS awareness event oh she told me I was like oh I hate that so miss white I’m going to log off okay
That could be somewhere yes ma’am thank you very much and see and the calls have started okay thank you thank you I don’t know when they are set to come back um let me find out I don’t know uh novani I think that’s your name yes
Am I saying it right yes you did by chance do you know the uh twins Michaela Michaela yes I do okay because I went to Palmdale right yes where yes yeah yeah when you said Gremlin immediately thought of him because they they love gambling oh I’m so glad they love it I’m
Glad because I know for us coming from The Av going all the way to Graham it’s like it’s a little it’s a little bit different but the school itself is a good school yeah and you see and it’s funny now that you mention it by chance um
You do you know the are you familiar with the black common application um yes I think I actually had used that my senior year okay so it’s funny because um I had I did Gremlin to one of the colleges to apply to but I haven’t received nothing
In the emails or email them regarding it um I would say check up with them because um one thing I’m going to tell you now with hbcus as you’re going to learn um when it comes to emails and calls they tend to be a little behind oh yeah I know
I would say maybe give them a call but usually if you call the office they’re pretty good with they’re pretty good with answering or trying to get back to you okay now since it hasn’t been sent to the school yet should I still contact the school or yeah yeah you can still
Contact the school and just let them know you know you applied to the you know Common App and just that you know you’re waiting and they’ll let you know okay well you should expect something within you know these amount of days and then that way you just you’ll have you
Know at least a timeline to when you can start checking your email okay okay thank you I appreciate that yeah no problem I think that was all my questions got some good questions there see foreign all of that anybody else has some questions hey Jayla Patterson
Hey denisia hi how are you and we were talking about money and okay you could take out all of these loans and the interest so maybe if some of the other participants can talk about not taking out all those loans what are your Pathways to get there if you go to
Community College cut your costs and transfer to University uh what money might be out there as far as scholarships that you can apply I definitely want to go um to fast web and fast web has tons of scholarships I tell my students all the time loans should be your last resort your last
Resort now if it’s the difference between you going to school and not going to school you take them out but loans should be your very last resort okay you have scholarships you have grants you have work study okay you have all kind of means of free money
Um go to those go to those schools you’re going to their um financial aid office they have scholarships posted for their schools okay they have scholarships all you have to do is apply y’all they have scholarships for left-handed you know go to fast web actually all of you should have a going
Mary account and in that going Mary account when you submitted your FAFSA you also set up for scholarships and it was asking you all kind of information about yourself so that they can match you up with scholarships you will need to make sure you do that so because they’re going to start
Sending you emails and saying there’s scholarships available that’s scholarships available apply for scholarships and you all you got a lot of times all you got to do is write about your life and submit that call it and submit that scholarship application that’s free money that’s like me walking up to you
Handing you hey I got this five thousand dollars right here you think you want to be like no I’m good I want that and they don’t have to have perfect grades it doesn’t have to be no a lot of them will tell you the requirements so when you pop on and you
Look if you see you got the requirements you apply for it if you don’t have the requirements you’ll be like okay not that want to move on okay especially if it’s the difference between you getting to the school you want to get to and not get to okay you definitely want that
Everyone I have to log off but can I say one quick thing before I do if that’s okay sure yes it just popped in my head but one of the things that I remember about being at Tuskegee is that there were was the job fairs they had a you know Corporate America
Loved coming to Tuskegee and I’m sure they went to all the hbcus recruiting um for you know internships and co-ops and employment and I thought it was a great um there’s there’s great opportunities there you’re down there you’re doing what you need to do as far as your
Grades and people are looking for you and they they Corporate America comes to hbcus looking for uh people to work at their companies and these are some big companies that come down there exactly they do all the time recruiting and we don’t trade our credit
Score for t-shirts or swag uh I was just you know what I was just ready to say that on the HBCU campuses they have a lot of tabling going on having you apply for all these wonderful credit cards don’t do it don’t do it I Echo that don’t do it
I might let my daughter get one she was like Mom can I get no you can be no you may not do not get a credit card not a one not a one not a one my daughter went to fish she called me she’s like I can
Apply for a credit card I said no ma’am no you may and I’m telling you this from experience y’all cause I was that one I think me and my ex-husband at the time when we graduated he we both graduated I think between the two of us we had about 10 credit cards
Because they kept saying here we didn’t know nobody never told it we didn’t know and they was like here fill out this application you get a credit card okay here fill out this okay okay and then we walked away and we had all these credit we were in debt
And we had to work our way out of debt so don’t do it so like this is your time to really think about saving money looking at scholarships looking at Grants making sure you have a checking account open a savings account so the things that I wish I knew was Financial intelligence
In high school so take advantage of the time with your counselors and make sure that you get really Savvy on saving the credit score scholarships grants any opportunities to save and make money and make your money work for you um I don’t know I don’t know who has access to in the rooms
But I don’t Elizabeth said they should need to be ending but I don’t know how to bring anyone back okay I just messaged some of the kids I think they’re telling each other okay to come back okay okay perfect I was gonna ask I think um
I think Mrs Barlow was probably in one of the meetings um if Mrs White if you’re able to show Slide 11 because I’m pretty sure we had a great conversation in our breakout um that there might be a few students or advisors that want to share some insight from what they gathered um
Let’s see let me go back to my tab you know I’m learning this okay no problem and thank you for hosting as well oh my pleasure okay which slide I’m sorry it was number 11. number 11. okay okay it was one back maybe it was ten one back okay reflect right
Um so how should we students advisors mentors as an organization how do we continue to promote unity and celebrate Black History uh with the focus of coming together the way that we’ve seen with the um with the guest speakers and with the HBCU information did anyone talk about anything in their
Breakout group that they would want to share uh I talked to the students about career planning so what’s your map look like not being rigid being flexible and I talked to them about money and planning and scholarships and you know just in empowering them to dream big we’ve talked about um
Choosing their hbcus and also doing their research when they think they want to join um a Greek letter organization and what that should look like well not what that should look like but just doing their research and scholarships and not to uh take out a bunch of credit cards when you’re at
The hbcus and they have the little tables offering credit cards don’t get all those credit cards that’s what we talked about well in our group we um talked about really kind of promoting hbcus in the same way other schools are promoted you know the CAL States and the UCS and you
Know all these other private schools and AVC right so as much as kids are hearing about the other schools they also need to hear um that there is you know hbcus especially since you know based off of what people share today some people in high school they’ve never even heard of
Them you know and so we’ve granted that maybe at this point everyone has but you know it’s still very possible that you know our students our students have it and that’s a really good possibility because the first HBCU the closest HBCU or big HBCU anyway um to California is in Oklahoma
And Texas starts the HBCU and then they go back south and east and in that way so in California we don’t hear a lot about especially growing up we don’t hear a whole lot about about hbcus we did unless you had family members or someone that you knew
Came from that environment you didn’t hear a whole lot about it and you would think in 2023 there would be a lot more about it but you don’t you don’t hear about I also think it would be good to share the history that you know there was the
Time when if you were African-American and you wanted to get an education you had no choice except to go to an HBCU and so by making that choice voluntarily you’re also honoring the people who pioneered and you know paved that way exactly I know a lot of people and us as adults
We have to be able to explain because a lot of um our non-african-american counterparts or people they ask well why do you have to have black this and why do you have to have hbcus and I always explain to people it’s not that we didn’t create it
Because we wanted to be have our own we had to create our own we had to create our own because we weren’t allowed to be a part of it so now that we have it and now things are are integrated we’re not going to just say oh okay no well
Now we’re integrating now so now we don’t need this no that’s our history and those are things that we’ve created so HP hbcus weren’t created because we wanted to be separated okay we they were created because those were our choices that’s what we had to do
I know for a big perspective go ahead coach you should go here I’ll go up I’ll go after you yeah we were just we were just kind of talking to coach coach uh coach Russell was in the breakout room myself as Miss dolls and Miss Pineda and one of
The things that we’re really trying to do as a BSU organization is to always keep the uh keep the visibility of right we’re really promoting or pushing the district to formally adopt it’s kind of an informal situation where we have the first Wednesday as HBCU college today
But we’re really trying to get the district to formally Proclaim you know and pronounce that every first Wednesday of the month not just February but every first Wednesday of the month is HBCU t-shirt day in and you increase the signage and the the invisibility of the schools we made a concerted effort
Within uh Antelope Valley’s Career Center to to invest in in Penance in literature regalia and different things so you know you got them on the walls you got them in the classrooms and they just kind of see the different schools around the campus that Sparks a little bit of
Interest and so that’s a kind of a place where we can start to just come to raise it because we can we can control what’s what’s in our rooms and what’s on the walls and some of the things like that and so that just may be able to spark
Some missions among the young people and amongst our allies you know we have far more uh non-african-american people walking around with FAMU shirts and Hampton and all this other kind of stuff and it just warms my heart you know we actually uh challenged into don’t just
Get more house don’t just get out you know go deep get some miles and Talladega and you know some of these other places you know Chinese so they can really kind of understand the true history of hbcus and be able to kind of move that forward a little bit
And whether we realize it or not HBC Iran go ahead you’ve already talked well I just want to say y’all one thing that I haven’t really heard um that I think there’s a lot of the kids need to be exposed to is cost um uh for school for tuition
Um and and when you start telling these kids about all these hbcus um it’s going to come down to cost whenever they do get accepted to a college um a lot of the kids want to go to you know they want to stay local and go to Cal State Bakersfield or uh Dominguez
Hills or wherever or UCLA or SC and it’s costing you know 80 000 a year to go to SC um whereas a lot of the hbcus I mean on average you know probably less than twenty five thousand dollars for most of them and that’s everything that’s the entire year um so
When it does come to cost and like I said I think I was telling someone earlier is you know the scholarship opportunity is is very likely for a lot of the kids out here because the standards are lower um than it is out here I mean getting
Accepted into one of your pwis out this way is I mean you’re gonna need a 4.2 or 4.4 and all these crazy numbers to get scholarship money to even get um accepting to their school and then you already got to know your major um and apply to that and got to get
Accepted whereas um you know a lot of the HP series you may you may even get a an academic scholarship with a 3.0 and a lot of our kids can have that or and I’ve seen it where it’s like a 2.8 you know and it’s only costs 15 000 a
Year to go there um so uh and it’s not that the standards I mean it’s not that the education you receive is less it’s just the hbcus understand right right and they’re flexible with the um requirements to come in correct they’re they’re geared towards serving our students our African-American
Community so it’s not that the education just because you didn’t have to have the a through G’s to get in you’re still getting that quality of Education and a lot of the a through G’s are for cal cal yeah the cow States they’re not told that all they told is a
Through G A through G and the kids don’t know that’s just for I think the UCS or CAL States one of the other not well I think out of state out of state still has those standards they just don’t call them a through G but our hbcus our hbcus will work with
You if you don’t have all of those requirements for example when I went to college I had a deficit and math so what they did was they accepted me but they made me take a zero level class where I wouldn’t get credit for it but I
It was getting me getting my math skills up to where they needed to be so they they do things like that they just don’t say no you don’t have that third year math you can’t come they’re saying okay you don’t have that third year math but we’re going to give you
This class right here to get your skills up before you start the college level math so that’s what they do I’m sorry if I could just jump in real quick we just want to have a couple of minutes to touch base with our seniors so if there are any seniors on the calls
I did put um a link to it’s it’s another meat if you can just jump over I’m about to drop off of this call I’m not sure if uh the link is gonna stay on once I leave so I’m gonna put it one more time so if
You are a senior Mr Patterson and I’m just going to touch base with you real quick all right thank you is Miss Pineda on here are we still needed on here thank you bye oh yeah if we could please all unmute and just thank our thank our guests thank our esteemed speakers the
Divine nine AV chapter hbcus thank you and advisors and students if you would like to have members of the divine nine visit your BSU meetings or visit you on campus or whatever please um reach out to me and I can help you get that set up okay thank you everyone students we will
See you at the black college Expo thank you so much Mrs White thank you thank you you all have a blessed evening
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