Hempstead bus trip offers high schoolers a chance to tour HBCUs in person

Issa Hayes, a 16-year-old junior at the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan, looks at the upcoming weeklong tour of a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, called HBCUs, as "a good opportunity to expand what my options are." 

Darius Nelson, also 16, of Baldwin, who is a junior at Poly Prep Country Day School in Brooklyn, said of the HBCUs: "I learned about them growing up," through participation in Jack and Jill of America Inc. The organization provides cultural, educational and civic opportunities for youth, with a focus on Black children and teens. Nelson said he was excited for the chance to see the schools himself.

He and Hayes are among 82  students from Long Island, all five boroughs of New York City, and out of state, who are set to board two buses Saturday at a Hempstead church for a weeklong tour with stops at colleges and universities in Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia and Washington, D.C., returning to Long Island on Nov. 1. The trip is sponsored by a Long Island chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.

A 44-year legacy

This is the 44th year of the tour, backed by the Wyandanch-based chapter's Eta Theta Lambda Educational Foundation. Alpha Phi Alpha is the oldest intercollegiate historically Black fraternity. Through the ETL chapter's online postings about the tour, it draws inquiries from across the country, officials have said. This year's participants include students from Maryland, Virginia and Texas.

"I'm grateful I live on Long Island and I have access and the opportunity to go on this program," Nelson said.

His father, Garry Nelson, is pleased, too.

"This tour has been going on for over 40 years on Long Island, so it's very well known," said Garry Nelson, who is not a member of Alpha Phi Alpha. "When I was his age, I didn't know anything about HBCUs."

Nelson said he grew up in Queens and went to Syracuse University, while his wife went to Yale University. Nelson said he now knows HBCUs have a "rich history," which he is pleased his son will have a chance to explore.

The HBCU First website, which gives a history of historically Black colleges and universities, states: "Prior to the Civil War, the education of Black Americans was prohibited in most Southern states and often discouraged in Northern states resulting in only a few Black schools being in existence — Cheyney University (est. 1837), University of the District of Columbia (1851), Lincoln University (1854), and Wilberforce University (1856)." It said there are more than 100 HBCUs now.

HBCU First added: "By and large, the first HBCUs were established to educate the children of formerly enslaved people and train them to teach other Black Americans." Today, though, about 24% of students enrolled at HBCUs are not Black, and the schools were "becoming a magnet for international students," according to the website.

This year's tour attracted applications from about 140 students, but the group had to be limited to 82 to stay within the range the colleges say they want to accommodate, said William Mills, Alpha Phi Alpha's college tour coordinator.

Howard University in Washington, D.C., one of the schools on the tour, welcomes the aspiring students.

"At Howard, we know that representation matters," Joanne Pluff, the school's associate vice president of student experience, said in a statement. "When students visit, they don’t just see a college campus — they see a living legacy of Black excellence, innovation, and community. They meet ambassadors who look like them, who have similar dreams, and who can speak authentically about what it means to be a Bison. That connection — seeing yourself in the story of Howard — is what turns a tour into an aspiration and, ultimately, a commitment.

The tour's longevity means "we transformed from one generation to another," said Eddie Gripper, a former fraternity treasurer. "We have a lot of parents who went on the tour and now they're bringing their kids on the tour."

The students must get their schools' permission and bring their school assignments with them. Time will be set aside for homework.

Insights into college life

Workshops the fraternity has held on Saturdays at Hofstra University have provided the students an opportunity to gain insights into college life. 

Twenty-seven chaperones are to accompany the students: the male chaperones are from the fraternity, and female chaperones are volunteers from the community, Mills said. The tour costs $1,500 per student, which covers hotels, transportation and a majority of meals. Some students receive scholarships from the fraternity and other groups to cover the trip's cost.

Even so, the fraternity subsidy of the tour is about $50 to $70 per student, Mills said. 

It takes months of preparation, but several fraternity members said it was worth it, citing the tour's positive impact on students.

"The goal is to provide exposure," said Anthony Thompson, fraternity chapter treasurer: "We'd love for them to attend an HBCU. That would be great. But just to open their minds to what's possible" is the larger aim. "And many times, there are students who go on the tour who aren't thinking about college. They went because their mother made them go. Or maybe they thought they were getting a week out of school. But they come back changed."

Mills said, "Somewhere in the middle of walking that campus they decide they want to do this," saying to themselves, "'I can do this.' I think that's what makes the change."

Opening up options

Although he goes by his middle name, Issa Hayes shares his father Richard N. Hayes' first name. He said his father, a member of the fraternity and an associate professor at Hofstra's Frank G. Zarb School of Business, suggested he go on the tour.

"Admittedly," Issa Hayes added, "it was a very strong suggestion."

Richard N. Hayes said he has been involved for many years in arranging the tour groups' meetings with college admissions officials. Hayes, who is also executive director of Hofstra's Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, said this is the first time his son is participating in an HBCU tour.

Issa Hayes  concluded: "I think it's more impactful to see your options," rather than just conducting online research. The teen aspires to a career in business and/or filmmaking — "preferably two of those at the same time ... In my free time I write my own comics and TV shows."

The Hayes family lives in Jamaica, Queens.

A graduate of Morehouse College, one of the HBCUs the students will visit, Richard N. Hayes said he wasn't pushing his only son to attend his alma mater. (The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was also a Morehouse alumnus).

"We want what's best for our son," he said. "If that aligns with him going to my alma mater, I'd be thrilled." But the more important goal, he said, was preparing Issa "to pursue his dreams."

And while parents are not typically among the chaperones, Hayes, as a fraternity member, is going. "But I will intentionally be Brother Hayes, more than Issa's dad, so he can have a free experience."

Hayes said the tour offers students a variety of schools.

"A large one like FAMU [Florida A&M University] and a small school like Bowie State [University in Maryland] and an urban one like Howard and a suburban school like Hampton [University in Virginia]," he said. "We're excited for our students to see HBCUs ... in their totality."