Teachers plan for HBCU college fair

A group of Schenectady teachers – calling themselves Concerned Black Educators of Schenectady – is organizing a spring college fair to showcase historically-black colleges and universities from across the country.

Known as HBCUs, the schools were established to primarily serve black students in an era when black students were shut out of many colleges and universities across in America. The schools, which serve students of all races, represent a wide mix of college and universities, offering various specialties, sizes and locations.

Julia Holcomb, president of the teachers group, said she and other teachers in the group think that Schenectady’s deeply-diverse school population would benefit from learning more about the HBCUs.

Holcomb said she has invited more than 100 schools to send recruiters or local alumni to the fair, which is scheduled to be hosted at Schenectady High School on March 22-23 and is open to students across the region. Benedict College in South Carolina has committed and she plans to host as many as will come.

Friday will be an open fair, with colleges sharing information at tables, while Saturday will focus on more-detailed information sessions. She invited students from throughout the region to attend.

“We want you to know there are other education opportunities for you, and we want you to take advantage of them,” Holcomb said of the message she hopes the fair will send.

The Concerned Black Educators group includes a variety of Schenectady teachers, a guidance counselor and others and partnered with the Vale Cemetery Preservation nonprofit to raise money. The teachers group welcomes donations and sponsors to help support the college fair.

On its webpage, the teachers group said it’s devoted to increasing awareness of HBCUs for African American students. Its “statement of need” cites a litany of stats documenting disparities between blacks and whites in educational opportunities and future job prospects.

“There’s no (more) compelling data to show how little we value the lives of black children in this country than the statistics that show the current state of their academic achievement,” the group wrote on its website. “We are systematically denying young black kids the quality education that will ensure they grow to be productive members of society.”

Roots Club

Some of those young students, though, are taking their education into their own hands.

In its fourth year, the high school’s Roots Club, a student group devoted to cultural events and black history, has plans for its annual school mural, another collaboration with the Blue Roses theater group, a redux of an art show and a takeover of a languishing greenhouse at the heart of the school. They are also hoping to attract more young men to the group, focus on the challenges of mental health and reach out to students of other cultures.

The mural – which will follow large hallway murals of Barack Obama and Frida Khalo – is set to be of Marsha P. Johnson, a black gay liberation activist who along with others fought back against a police raid of a gay community at the Stonewall Inn in New York City, helping to fuel the gay rights movement.

The students, many of whom said they were inspired by a visit to a working farm last year, will take responsibility for maintaining a greenhouse in the center of the high school. The space is used by some science classes but is largely under utilized. The Roots students plan to clean it out, fix it up and starting growing food and flowers.

“That was definitely an experience I want more people to experience,” said Ja’Deana Cognetta-Whitfield. The students said visiting the farm gave them a deeper sense of African Americans’ agricultural and food traditions.

“It’s ironic, a lot of us can’t even get fresh food – that’s what we came from,” Cognetta-Whitfield said. “We lost touch with our history.”