MCC Daily Tribune Archive

Every spring break MCC Upward Bound organizes a week-long tour of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs are colleges and universities originally founded to educate Black or African-Americans in the US prior to 1964) known as the Heritage College Tour. This year was like no other. We had a vision to take 30 students all the way to Florida to show them the opportunities that lie beyond Rochester city limits, a task that seemed almost impossible. In the past we have traveled as far as Virginia; however, we journeyed into the deep South, a place many of us never imagined reaching.

Our college tour officially started in Atlanta, Georgia, where we saw three of the most esteemed HBCUs in the country: Clark-Atlanta University (CAU), Spelman College, and Morehouse College. Spelman College, an all-girls counterpart to Morehouse College, is currently the top ranked HBCU in the country. At Spelman, we were also able to meet up with one of our recent alumni, Jyare Carter. Additionally, while in Atlanta we visited the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change. It was inspiring to follow all of Dr. King’s work through the museum, especially after all he did to help create the Upward Bound programs.

As we continued south we stopped and visited Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, AL and Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) in Tallahassee, FL. Tuskegee University is the home of the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of African-American fighter pilots in WWII. Although we did not receive formal tours we were able to see North Carolina A&T University and Georgia State University. Finally, the last leg of the Heritage College Tour dropped us right in the middle of all the magic that is Disney World’s Magic Kingdom and Universal Studios Parks. We had the opportunity to dine with Winnie the Pooh at the Crystal Palace Buffet in Magic Kingdom, and soar through some of our favorite movies at Universal Studios. After months of preparation our dream of reaching these distant lands finally became a reality.

As the tour winded down many students shared their plans to apply to a few of these colleges and universities in the future. By far the favorites were CAU and FAMU. The Tour has been inspirational to many students over the years. They return with an “I believe I can go to college” attitude. In her evaluation of the tour Ahmere S. said she learned that “It’s not as hard to get into college as I thought.”