Formulate, Regulate, Educate: The HBCU Tour

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Joel Barrett, Contributing Reporter

Informing students about the basic fundamentals of great colleges and helping them to narrow down and choose the college that best fits them is one of the greatest things a person can help do. A former student, who is currently working as a social worker, Reynolds Hawkins introduced the Historically Black College and University Tour for students at Amityville Memorial High School in 2008.

The college tour allows students to expand their knowledge about college while giving them the chance to see the real world experiences that college students go through everyday. “Knowing what black colleges did for me as a student,” said Mr. Hawkins, “I wanted to share my experiences as a former attendant at Johnson C Smith and Florida A&M University, both being HBCUs.”

 The tour itself is a complicated event.  The 5-day event takes approximately 4-5 weeks to plan yearly. The funding plays an important role in providing the financial needs to make it successful. Sponsorship was provided by the Amityville School District, Capital One, and the Nassau County Black Correction Officers Association.

Mr. Hawkins stressed the importance of students who are applying to “be college-ready, which means good academics, behavior, and a willingness to attend this tour.” He only takes “juniors and seniors because they are more college-ready, rather than freshmen and sophomores who are less mentally prepared for college.”

A senior who attended the tour this year stated, “It was a life changing experience. Mr. Hawkins told me before the tour that he guaranteed it would change the way I thought not only about college but about everything in general, and it absolutely did.”