The Realities Of An HBCU: Episode 65

Through powerful statistics and authentic insights, college readiness expert Jennifer Ledwith reveals why Historically Black Colleges and Universities remain vital pathways to professional success while providing a realistic look at both their strengths and challenges in today's educational landscape.

This eye-opening episode explores:

• Why HBCUs produce 40% of Black engineers, 50% of Black teachers, and 80% of Black judges despite making up only 3% of post-secondary schools
• How supportive learning environments transform "weed-out" courses into launching pads for success
• The $12 billion funding gap between HBCUs and predominantly white institutions from 1987 - 2020
• Practical strategies for navigating HBCU applications and financing
• The critical importance of early planning and preparation for college funding
• How HBCUs' commitment to student success creates powerful professional networks
• The historical significance and modern relevance of these institutions

Perfect for: College-bound students considering HBCUs, parents planning for their children's education, educators and counselors advising students about college options, and anyone interested in understanding the unique value and challenges of HBCUs. Plus: Essential insights about maximizing financial aid opportunities and positioning yourself for success in higher education.

To learn more about Jennifer Ledwith and some of the programs she has to offer, please click below.

http://www.scholaready.com/

https://www.youtube.com/scholaready

http://eventbrite.com/o/jennifer-ledwith-scholar-ready-13299883017

For your convenience, we have included a national list of HBCUs below.

https://sites.ed.gov/whhbcu/one-hundred-and-five-historically-black-colleges-and-universities/

Transcript

00:02.61
fatimabey
And welcome everyone. Today we have with us, Jennifer Ledway. She is from Houston, Texas. She is the owner of Scholar Ready. ah She helps prepare students for college and she is a financial advisor. And we've had around here before, but today we're c specifically talking about a very niche topic, which is, we're specifically talking about HBCUs.

00:29.94
fatimabey
And even if you're not interested in an HBCU, you're going to learn something from this conversation, I promise you. So stay tuned. How are you today, Jennifer?

00:40.65
Jennifer Ledwith
I am well Fatima, how are you?

00:43.25
fatimabey
I'm good. I can't wait to have this conversation because it's going to be chock full of information. So to explain to the audience, what is an HBCU?

00:53.90
Jennifer Ledwith
All right, and HBCU is a historically black college or university, and these are institutions of higher learning that can be found primarily in the South. However, you will encounter HBCUs in Delaware, which depending on how you think about it, Delaware can kind of be considered the South and ah Ohio. And these schools were created, many of them were created in the aftermath of the Civil War. One of the first things that people who had been freed from enslavement, from chattel slavery in America, one of those things that those enslaved Africans

01:36.94
Jennifer Ledwith
wanted to do after freedom is, of course, they wanted to find their family members who were pulled from them as a result of the realities of slavery.

01:49.55
fatimabey
Hmm.

01:49.99
Jennifer Ledwith
And they also wanted to they wanted to become educated. And these colleges started very humbly. Often they were started by religious denominations and they started in in in small places and they were the only places that typically we could go to get an education. And there are several historical black colleges and universities in the country now. And HBCUs, while the term is historically black college or university, these schools are actually open to people from all ethnicities.

02:31.46
fatimabey
Okay, with their concentration. So for those with a concentration on on people of color because of of history, and um for those of you listening, now you know what HBCU stands for because that's an acronym we're going to continue to use throughout the episode and you'll hear it in other areas, in other places, and you'll know exactly what it means. So tell us, what are the advantages of going to an HBCU?

02:57.39
Jennifer Ledwith
All right, an advantage of going to an HBCU. So when we think about going to college, we want to think about why. we're going to college. For many people, the number one reason to go to college is to be able to find a job and build a career.

03:13.66
Jennifer Ledwith
Well, although HBCUs make up 3% of all post-secondary schools, 40% of all black engineers graduate from HBCUs.

03:13.54
fatimabey
Right.

03:25.72
Jennifer Ledwith
50% of all black teachers graduate from HBCUs.

03:25.70
fatimabey
Wow. What? I didn't know that.

03:32.78
Jennifer Ledwith
Yep. And 80% of all black judges graduate from historically black colleges and universities. Absolutely.

03:40.68
fatimabey
Okay.

03:41.65
Jennifer Ledwith
absolutely Okay.

03:41.58
fatimabey
Okay. You got to stop talking for a moment. I got to process that. What 80% of judge black judges come from.

03:44.13
Jennifer Ledwith
Okay. Yes. Yes.

03:47.98
fatimabey
That's wow.

03:49.27
Jennifer Ledwith
Yeah. and it And you know, it makes sense because I had jury duty and I'm here in Harris County in Houston, Texas, and I was in jury duty and I looked up the credentials of the judge.

03:50.46
fatimabey
Wow.

04:03.08
Jennifer Ledwith
I looked up the credentials of one of the prosecuting attorneys because they were both they're both black men. And both of them had graduated from historical black college, historical black law school, Thurgood Marshall Law School at Texas at texas Southern University in Houston, Texas.

04:20.67
fatimabey
You know what, i have I have a friend, now that you're saying it, I have a friend who is a professor of electrical engineering at a pretty prestigious technical college.

04:21.06
Jennifer Ledwith
so

04:32.07
fatimabey
And she graduated from an HBCU. And wow, wow, I'm just still i'm just still processing that. that's that's a re That's definitely a positive.

04:45.00
Jennifer Ledwith
That's a positive.

04:44.89
fatimabey
I'm sorry, go ahead.

04:46.47
Jennifer Ledwith
So it's a positive. So the the professional trajectory is there for that student who wants to hop on it.

04:54.48
fatimabey
Why do you think that is Yes.

04:54.86
Jennifer Ledwith
and

04:57.89
Jennifer Ledwith
I think it goes to another advantage of going to an HBCU and its support. it's it's i I was listening to a podcast by doctor ah with Dr. Ruth Simmons one day, and Dr. Ruth Simmons and most recently was served as president of Prairie View A and&M University, which is a historical black college or university, but she actually used to be the president, I believe, Brown University or another, you know an Ivy League college, a predominantly white institution. And she spoke about how

05:33.24
Jennifer Ledwith
historical black colleges and universities are there to really nurture and support that student to help all the students to become successful. And that's a difference, whereas at other colleges, students may have to take biology, calculus, chemistry, and those classes are considered weed out courses at at at your at other universities. But at a historical black college or university,

06:02.30
Jennifer Ledwith
Those wouldn't be considered weed out courses because your professors are gonna go ahead Okay.

06:04.33
fatimabey
um Can we back up for a second and explain what a weed out course is for those who don't know what that means?

06:08.77
Jennifer Ledwith
Okay. Thank you. Okay. Oh wait. Thank you a weed out course is a class that a student might take as a freshman or a sophomore and It is a class that leads to a particular path.

06:24.09
Jennifer Ledwith
For example chemistry leads to pre-medical studies and Calculus leads to engineering. Calculus can lead to business.

06:34.24
Jennifer Ledwith
It leads to these paths. Those classes lead to certain paths.

06:36.32
fatimabey
Oh, okay.

06:38.11
Jennifer Ledwith
And you when students start college, you have many students who begin college with the idea of pursuing medicine, engineering, or business. Or even, you know, computer science with those those introductory classes for computer science can be weed out courses as well.

06:54.25
Jennifer Ledwith
And what happens is the classes are so hard and the students are struggling to pass the exam or pass the classes. And if they, when they fail the classes, then they are weeded out of that particular course of study or that particular career trajectory. So when you start talking about 40% of all black engineers are coming from HBCUs when they have to take a calculus one class or a calculus two class at an HBCU, that's probably not going to be a weed out course because those professors there are going to provide support systems for the students to do do well. Or if you think about at x Xavier University, Xavier University in New Orleans is renowned for the number of African-American undergraduates it sends to medical school.

07:52.02
Jennifer Ledwith
And they have, so instead of, so when you think about pre-med, what do people need in order to pursue that track to do well on the MCAT, which is the entrance exam into medical school.

08:04.01
Jennifer Ledwith
They need organic chemistry, they need chemistry, they need really good reading comprehension skills. And what x Xavier does is x Xavier has a program support Set up to help those students who may have some gaps in their learning from K through 12 Xavier instead of saying oh, well, you know, you oh you can't pass chemistry.

08:26.08
Jennifer Ledwith
You can't pass biology. Okay Well, you go do something else instead of them saying that they say hey, we have this whole support network We have a program to see you be successful and that's aside from the so that community that nurturing that care that's another aspect of that is a positive of an HBCU and it's probably linked to the career success of of of of of of these African-American professionals.

08:51.48
fatimabey
Mm hmm.

08:55.49
fatimabey
Absolutely. And I think that the sense of community in any topic, not just college, has a large part, a large part to do with the success of anything. You know, when you look at, go to Chinatown, any country, any city,

09:16.61
fatimabey
because there's Chinatowns in a lot of places in the world. One of the reasons why Chinatowns are successful, they get into every everywhere they go, Chinese get into business. That's just a fact. But there's always a sense of community that they have that helps to make them strong.

09:32.37
fatimabey
You could say the same thing about Jews. You could say the same thing about Russians in certain areas. Pick somebody. And when wherever you see a sense of community, there's always a stronger success at whatever they do, period. So I think that's a very, very valid point. umm What are the disadvantages of going to an HBCU?

09:55.76
Jennifer Ledwith
The disadvantages of going to an HBCU are rooted in the underfunding of historical black colleges and universities. So when students are attending an HBCU or applying to an HBCU, they may find that their communication may be lacking. They may find that there may be shortages in certain in in in in the In the classes, there may be things may not be done as thoroughly as you may experience as one might experience at a predominantly white institution.

10:36.63
fatimabey
Do you mean things that may not be done thoroughly by the staff at the school or done thoroughly by federal government?

10:37.01
Jennifer Ledwith
up

10:42.60
Jennifer Ledwith
by the staff at the school.

10:43.91
fatimabey
Okay.

10:44.26
Jennifer Ledwith
so at So for example, if you were to go and register for it, let's just talk about the process of going to college, of getting financial aid. Okay.

10:55.90
Jennifer Ledwith
You apply to universities. the The common procedure is to get that financial aid award letter by a certain time and making a decision about what awards you will accept, deny, negotiate, or what have you. And then the student accepts the, you know, then and then you move on to enrollment.

11:18.24
Jennifer Ledwith
And once you move into enrollment, you choose your classes in the schedule and then you're able to receive your your schedule for the year. at At some point, you're also signing up if you choose to go to school on campus. You're also signing up for housing and you have this very clear step-by-step process as to how you obtain housing. You follow the steps and you get what you need in a timely manner. In order to for those things to happen in a timely manner, you need personnel.

11:47.78
fatimabey
right

11:48.54
Jennifer Ledwith
personnel requires money.

11:53.33
fatimabey
right

11:53.97
Jennifer Ledwith
and often historical black colleges and universities, in the words of our education secretary, mi mi Miguel Cardona said, for far too long, our historically black colleges and universities have been punching above their weight.

12:09.81
Jennifer Ledwith
So our historically black colleges and universities are doing the most with what they have.

12:13.56
fatimabey
Right. Right.

12:16.51
Jennifer Ledwith
And um there was a study that came out from the National Center for Education Statistics. And from 19, so I wanna step back and talk about HBCU.

12:27.00
Jennifer Ledwith
So you have different types of historical black colleges and universities. You have private ones, for example, Morehouse, Spelman, those are private ones.

12:35.15
fatimabey
Mm hmm.

12:36.63
Jennifer Ledwith
Then you have your land grant you know ah institutions. For example, Prairie View A and&M University is a land grant. It was created as a part of a land grant in the state of Texas for um from the federal government for

12:44.37
fatimabey
Hmm.

12:50.49
fatimabey
Hmm.

12:51.73
Jennifer Ledwith
um as as an institution. Now, when we talk about... so when i when not talk and for And just like Texas A and&M University in Texas is a land-grant university, but you have private universities that are not land-grant colleges. For example, Harvard is a highly doubt Harvard.

13:13.01
Jennifer Ledwith
I highly doubt Yale. I highly doubt those are land grant colleges. So when I talk about underfunding, I'm comparing land grant colleges to ah to other land grant colleges. So when we think about land grant colleges, think about the state flagships of schools. For example, in Oklahoma, the University of Oklahoma is a land grant institution.

13:38.23
fatimabey
Oh.

13:39.04
Jennifer Ledwith
So when you, so when we think about comparing it, so when we think we're going to compare predominantly white land grant institutions in the South and and then we're going to compare them to their counterparts that are HBCUs. When you compare the HBCUs to their PWI counterparts, predominantly white institutions, those HBCUs from 1987 to 2020 have been underfunded.

14:08.42
Jennifer Ledwith
by 12 billion dollars.

14:10.77
fatimabey
Wow. I'm not surprised though.

14:16.45
Jennifer Ledwith
and

14:16.28
fatimabey
I'm not surprised though. It's one of the many other ways we've been othered.

14:21.65
Jennifer Ledwith
yes And... And that's also ah why it's a challenge for us to receive monies to pay for it. For most students, their largest source of scholarships will come from their college or university.

14:31.92
fatimabey
Hmm. Right.

14:39.79
Jennifer Ledwith
Now, imagine you're attending you're attending a school that has been underfunded. So if you compare the resources at a PWI, that's a land grant, or a land grant institution, that's a predominantly white institution, to a land grant institution that's an HBCU,

15:06.01
Jennifer Ledwith
how can you, the resources, the disparities are so large. So that goes into the lack of scholarship monies that are available.

15:17.10
fatimabey
Okay, so go ahead.

15:18.63
Jennifer Ledwith
And no, go ahead, go ahead. And I want to say this because I want people who attend HBCUs to know that you're not crazy. Like if you find that Some things are easier when you apply to a PWI versus when you apply to HBCU, you're not crazy.

15:38.09
Jennifer Ledwith
And it's often, it it can be circumstances beyond your control.

15:37.97
fatimabey
Okay.

15:42.62
Jennifer Ledwith
it's a part of us It's a part of systemic racism.

15:45.40
fatimabey
okay

15:46.22
Jennifer Ledwith
But just because the systemic racism exists doesn't mean you can't move in the direction you want to go. You just got to move a little differently.

15:53.39
fatimabey
Right. Right. So let's talk about that moving differently. So we talked about the problem. What's the solution? What can they do to of the ante or to increase the likelihood of them getting all the funding they need?

16:09.14
Jennifer Ledwith
Start early. Start early. Start looking at what it's going to take to pay for everything. And for people who attend my seminars, I have people leave with a ah spreadsheet.

16:27.11
Jennifer Ledwith
that allows them to have a conversation with family members and the students about who is paying for what, when, and start having that conversation about ah about that.

16:35.14
fatimabey
Yep.

16:39.59
Jennifer Ledwith
And then start looking at the different opportunities. I'll tell you, I had a conversation this past week with a woman who has a seventh grader. And she says, oh, I'm just too late. I didn't, you know, she feels like, oh, I didn't save enough money. And, you know, as a financial planner in school, we're we're taught to tell people, okay, you're going to run this cashflow analysis and you're going to calculate what, okay, what if college costs, you know, if college is going to cost

17:12.16
Jennifer Ledwith
$100,000 for all four years for a student at a given particular time. well Well, you're taught to reverse engineer and calculate how much that parent needs to invest for that student over 18 years to reach that $100,000 goal.

17:30.09
Jennifer Ledwith
Well, okay, that's nice.

17:29.99
fatimabey
And then you can...

17:31.94
Jennifer Ledwith
But then we get into the pragmatic aspects of raising children and just the pragmatic aspects of life.

17:34.72
fatimabey
Right.

17:38.59
Jennifer Ledwith
So many things happen over 18 years. And I think parents beat themselves up because they couldn't make those deposits into college savings.

17:50.02
Jennifer Ledwith
consistently for 18 years. And in my observation, most parents are doing the best they can do. So if you get to the point where your your child your child is saying the seventh grade and you don't have 50% of your students college funded, maybe life happened to you and you just couldn't do it.

17:57.57
fatimabey
Yeah.

18:10.78
Jennifer Ledwith
Don't beat yourself up about it.

18:10.71
fatimabey
Right.

18:12.67
Jennifer Ledwith
Start thinking about what you can do now.

18:12.69
fatimabey
Hmm.

18:15.98
Jennifer Ledwith
And I'm gonna tell you about this young woman. Her son is very interested in animal science. He loves animals. And so she's asking me, well, what can we do for college?

18:23.75
fatimabey
Hmm.

18:27.57
Jennifer Ledwith
And I said, look, there is a program from the US Department of Agriculture called the 1890 Scholars Program.

18:40.40
Jennifer Ledwith
And for students who pursue careers in agriculture and animal science is included in that, those ah that program supports students who are going to HBCUs, who are studying that particular in in in agriculture. And I said, what you do now is you start positioning your child to earn this scholarship because, and and who knows your child may not even get this scholarship. Your child may turn around next week and say, I'm not into animals anymore. I want to go into psychology and I want to become a therapist. Well, I will tell you this. If you have your student shooting for a goal, shooting for a high goal, all that's going to do is give that student options.

19:34.06
fatimabey
Exactly. Yep.

19:36.51
Jennifer Ledwith
and And that's the purpose of an education.

19:36.36
fatimabey
Options.

19:39.52
Jennifer Ledwith
And that's why we've always wanted to be educated. Black people, since the beginning of our, before our emancipation, before that, we wanted information.

19:54.75
Jennifer Ledwith
We wanted knowledge because knowledge gives you choices and knowledge makes you free.

19:56.32
fatimabey
Yep.

20:00.85
fatimabey
All the more reason why we sought it after emancipation because it was literally beaten out of us. We were not allowed to be educated and literate. We would literally get killed for reading. um And so it it explains why education was so to our our older generation, why it was so extremely important to them and what all these HBCUs kept popping up, especially in the South around the country.

20:29.44
fatimabey
um

20:32.01
fatimabey
So what I'm hearing is that for those who are interested in attending an HBCU, it might be, there there's gonna be some challenges, but that doesn't mean it's impossible or that they shouldn't try it. Cause I will tell you, I'm gonna tell you all my age right now. ah There was a show, a TV show when I was ah in high school and early, actually in high school I think, called A Different World.

21:01.69
fatimabey
and we're going back to 19 and if I won't tell you all the real year you could look it up youngins so but there was a tv show back then called a different world and if you're a teenager right now you probably maybe never heard of it and maybe you did hear your parents talking about it but that tv show was such a big freaking deal at the time because it was about college students, the college life at an HBCU, which most of us had never seen before, had only dreamed about. And I will tell you that show made me appreciate the existence of them. And I love the idea of sense of a sense of community. And I mean outside of college and outside of blackness. So I love like there's, ah in Albany, there's a ah ah Chinese church.

21:52.43
fatimabey
I love seeing that. There's a sense of community for them, because now they have people that look like them. There are colleges that focus on arts only. There's a sense of community there, because all what they all have in common is art. In this case, what we all have common is brown skin and history. But any sense of any any yeah any sort of a bring together community is always going to make you stronger, whether that's a mosque, whether it's a church, whether it's a HBCU.

22:22.14
fatimabey
whatever it is. I love, love, love when people come together as a community and they support each other. And that's ah one thing I love about HBCUs and I wish, I kind of wish I was had gone to one, but and I just love that that sense of ah ah people around you who, or no, everybody's not gonna have the same experience, but we will have some experiences in common because we grew up in this country.

22:47.63
fatimabey
and people who look like me and that support. So when you tell me those numbers, even though it was like, oh my God, those numbers are huge. If I sit down and I think about it, oh, there's a support system. So I guess it doesn't surprise me if I think about it that way. I just think that it is a beautiful thing. i'm And I think that all of you listeners should find your own community.

23:11.80
fatimabey
Right now we're talking about HBCUs, but I don't care if you're white, Chinese, Indian, tall, fat, short, skinny, blue, whatever, find your find your community of supporters. I strongly believe in centralized communities instead of this all inclusive, everybody's bland, blah, fake, stupid crap.

23:33.10
fatimabey
Now, I do believe in inclusivity, but we've gotten so imbalanced with it that that's why I say it that way. um But ah the sense of community is just so important and, you know, group therapy sessions with people that have been through the same thing, there's a sense of community there too, which is why I do them.

23:53.07
fatimabey
There, you know, that sense of community is so, so, so important. I'm sorry. I'll go on and on and preach all day long because I just feel so strong about it. And I think it's a beautiful thing. And I love that you, I love the numbers that you're bringing here and and some facts. Um, and you know, the real talk about ah everything ain't perfect. Just cause you go to HBCU doesn't mean all of a sudden your blackness is beautiful and everybody's perfect. Don't expect that either. Right.

24:19.39
Jennifer Ledwith
Correct. Correct.

24:20.31
fatimabey
just like any Just like any other community full of humans, you're going to have some stuff. But um but there's a there's a ah beauty in it that I can definitely appreciate. I think even if I wasn't black, I'd probably still appreciate it because I just believe in a sense of community.

24:34.26
fatimabey
you know um Now, ah tell the audience what services you offer at Scholar Ready.

24:41.76
Jennifer Ledwith
All right. These are the services that I offer, especially for those of you who are considering applying to HBCUs. I help families first of all with the financial aspect of it. So if you need some financial planning around juggling the demands of college and any other priorities you might have at this age, parents are, they're looking forward to their students graduating college. They're also looking forward to their own retirements and that can be a balancing act.

25:10.78
Jennifer Ledwith
So I'm a certified financial planner and I help families with that. Another thing that I do is I help to create the conditions to help the students have options. I don't know what a student is going to major in. One student can tell me one day they're going to major in, for example, in that previous example, may want to study animal science. The next minute they want to study psychology.

25:35.65
Jennifer Ledwith
I create the conditions to help them to have options no matter what road they want to take. And I do that through preparing students for PSAT, SAT, s a t ACT.

25:40.32
fatimabey
That's awesome.

25:46.03
Jennifer Ledwith
I also help them to improve their reading comprehension, their writing skills, and their math skills.

25:52.57
fatimabey
So do you help students? ah Can you help students anywhere in the country or only in Texas?

25:57.27
Jennifer Ledwith
That's a good question. Anywhere in the country, anywhere in the country, I meet students online. I've been meeting students online since probably in since years before, we even this became a norm with the onset of the pandemic.

26:11.10
fatimabey
And if you are listening, um, this is the the second time I've had a Jennifer led with on as a guest. I will say, um, based on our conversations that we've had off the air, I haven't met anyone that knows more about the subject than her. So if you are looking at an HBCU, I strongly recommend you you talk to her and as you can hear, she.

26:30.98
fatimabey
She gives you real honest ah responses and real realistic um advice because sometimes people give you idealistic advice, which is not helpful to most people. She gives you realistic advice. So I strongly recommend that you reach out to her um if you're just looking for help to go to college in general, but especially HBCU. And I do think that if you are going to HBCU,

26:57.71
fatimabey
You need help unless you have somebody who already has been through it and they they know the path because they've done it. Okay, fine. But most people haven't. And so you need somebody who really kind of specializes in that too. And so how can people find you?

27:13.03
Jennifer Ledwith
They can find me at scholarready.com. And I believe you're going to put these links in the show notes.

27:18.42
fatimabey
Yes.

27:19.06
Jennifer Ledwith
Also reach out to me in the, there is a link with the, my Eventbrite page. And I'm hosting events throughout the year about how to go to college for free, HBCUs.

27:30.63
Jennifer Ledwith
And that allows people to get ahold of my ebook, 50 ways, is it, um, It's 50 ways to win scholarships. There's also an essay writing ebook that guides people through very common topics that they will encounter as they are pursuing, as they are completing their college admission and scholarship applications.

27:56.78
fatimabey
Well, thank you, Jennifer, for coming on again. I always enjoy talking to you. on This has been a really awesome conversation. I definitely learned a lot just even before we talked some stuff we told me off air. I'm like, wow. So ah once again, thank you so, so much for coming on.

28:14.09
Jennifer Ledwith
Thank you Fatima, thank you for having me.