The Homecoming Scholars Award Program for 2018-2019 will expand to all qualifying students at the four universities, regardless of gender. The disciplines will include literature, creative arts, African- American studies, science, education, business, communications, social sciences, computer science and engineering. All applicants must maintain a 3.5 GPA or above. All finalists and winners will be selected by the universities. Winners will be announced this summer.
The Universities, Xavier, Wilberforce, Tuskegee and Bethune-Cookman, are all Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). HBCUs are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community.
“We salute the rich legacy of Historically Black Colleges and Universities,” Ivy McGregor, Director of Philanthropy and Corporate Relations at Parkwood Entertainment, said in a statement Monday. “We honor all institutions of higher learning for maintaining culture and creating environments for optimal learning which expands dreams and the seas of possibilities for students.” Winners will receive the good news on a date this summer TBD.
This news follows her HBCU Homecoming performance at Coachella. The HBCU enrollment has definitely risen with this performance. We all are in awe of the performance. Beyoncé has shown us that when you are the first to do it, you better do it the best, so the others after you will have a hard time filling your shoes. Queen Bey has shown us why she’s the queen. Saturday’s performance gave us everything that Beyoncé stood for, she even took us to her roots in Louisiana with her orchestra’s rendition of “Do Whatch Wanna” performed and remastered by brass bands throughout the southern region.
The announcement ties in with Beyonce’s performance on multiple levels: She was accompanied by 150-plus performers, most if not all of whom were people of color; many of those performers were part of a marching band, majorettes and drumline styled on those from black colleges and universities, and she and her performers often wore collegiate-type outfits bearing the Greek letters beta delta and kappa, her initials with the delta referencing her favored number, four; and the set was loaded with references and quotes from black history, ranging from an excerpt from a Malcolm X speech to a quote from a Nina Simone song, “Lilac Wine.” And she pointedly thanked Coachella for making her the first black woman to headline the festival — adding sardonically, “Ain’t that about a bitch?”
