Virginia Tech hosts 7th annual Black College Institute

We want students to understand the accessibility that academia can give you. The spaces that it can put you in. The relationships that you can build. We're really passionate about bridging the gap between culture and curriculum. It's been amazing. Each year, we bring 200-250 rising high school juniors and seniors. It's over the course of three weeks, three different cohorts. They get to experience every college. I think it creates shifts, and their understandings about themselves, but also about what Virginia Tech can offer them. Having students be able to touch on, like, most, if not all different colleges allows them to really understand, like ok, it's not just that major that you selected this other majors. And if you do want the opportunity to switch, you have the opportunity to switch. Want to make sure that they have all the resources that they need. But in addition to that their families have those resources as well. We are very honest in that not every student is going to choose Virginia Tech, but we want them to know that we've already chosen them, that we see something in them that is Hokie focused. I believe just like having a way for students to come to visit these colleges, and be in a safe space where they can be un-apologically black, is also a great thing. Because, not only do they get the college benefit, but they're also getting to be themselves without having to hide who they really are. We want you to bring your full self to campus. We want to show you how to navigate the classroom experience, how to engage with your professors, how to be a part of different organization so that you can take the culture of being a Hokie and take it out into the world and continue changing lives. This program is an opportunity for them to interrogate the African American experience. But, also to understand it's not monolithic, right? And there's also students who are not African American who participate. And so that ability to work in teams, to work collaboratively, to understand that ultimately is about making a difference in the world, and you can't do that alone.