Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have produced more African-American college graduates and more African-Americans holding professional degrees than the sum total of all of America’s colleges. The secret to success is obvious to those who have experienced the HBCU environment. For the past 32 years, the Indianapolis Black Alumni Council (IBAC) has held its annual HBCU College Fair in Indianapolis.
This year’s event will be held Oct. 4 from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Indianapolis Crispus Attucks Medical Magnet, 1140 Martin Luther King St.
Just as the Circle City Classic football game features HBCU teams, the annual HBCU College Fair kicks off the weekend featuring HBCU academics. IBAC, founded in 1978, is composed of alumni representing HBCUs, alumni associations and members of the National Pan-Hellenic Council.
IBAC serves as a clearinghouse of information on HBCUs for students, parents, school personnel and agencies that service youth in the Indianapolis metropolitan area, Indiana and surrounding states. With the growing number of people desiring to pursue higher education, this fair is an opportunity to discover all of the available resources to achieve individual educational goals.
Past HBCU College Fairs have been phenomenally successful with 3,000 participants and more than 65 campus recruiters in attendance. College fair programs include the Distance Recruitment Event, the actual college fair and the Scholarship Opportunity Network. The Distance Recruitment Event offers an opportunity for students nationwide and internationally to participate in a special HBCU recruitment session via the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration system. The Scholarship Opportunity Network is for senior high school students with a grade-point average of 3.0 or higher who interview with recruiters for institutional scholarships and admission to respective HBCUs.
As a Community Partner of the Circle City Classic, the HBCU College Fair program symbolizes the Classic belief in the quality of education offered by these institutions. Before the Indianapolis Black Alumni Council, fewer than 40 Indianapolis-area students attended historically Black institutions. Currently, thousands of area students matriculate on these HBCU campuses from the millions of dollars in scholarships received from them. Many are recipients of academic scholarships received as a result of attending college fair programs such as this one.
For more information, go to circlecityclassic.com or call Deborah Greene at (317) 329-4786.
