HBCU’s 2012 Leadership and Career Summit
August 20, 2012 by HRC staff
This post comes from HRC's Youth and Campus Outreach Coordinator, Lauren Waters:
In 2006, when I became a fresh-woman at Bennett College for Women, I had recently discovered my lesbian identity. As I continued to gracefully fumble through my matriculation, it took me almost 3 years to finally become comfortable with myself. It wasn’t until my senior year, in my role as Co-President of our campus Gay-Straight Alliance, that I started to understand everything that went into making a college experience the “best four years of one’s life.” When a person can be their authentic self throughout their college career, it truly makes a difference in how they mature as a young adult.
I was missing one key piece in what would have made my college experience complete—and that was a space where I could be both black and gay without fear of retribution. Far too often on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU’s) we see students afraid to be both black and LGBT authentically, and before programs like HRC’s HBCU Program, students often struggled alone in silence or with little to no support at all. As the HBCU Program has evolved to now include year-round support for LGBT HBCU students and their student groups, we have revamped the program to include a four-day intensive leadership and career summit that brings together HBCU students from across the country to aid them in becoming their true authentic selves.
The HBCU leadership and career summit exists so that students can gain the skills necessary to educate people within their community on the importance of LGBT equality. It gives them a coalition of student activists all charged with the same end goal: ‘LGBT inclusivity on HBCU campuses.’
Learn more about the program:
This year’s summit will take place October 25-28, 2012 at HRC headquarters in Washington, D.C. The direct link to the application is https://hrc.wufoo.com/forms/hbcu-leadershipcareer-summit-2012/, and the application deadline is September 17.
If you are LGBT, attend an HBCU, and want to help create a more inclusive campus, please apply today.
