Over spring break, four students from the Black Student Union, or BSU, took their annual out-of-state field trip, this year to North Carolina. The trip allowed them to visit multiple out of state colleges, many of which were historically black colleges or universities, HBCUs.

The main purpose of this trip was to visit ten colleges, seven of which were HBCUs. Sophomore Christian Garcia had never considered an HBCU, but after the trip, started looking further into them because of their welcoming nature.

“That’s one of the things about HBCUs, but especially [North Carolina Central University],” said Garcia. “You could be sitting alone and people would come up to [you] asking what [you are] doing in a nice, calm gesture.”

The history behind the schools’ cultures was one of the most interesting parts of the trip that the students learned. North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, for example, celebrates February One every year because of an event from their school’s history.

“It is when four students at that school went to a restaurant they were not supposed to be in, because of segregation, and they protested, but it was peace[ful],” junior Rhea Burney said. “It made a huge impact.”

The students did more than tour colleges, they also had fun outside of their scheduled tours. On the last day of their trip, all of the clubs went to Dave & Busters before having a talent show in the hotel where everyone had to participate.

Throughout the trip students had the opportunity to experience out-of-state colleges they would not have thought of or had the chance to visit beforehand, making them want to go again next year.

“I want to explore [more] opportunities that will be provided again and open up my mindset,” Garcia said. “We don’t have a lot of HBCUs [in California], if any, so when you go down south, you really find out that there’s many more opportunities.”