News of the recent legislative blow barring affirmative action in higher education has shined a spotlight on HBCUs and whether they might be a more viable option for Black students and professionals seeking advanced degrees. It's also led to debates about why one would choose a Black institution of higher education and led me to reminisce on my own HBCU experience.
As a proud Hampton University graduate with a print journalism degree, my experience there is the reason I am confident, resilient, and forward-thinking. I went on to work for major publishers, including The New York Times, so I never felt any sort of short-comings or less-than insecurities about not choosing a majority-white school. And I'm not an outlier. Much of my graduating class has similar success stories.
I was once asked in a newsroom, "How did you get here coming from the school you went to?" The words "affirmative action" sputtered from this small-minded, insecure person's lips thereafter. I simply smirked and said, "Well, you think affirmative action got me here, but did it keep me here? And why are you at a lower title than me? Didn't you graduate from an Ivy League?"
At Hampton, I was able to carve out my own path of excellence and redefine success for myself after living in the shadow of an amazingly brilliant valedictorian brother---who was highly sought-after by universities and who went on to find success and great career advancement after studying engineering at one of the top (and majority-white) schools in the nation.
It was also the tenacity, self-starting skills, self-sufficiency, thick skin, and the manifestation of Black excellence developed from my experience at Hampton---not affirmative action---that led to a successful and pretty long career in journalism.
I caught up with a few other amazing women to talk about how their HBCU experiences positively impacted their career choices and later success and the best college experiences of their lives:
Terysa Ridgeway
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Program Manager at Google
Author, Think Like A Computer
Southern University Graduate
On college experience and impact on post-grad career choice and growth: "HBCUs, in general, always provide a very nurturing, fostering type of environment. I feel that, for me, as a young woman at the time, that was super-beneficial. That provided me with emphasis on leadership, empowerment, and still giving back in leadership roles in our communities."
"My parents met on the campus of Southern University. My two oldest sisters went there. We're a traditional Southern University family."
On thriving in STEM after college: "As a freshman, sometimes people would pay me to design their MySpace pages and Blackplanet profiles. Even learning more HTML and going deeper into [computer] science like C and C-sharp, which are more program-specific languages, and building that muscle more formal was pivotal to me. Personally, social media was my fun place, but being able to tie in those things that I just enjoy in a fun space, and then [I understood that], okay, this could 100% be a career path if I buckle down and focus on it."
Karen G. Hatcher CPM
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CEO & Founder, Sovereign Realty & Management
Clark Atlanta University Graduate
On how her educational experience impacted her career: "I am in real estate development, and we also manage investment portfolios. I'm an entrepreneur, and we just had our 15th anniversary last year. We do a lot of residential investments here in the Atlanta market. Clark Atlanta had the business school. I took my first real estate class there. And that was one of my electives. ...I get to use all of those finance skills every day in analyzing real estate. ... It's really cool to be able to lean on those tools that I learned at CAU and into [graduate] school and actually apply it every single day in my work."
"It was predominately white where I grew up---upstate New York, near the Great Lakes---and to come down and to be in a sea of Black excellence, with all these hopes and all these dreams. It was incredible."
On the benefits of attending an HBCU: What I find from people who have graduated from HBCUs is their--our--ability to show up. The level of confidence that we have in moving in multiple rooms. ... You receive a different level of love that is poured into you. You're the majority in a sea of excellence. Our ability to pitch, to interview, to make decisions, to network---it's on another level.
Danyell Taylor
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Private Enrollment Specialist at K12.com, A Stride Co.
Howard University Graduate
On the moment that she knew Howard was a good fit: "Going to the A-building, being discouraged, being in a new city with some funds but not many, and there was a student who was like, 'Are you on scholarship?' I'm like, 'Nope, not on scholarship.' And then, immediately from that conversation, we went to class. He connected with me the next day, and I got scholarship funds. He was a mentor. My communications teacher was a mentor, and then I was able to work with other communications students in a way that I wasn't able to see myself [before].
"That was three months into my experience. I swear, I'd called my mother, like, 'I think I've gotta come home. I don't think I'm going to be able to make it, especially being 22 hours from my family.' So to have him really turn it around on the dime, to have another communications teacher pour into me...He even encouraged me to do my PhD at Howard. That was the turning point where I said, 'Yes, this is the best experience.' They really wrapped their arms around me and kept me encouraged."
"What Howard did was tell me that I could be a communicator, that I could succeed, and that I could make a difference. And especially because Howard made a difference in my life through education, I decided I want to make a difference in the lives of families through education."
Ashleigh Demi
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Cheyney University of Pennsylvania Graduate
Media Personality And Host
On impactful legacy in choosing Cheyney: "I really wanted to do broadcasting, journalism, and communications. I was the anchor for my high school, so going into college it was a no-brainer that that's what I wanted to do. I knew that Ed Bradly of 60 Minutes was an alumni of Cheyney, and I knew that [Washington] DC's own Jim Vance, an anchor on NBC4 went to Cheyney. It wasn't too far from home, and I wanted to get that drum line experience from an HBCU."
"I know that with that experience, Cheyney gave me confidence. It gave me the wow factor that I'm among the greats."
On support and love that led to thriving: "I always could ask someone for help and would not be left behind, even if I had to volunteer or do extra credit. There was always something there where I was able to not fail. With HBCUs, they want to see you succeed. My educational experience at Cheyney was nurturing. If they see you struggling, the professor would pull you aside and talk to you to figure out what challenges you're facing. There's always some type of study group or someone to help you succeed. "
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While an evolution is a natural progression that happens as businesses grow, a rebrand is a total change. Lola tells xoNecole, "A total rebrand is necessary when a business’s current reputation/what it’s known for is at odds with the business’s vision or direction.
"For example, if you’ve fundamentally changed what your product is and does, it’s likely that your brand is out of alignment with the business. Or, if you find your company is developing a reputation that doesn’t serve it, it might be time to pump the brakes and figure out what needs to change.
She continues, "Sometimes you’ll see companies (especially startups) announce a name change that comes with updated messaging, visuals, etc. That usually means their vision has changed or expanded, and their previous branding was too narrow/couldn’t encompass everything they planned to do."
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The Brand Doula was born in 2019, and its focus is on putting "the experiences, goals, and needs of women of color founders first," as well as brands with "culture-shifting missions."
According to Lola, culture-shifting is "the act of influencing dominant behavior, beliefs, or experiences in a community or group (ideally, for the better)."
"At The Brand Doula, we work with companies and leaders that set out to challenge the status quo in their industries and communities. They’re here to make an impact that sends ripples across the market," she says.
"We help the problem solvers of the world — the ones who aren't satisfied with 'this is how it's always been' and instead ask 'how could this be better?' Our clients build for impact, reimagining tools, systems, and ways of living to move cultures forward."
The Brand Doula has worked with many brands, including Too Collective, to assist with their collaboration with Selena Gomez's Rare Beauty and Balanced Black Girl for a "refresh," aka rebrand. For businesses looking to rebrand, Lola shares four essential steps.
1. Do an audit of your current brand experience — what’s still relevant and what needs to change? Reflect on why you’re doing the rebrand in the first place and what success would look like after relaunching.
2. Tackle the overall strategy first — before you start redesigning logos and websites, align on a new vision for your brand. How do you want your company to be positioned moving forward? Has your audience changed at all? Will your company have a fresh personality and voice?
3. Bring your audience along the journey — there’s no need to move in secret. Inviting your current audience into the journey can actually help them feel more connected to and invested in your story, enough to stick around as changes are being made.
4. Keep business moving — one of my biggest pet peeves is when companies take down their websites as soon as they have the idea to rebrand, then have a Coming Soon page up for months! You lose a lot of momentum and interest by doing that. If you’re still in business and generating income, continue to operate while you work on your rebrand behind the scenes. You don’t want to cut existing customers off out of the blue, and you also don’t want so much downtime that folks forget your business exists or start looking for other solutions.
While determining whether the rebrand was successful may take a few months, Lola says a clear sign that it is unsuccessful is negative feedback from your target audience. "Customers are typically more vocal about what they don’t like more than what they do like," she says.
But some good signs to look out for are improvements in engagement with your marketing, positive reviews, press and increase in retention, and overall feeling aligned with the new branding.
For more information about Lola and The Brand Doula, visit her website, thebranddoula.com.
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