Alyssa Johnson is an Atlanta-based writer. She graduated from Huston-Tillotson University in 2000.
As a first generation college student, I didn’t know what to expect as we pulled up to the small, secured campus of Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, Texas in the fall of 1996.
The campus sat atop a hill with a winding road and I remember feeling butterflies as our car climbed the hill to the residence hall.
There were only two residence halls on campus - one for the men and one for the women. But as I entered Allen-Frazier Hall with my belongings I remember feeling like I was at home.
I chose Huston-Tillotson after one of my senior high-school teachers, Mr. Nelson Zachary, encouraged me to go there because it was his alma-mater.
My mother and I were recent transplants to Waco, Texas from Waycross, Ga. and Mr. Zachary took an immediate liking to me and my humble beginnings.
He knew that we didn’t have a lot of family in Waco and he also knew that I was helping to financially support my mother.
He felt that the cozy environment of the school would give me the emotional nourishment that I would need to fully pursue my degree.
The beauty of the school’s location was that it was only an hour away from my mother so that meant I could check on her frequently.
I didn’t really know what it meant to attend an HBCU or the rich legacy that these schools held, but I quickly found out from one of my professors, affectionately known as “Coach Kiara.”
Carment Kiara was the school’s track coach, but he also taught African-American studies. He was a champion of our history and made us understand who we were as young, black youth.
Before attending Huston-Tillotson, I was unaware of the countless contributions that African-Americans made to American history and society.
It was an eye-opener and it made my heart spill with black pride. Being a part of the HBCU experience at Huston-Tillotson taught me that my people were courageous, intelligent, strong and loving, all at the same time.
It was the complete opposite of what I’d learned in the public school system.
Huston-Tillotson University was founded from the merger of two schools. On Oct. 24, 1952 Tillotson College and Samuel Huston College merged to form Huston-Tillotson College.
My alma-mater also holds the distinction of being the oldest institution of higher learning in Austin, when Tillotson College began in 1875.
My school also boasts notable, historical figures like baseball legend Jackie Robinson, who was a Samuel Huston College instructor, basketball coach and athletic director, before joining the Brooklyn Dodgers.
My academic studies earned me a degree in mass communications, but quite frankly, what Huston-Tillotson gave me could never be measured with a piece of paper.
Huston-Tillotson University taught me that I mattered as a black woman and that there was a place for me in this world.
It made me deeply understand the struggle of my people to progress, and the constant need for black unity as a vehicle to move us beyond our past.
It was on that campus that I first read the beautiful writings of Zora Neale Hurston, for whom my daughter is named.
It was on that campus that I learned that I, too, could be a magnificent writer if I chose to do so.
It was on that campus that I pledged my heart to Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
My professors felt more like aunts and uncles and my peers felt like cousins; true extensions of family.
Attending Huston-Tillotson University was the best experience I could have had collegiately.
When you experience an HBCU, you become a part of a legacy and a family that becomes embedded in you and never leaves you.
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