By Rachel Sawicki

WILMINGTON — It is Historically Black College and Universities Week in Delaware and Gov. John Carney and Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki believe it was the perfect time to declare October Global Diversity Awareness Month in the First State.

​​Gov. Carney signed the proclamation on Friday afternoon at a college fair at Chase Fieldhouse in Wilmington.

“All of you are the future of our state,” Gov. Carney said in his remarks to students attending the event specifically for Historically Black Colleges and Universities. “We are counting on each and every one of you to be that great future.”

He later said that as a state, Delaware is taking action to promote diversity and anti-racism initiatives through criminal justice reform, including a police body camera initiative passed earlier this year, and increased opportunity funding, which helps provide additional resources to the schools and school districts with higher percentages of children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

“In fact, this morning (Mayor Purzycki and I) had an event, just down the street from here, where we celebrated a program called IT Works, which engages young people of color into technology jobs,” Gov. Carney said.

Mayor Purzycki said that around 5,000 students came through the college fair on Friday, a huge jump from around 3,600 in 2019.

“(HBCU Week and this proclamation) explains what our values are,” Mayor Purzycki said. “We are so committed to our kids to make a better life for them, and what better way than to open doors to education, in some cases where a lot of our young people don’t even know these opportunities exist.”

Several representatives from HBCUs from around the country were on hand to provide students with information and answer questions, including Howard University, Coppin University, Spelman College and Morgan State University. Delaware’s very own Delaware State University booth was the busiest of them all.

Ted Noble is a financial aid counselor at DSU. He went to DSU for his undergraduate and masters degrees and is now a year and a half into his Ph.D. program. At the DSU table, he and other representatives helped students fill out applications for federal student aid and allowed students to apply to DSU as well.

“Because we’re a merit-based institution, we determine what type of scholarships students are eligible for based on their GPA, SAT or ACT scores,” Mr. Noble said. “Even if a student is a sophomore or junior, we don’t want to kick them to the curb and say ‘come back next year.’ We had them fill out an application so that way we have them in our portal and we can update them with any scholarship information.”

Mr. Noble said that the governor’s proclamation for Global Diversity Awareness Month gave him goosebumps.

“The revolutionary doesn’t always get to see the benefits of the revolution, but we are living it,” he said. “We can see the effort and I can say that I am a part of the shift, I am a part of the change, and I am a part of the culture.”

Sydney Mainor is a high school senior from Union, New Jersey, who drove down with her mother to check out the college fair. She’s already been accepted to DSU and other universities, and although she isn’t sure where exactly she will commit yet, she knows she’ll choose an HBCU.

“For a while, I went to a private school with very little diversity,” Ms. Mainor said. “I was one of the only Black people there, especially in my grade, and I got bullied a lot. It was just a really bad experience. Then I came to a public school that was a lot more diverse and I decided I wanted to get more in tune with my own culture, which is also why I want to minor in African Studies.”

Ms. Mainor added that she wishes other states would make proclamations like Gov. Carney’s, bringing attention to the importance of diversity and tackling racism.

“Other states should be doing it as well just so that kids know they’re not alone and that it is a big deal,” she said. “It shows that it’s not something that only the kids are concerned about, but the people who can actually make the changes are concerned about as well.”

Deja Curry, a Howard High School senior, runs track and wants to attend an HBCU where she can continue her athletic career.

“I like the HBCU culture,” Ms. Curry said. “Their integrity is different and something that I want to be a part of.”

Mr. Noble said education gives people the most optimal chance for success and that personally, coming to an HBCU gave him the exposure, opportunity and resources he didn’t even know he needed.

“I didn’t have my first American-African professor until my junior year in college, so the idea of seeing yourself reflected in society other than just sports or entertainment, it was profound,” Mr. Noble said.

“I never thought of myself being an educator and here I am getting my doctorate degree. That’s probably one of the most profound things I did, not because it’s strenuous or hard, but because you just don’t think that you can ever be there, especially if you don’t see yourself reflected.”

Staff writer Rachel Sawicki can be reached at rsawicki@iniusa.org.
Follow them on Twitter @RachSawickiDSN.