Bound for Spelman College in the fall, SeKai says she was offered more than $3 million total in different scholarships and accepted to 15 schools, including Yale and the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn).<\/p>\n
SeKai and her mother, Shaunte Parker, documented her college-decision journey on social media from\u00a0its start\u00a0to\u00a0her announcement video, which revealed she\u2019d been offered a full ride for four years.<\/p>\n
SeKai says HBCUs weren\u2019t part of the equation when she was first thinking about which college to attend. \u201cComing from a background of learning only in predominantly white spaces since pre-school, my environment had conditioned me to think that HBCUs are lesser than, or places where kids from my background don\u2019t go,\u201d explains SeKai, a Bowie, Maryland, native. \u201cI spent my entire high school career with the thought of attending an Ivy League school as my motivation to work hard and get out of the space that I was in.\u201d<\/p>\n
But when she witnessed the Black Lives Matter uprisings in the summer of 2020, she began to reconsider the idea of attending an HBCU. On the final day of her senior year, she realized Spelman was the college for her, after her classmates sang \u201cSince You\u2019ve Been Gone\u201d by Kelly Clarkson and she didn\u2019t know a single lyric.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my head, my imagination ran wild. I heard frats barking and whistling; I saw sororities strolling; I heard songs I actually enjoyed; and I felt like, \u2018This is where I am supposed to be,\u2019\u201d SeKai says. \u201cI do believe [my high school] nurtured my identity as a woman and empowered me to use my voice. [But] I also believe that this space did not nurture my identity as a Black woman [in] the same [way].\u201d She continues, \u201cI felt like my identities as a Black person and a woman could not coexist in the space that I was in. It\u2019s almost impossible to discover who you are while simultaneously trying to prove that your existence as a Black woman holds value.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nStudents are applying to HBCUs at record numbers, even choosing them over Ivy League universities.<\/p>\n
Sekai Parker joins @stevenromo<\/a> on #MorningNewsNow<\/a> to talk about her choice to attend Spelman College instead of Yale.https:\/\/t.co\/U4UZMHn7bF<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/E5pCvUMTWo<\/a><\/p>\n
— NBC News NOW (@NBCNewsNow) June 17, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n