Jay-Z’s Foundation is Taking High School Students on a HBCU College Tour

The Shawn Carter Foundation is gearing up for its annual college bus tour which gives a select group of high-performing students the opportunity to visit 11 historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) from Atlanta, GA, to Washington, D.C. Presented by Toyota, the 7-day tour also gives students a chance to meet with college admissions counselors, former Shawn Carter Foundation scholars, and other student brand ambassadors at top learning institutions. The next stop on the tour is Howard University where Gloria Carter, the president of the Shawn Carter Foundation, and Carmin Wong, an HBCU Bus Tour alumna and recent Howard graduate, will make appearances on Thursday.

The foundation will also facilitate college preparation workshops leading up to the bus tour for students in more than 125 high schools in New York and New Jersey. Beginning in September, students selected by their respective high school’s administrators will be able to attend a series of weekend sessions that focus on ACT/SAT prep, college essay and academic resume building, interview skills, and how to dress for success.

The foundation has equipped hundreds of high school students with the tools to be successful in higher education since it was founded by hip hop mogul Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter and his mother, Gloria, in 2003. All high school seniors selected for the tour have been provisionally accepted to at least one college or university they visited.

Last year, Carter and his mega superstar wife, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, dished out over $1 million in scholarship funds for students around the country during the U.S. leg of their worldwide On The Run II tour. A $100,000 scholarship was awarded to one exceptional high school senior during each of the tour’s stops in U.S. cities.

Editor’s Note: The title of this article was updated. A sentence in the first paragraph about the HBCU college bus tour’s next stop was also revised for accuracy and clarity.