Eye-opening tour by Modesto City Schools helps students connect with HBCUs

Modesto students visit Morehouse College, located in Atlanta, on the district’s tour of historically black colleges and universities. Modesto City Schools

When she was a senior at Modesto High School, Daijah Briley was set to attend Sacramento
State. But after taking a tour of historically Black colleges and universities, she decided to attend
Clark Atlanta University.

Briley is one of 28 students who have gone on to attend an HBCU after the Modesto City
Schools-sponsored tour since the 2022-23 school year.

“It changed my whole life,” Briley said. “As soon as I decided, I started telling everyone, I am
going to Clark Atlanta University. Didn’t know how I was going to pay for it, none of that yet. But
I had my heart set on [it] and I was going and I told my mom, and she told my village, and we
made it happen.”

Now a third-year college student, she has talked to Modesto City Schools students touring Clark
Atlanta, which she described as a full-circle moment. “It was just very inspiring and felt good to
know that this is still happening and I’m still making an impact by being someone who’s done it
before,” Briley said.

Modesto City Schools is the only district in the Central Valley to offer a district-funded tour of
HBCUs

The tour is open to all high school students at MCS. The final selection of students is solidified
prior to winter break, who must apply with volunteer hours, letters of recommendation and more

The district’s work to expose students to HBCUs in part earned it a Black EdCellence Award
from the California Association of Black School Educators this year. Before 2022, Modesto City
Schools ran an HBCU tour between 2007 and 2017 through fundraising efforts

“And every year, it just got tougher and tougher to raise the money. But we kept it going,” Board
of Education Trustee John Ervin III said.

After he and HR Director Fallon Ferris advocated on behalf of the tour to former Superintendent
Sara Noguchi, the district began funding the program as of the 2022-23 school year. Currently,
the district partners with the HBCU Making Moves Tour to facilitate the trip.

“I was ecstatic,” Ervin said. “We have now brought back an opportunity for students that show
that they have opportunities not limited to just California. They can broaden horizons. They can
go places where, for the most part, students and staff and professors look like them.”

There is only one HBCU in California: the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science,
located in the Los Angeles County community of Willowbrook. There are many more in the
South and on the East Coast, which is where the trips usually go.

Ferris added that since not all students have parents who went to college and can attest to that
experience, the trip offers an exposure they might not get in their immediate circle.

“Once you see the possibilities, once you’re on that campus, once you see what it’s like to be a
college student, it’s life-changing to just see these students’ faces light up at the possibilities,”
Ferris said.

Modesto City Schools alumni attending HBCUs have connected with many of the students on
the tours, answering questions about tuition, campus life, applications and more.

Noah White is a graduate of Davis High School and a current senior at Morehouse College, a
men’s HBCU. White remembered speaking with Briley during his first year at Morehouse when
she was on the HBCU tour.

“Being able to see more than one group of students come, they’re more inquisitive about what
they want to learn, whether it’s at Morehouse or Spelman, Clark, or other HBCUs,” White said.
“It’s really nice that they’re getting a curiosity and interest in wanting to go to an HBCU because
it’s a really unique experience that you can’t find anywhere in the world.”

According to Ervin, during the first iteration of the program, more than 100 students went on to
attend HBCUs. In the past three school years, 28 students have gone on to attend HBCUs,
including Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse, Fisk University, Howard University, Texas
Southern University, Spelman College, Dillard University, Alabama State University and Xavier
University.

This school year, students on the tour will visit Xavier University, Dillard University, Southern
University, Grambling University, Alcorn University, Mississippi Valley State University and
Jackson State University.

The trip also incorporates Black history and culture. The 2024-25 school year trip to Alabama
included visiting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Church, Rosa Parks’ bus route, the Tuskegee
Airmen Museum, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Museum, the National Memorial for Peace and
Justice and the Harriet Tubman Museum.

This story was originally published October 14, 2025 at 2:05 PM

https://www.modbee.com/news/local/education/article312498089.html#storylink=cpy