The cheers and applause that went up inside a darkened hotel ballroom in Chicago Friday night meant some 300 public high school seniors were closer to their dream of getting a college education. For 10 years running, the global electronics and engineering conglomerate Siemens has hosted the HBCU Scholarship Reception, during which Chicago Public School (CPS) students are promised generous scholarships to historically Black colleges and universities from across the country.
At the reception, students sat anxiously in the audience as representatives from 30 HBCUs, who were seated at two long tables on a stage, stepped up to the microphone to announce their list of scholarship packages. When each student’s name was called along with the academic award they were getting, fellow students roared as though a game-winning play had just occurred.
In some ways it had because the students had just secured scholarships ranging from $2,500 to upward of $80,000. This was a big deal for them and their families.
“The program provides an unparalleled opportunity to obtain financial resources to attend a historically Black university,” said Kelsey Riley, a Chicago public school graduate who recalled hearing her name called during the scholarship reception in 2008 and receiving a full-tuition academic scholarship to Xavier University of Louisiana.
Before the reception, more than 1,300 sophomores, juniors and seniors from 55 Chicago public high schools had attended a daylong college and scholarship fair at the Sheraton Hotel & Towers near the city’s lakefront. The fair gave them a chance to meet with and present their academic credentials to HBCU representatives. CPS coordinated the daylong event, and Siemens covered the transportation costs for HBCU reps to come to Chicago.
Last year, more than $38 million in scholarships were offered, according to Marcia Boyd, a project manager at CPS who identifies qualified CPS seniors interested in attending historically Black universities. Boyd then facilitates the process of getting students to apply.
This year’s scholarship total will take a few days to tally, but Boyd and Siemens representatives expect it to exceed last year’s by a few million dollars. Benedict University, located in Columbia, S.C., came with 96 scholarship offers, totaling $3,940,000. Mississippi Valley State University had 13 scholarships to give out.
