When you’ve ever stepped foot on an HBCU campus, I’d wager you it wasn’t greater than 5 minutes earlier than you noticed a knockout outfit. A Howard graduate myself, I do know firsthand the best way that HBCU college students present up and present out, even when it’s only for one thing so simple as an early a morning math class. Jamila Toussaint, Ms. Black USA 2021 and a fellow Bison, shares these sentiments.
“Being from Minnesota, it’s probably not a factor to decorate up, look good and maintain your self,” she tells me throughout our chat on the Invesco QQQ Legacy Traditional, an annual HBCU basketball event helmed by Michael B. Jordan. “Really, if you do this, individuals type of have a look at you and suppose, ‘The place’s she going?’”
Upon her arrival at Howard, nonetheless, she shortly realized that wouldn’t be the case. “I keep in mind first time I stepped foot on the campus, I used to be identical to, ‘Wow.’ It’s at all times a trend present and on the time, I used to be most likely in like a white tee and a few denims.”
The change of surroundings remodeled how she started presenting to the world. “It compelled me to place my finest foot ahead and concentrate on being a extra polished particular person,” she shares.
It modified not solely how she behaved on campus, however how she moved as soon as she graduated and entered the true world. “It’s one thing that carries over into skilled world,” she says. “You’re not shy to face up and communicate out and look your finest and play with trend and play with magnificence. I don’t must downplay myself for anybody round me. That’s what Howard did for me.” Toussaint lists HBCU Homecoming as one of many biggest shows of favor, recollecting the shock and awe that got here along with her freshman 12 months celebration.
“Going to an HBCU confirmed me all of the variations of blackness,” she says. “Once I first informed individuals in my highschool I used to be going to Howard they tried to inform me that it wouldn’t be various, however that’s simply not the case.” In reality, it proved the alternative. “It was essentially the most various expertise I’ve ever had in my life,” she explains. “You see all of the various kinds of trend and kinds. You will have the Afrocentric type, you’ve got the sweetness queens, you’ve got the Greeks and a lot extra. It simply reveals you all of the number of our individuals, all of the ways in which we will play with our hair, the best way we will play with our fashions.”
And let Toussaint inform it, her HBCU expertise it’s one of many many causes for achievement in pageants. In reality, the Ms. Black USA pageant resulted in triumph on her first strive. “It was my first pageant expertise, however I keep in mind seeing like associates attempting out for the Howard pageants as a result of that tradition is so massive on campus,” she says. “I noticed the transformation that they underwent stepping onto that stage, that’s their first impression of you.”
Try recaps from the 2021 Invesco QQQ Legacy Traditional and make plans for subsequent 12 months on prucenter.com.