The Experience

My colleagues and I conducted a pilot research study under the umbrella topic of the relevancy of historically black colleges and universities and how they are portrayed and perceived in the media. Exploring this umbrella topic allowed me to form my own which was do predominately white institutions provide a more healthier choice in foods rather than at HBCU's. While conducting this research I found out several things from looking at my ending results. This summary of results talk about what patterns I found during my research. I asked 16 questions and based on the answers these are the results I was able to form. 

What Did The Researcher Learn? 

The researcher learned quite a bit from this experience solely because this was a new experience for the researcher. The researcher got a chance to actually experience two conferences to present her preliminary research and the experience would actually be nice to experience this experience again. Most importantly, the researcher wants HBCU's to be aware of health risk and eat healthy, so here are some tips and steps to follow to do so. The article about grown ups wanting to move too is a great lead in article for young adults who will soon be grown ups to get up a move. Let’s Move! focuses on reducing the rates of childhood obesity by encouraging an increase in physical activity and smarter food choices.  Adults should be on the same plan.  If anything we need to make it even more of a focus because as we get older we have less time to self correct.  It’s much easier to prevent certain illnesses than to treat them after the fact and greater attention to what we eat and how we move can support that.

A healthy lifestyle can start small.  It can start with 10 minutes a day of physical activity. You shouldn’t start with a diet and exercise plan that is such a dramatic shift from your current lifestyle that it cannot be maintained long term.  If you aren’t working out at all now then begin gradually including physical activity in your normal routine.  Any plan needs to also be able to be shaped for your lifestyle, taking work, family, school and other obligations into account.  No matter what size you are or want to be, everyone should aim to be active and doing activities that increase your heart rate: walking, running, biking, dancing, or anything else that makes you happy and breaks a sweat (Maxwell 2012).

What Can The Researcher Pass Along?

Two trailblazers that paved the way for the researcher to even conduct research on HBCU's were W.E.B DuBois and Booker T. Washington. The researcher wants readers of this site to know about those who have paved the way for her and this research according to Purnell. Booker T.Washington, a freed slave from Virginia, attended the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute. There, he was exposed to one of the best examples of elementary and secondary black vocational education in the nation. Hampton, founded by the AMA and the Freedmen’s Bureau, focused its efforts on preparing young blacks throughout the South to fill jobs in the skilled trades. Washington became an apprentice of Hampton’s president and decided to lead his own school after graduating. In 1881, he took the helm at the fledgling Tuskegee Institute. Tuskegee quickly became famous for its practical curriculum and focus on preparing blacks for many agricultural and mechanical trades. Washington gained notoriety and was soon a celebrity among blacks and whites as the proponent of black advancement through vocational training and racial conciliation. He believed firmly that the best way for freed slaves and other blacks to attain equality in the United States was through the accumulation of power, wealth, and respect by means of hard work in practical trades. The inscription on the Tuskegee University monument to Booker T. Washington reads, “He lifted the veil of ignorance from his people and pointed the way to progress through education and industry.”

W.E.B. DuBois took a very different view of how blacks ought to function in society. Raised in Massachusetts and first exposed to segregation during his undergraduate work at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, DuBois believed that it was essential that blacks receive training not only in vocational fields, but also in the liberal arts. A fierce advocate for civil rights, DuBois feuded very openly with Washington over the proper strategy for educating black university students. DuBois felt quite strongly that Washington’s universal vocational training only perpetuated the servitude of slavery. He believed equality and a sense of purpose would only come if talented blacks were allowed to study the arts and sciences. Then they could become leaders and teachers for the next generation. It is impossible to say which of these views triumphed. Each, in its own way, lives on today in modern HBCUs. Many colleges and universities seem to be embracing both schools of thinking—students receive practical, technical training grounded in the liberal arts (Purnell 2012).

The End

Overall the experience of the researcher conducting this research has been life changing and life preparing although the researcher may be a little hesitant to do it in such short time again.