Essay

Going into the college tour I was very excited, to be able to get away from home for a while and have some new experiences. On the plane ride to Denver, I did not go to sleep because I was thinking about all the colleges I was going to see and all the activities that I was going to be involved in, in just one week. When the group and I landed in Chicago, it was extremely cold, we walked around Southside Chicago and the neighborhood that President Obama lived in. There was secret service all around the neighborhood and we were not even allowed to walk on the same street of the gated community that his house was in. Later on that day we all went to the Hard Rock Café to eat dinner, everybody had a good time, we were all worn down after that and we spent the night at the Justice Home. The Justice Home was very nice, it was like a condominium but it had more bedrooms. When we woke up, we walked over to the Rainbow Push Excel Building, were we ate breakfast and had our orientation for the college tour. During the orientation, Reverend Jesse Jackson preached as well as Judge Mathis, it was enlightening and got us hyped up for the tour. When we got on the bus, pretty much everyone slept on the way to Indiapolis, we also did games and activities on the bus to get to know each other. That night everyone ate at the Golden Corral and later went to the hotel. The next morning we traveled to Nashville, Tennessee and went to church at the Mount Zion Lutheran Baptist Church. This church was on Television and it was very lively. I had a very good time because I was very inspired and I was able to experience being reconciled at the church. This means that I was reconnected with God. I felt really god about this because I felt as if I was drifting away from God for a while. This experience was defiantly life changing and I was in a very good mood throughout the day. I think that everyone got something out of attending church that Sunday. The rest of the day, we spent our time driving down to Florida. The next day we toured Florida A&M, the campus was very nice and I loved the basketball gym. The school was named college of the year in 1997-1998 and they had a very impressive business program, which is something that I am interested in majoring in. After Florida A&M we moved onto Atlanta the next day. We saw Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College and Spelman College. When we arrived on the campus, I did not know that all three schools were right across the street from each other. First, we saw Clark, the campus was nice and the dorms were amazing. Morehouse, which is currently my first choice for college, was great. All the students from all three campuses seemed to be very close and together and the campuses were very live. One thing I learned about Morehouse is that it is a small school and that the teachers actually take the time to check in on you. I really liked that because I tend to need a lot of help and support in school. While I was at Morehouse, I also met up with two Morehouse students, Langston Hill and Marcus Spencer who are EOYDC alumni. They talked to me about the school and I was really intrigued. In addition to that, we went to Martin Luther King Center that was on Campus. I had a great time at the three colleges. When we left Atlanta, we went to Tuskegee, which was a school in the middle of nowhere. The school had a lot of history because of the Tuskegee Airman and Booker T. Washington as well as George Washington Carver. I was not all that interested in Tuskegee because it did not seem like the school had much going on. Later that day, we went to Talladega, which was also in the middle of nowhere and was a very small school. It was almost like a junior college because there were not many kinds at all and it did not have very high academic expectations. I think that the Talladega College proves that there is a place for everyone. Next, we made our way back up to Tennessee to see Tennessee State and Fisk University. Tennessee was more of a party school and had a lot of activities going on. There sports program was division two and their basketball gym was huge. However, Fisk was Division 3, and they were very strict about their academics. Fisk University was the Harvard of the black colleges and it seemed difficult to get into. That was the last college that we visited. My favorite colleges went in this order, Morehouse, Clark, FAMU, Tennessee State, Tuskegee, Fisk University, and Talladega. The colleges in Atlanta really stood out to me because I want to be surrounded in a system that is really supportive and live. The last day we went to the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King was shot and killed. Mr. Kyles talked to us at the motel, he was the only person on the balcony when Dr. King was shot. It is now a museum, it was certainly a humbling experience and the way his death happened is very strange to me. I was saddened and shocked at what I saw; I could not believe that I was where he died. The crazy part about his death is that when he was shot the lady from the front desk came out and once she saw him on the ground she instantly had a heart attack. I had an amazing experience on the college tour I was able to experience a lot of different things that I did not think I would and for that I am very grateful.