Historically Black Colleges and University representatives wrapped around Madison East High School’s purple and gold gymnasium Wednesday as Black high school students sang, dance and laughed while learning about prospective post-high school opportunities for people who look like them.

“Issa Experience-HBCU College Fair” included 16 universities and colleges such as Clark Atlanta, Alcorn State and Howard University.  As students entered the fair, they were handed pamphlets with tips and tricks to handle standardized testing, financial aid and college applications.

Music and dance lights kept the energy high, while DJ M. White periodically gave inspirational tips between songs by rapper Cardi B. and classics like the “Cha Cha Slide.” Snacks and free schools supplies were also available to all who attended the event.

Acting adviser of UW-Madison’s Black Graduate and Professional Student Association Kalyanna Williams has coordinated this HBCU college fair for Madison’s Black youth for the last two years. Williams, who is currently the Dairy Youth Outreach Specialist at the UW-Madison, made the decision to spend her undergraduate years at Tuskegee University before she was able to visit or tour the university’s campus.

“I would like to offer that experience to the students. When I was looking for schools to go to, I was living in Arizona and I didn’t visit anywhere. I just winged it,” Williams said. “I know that’s not the best way to go about it, and so providing students with at least the schools coming here would make it so they would get that experience but it will be here and it’s free.”

This year, the volunteer-run, community event attracted busloads of students from all four Madison-area high schools, as well as, Verona, Sun Prairie and Middleton high school. Williams continues to receive positive feedback after 2016’s HBCU fair which had nearly 300 students in attendance.

“The response that we got from our students, as well as our neighboring schools on this [event] showed us we needed to blow this up even more. We’ve been hyping it up, the kids have been excited about it,” East High School Principal Mike Hernandez said. “What we’re seeing with this HBCU [Fair] is that the community as a whole is wrapping around kids and showing them there are other opportunities–there are other experiences they can have.”

Community organizations like Madison Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., Madison Police Department, and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. were present at the fair. Other partners of the event included the Kappa Psi Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Kappa Psi Phi Fraternity Inc., Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc., and Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc.

“[The HBCU fair] is a chance for the community to come together, host an event for these students and the students have a good time,” Williams said.

Madison East junior Carol “Cece” Spencer was excited to see this event come around for a second time.

“I love this event. I was really looking forward to coming to this event. It just made me really happy last year to see all the kids from the Madison schools—so many Black kids from the Madison schools—for us all to be together and have fun and still learn about what we want to do with our future,” Spencer said.

Spencer, who is interested in attending an HBCU after high school, is currently looking at schools such as Clark Atlanta and Xavier. She credits last year’s fair with introducing her to Howard University, which is now another school she intends to apply to.

Williams hopes to see the HBCU fair continue to expand to a state-wide event ideally reaching students from around Wisconsin.