The youngest campers are five years old. Seven weeks later, they leave knowing the chants, the names of the departments they toured, and the faces of the college students who mentored them. That is the working idea behind Camp HBCYouth, an Atlanta summer program that places children in kindergarten through fifth grade on HBCU campuses long before anyone asks where they plan to apply.
BeyGOOD, the charitable foundation of Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, has awarded the camp a $25,000 grant. The money will enroll more children, put more HBCU students on the payroll as staff, and keep the cost of camp within reach for the families the program was built to serve. The grant arrives as Camp HBCYouth, founded in Atlanta in 2021, prepares its first expansion beyond Georgia.
Reagan Fresnel graduated from Spelman College in 2018 with a degree in political science and government. Capital B News has described an undergraduate experience she remembers in terms of “Black pride” and “Black excellence,” one she wanted to hand to children who might otherwise wait a decade to set foot on an HBCU campus. In 2021 she launched Camp HBCYouth with Brian Wright, a Morehouse College alumnus. In five summers, the seven-week program has served 2,000 elementary school students.
The days are structured. Academic enrichment comes first: literacy, reading comprehension, STEAM coursework, critical thinking and problem-solving. A second block teaches HBCU culture and history, from the legacy of Black pioneers to the university chants campers learn by heart. Campers tour academic departments and research centers and work with mentors drawn from HBCU students and alumni. Sports and wellness fill another block, with healthy food, daily fitness and coach-led tennis instruction built into the week. Visual arts, music, performing arts and an introduction to entrepreneurship round out the schedule.
The camp runs in partnership with five universities: Spelman College, Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, Tennessee State University in Nashville and Morgan State University in Baltimore. The next campus is already chosen. Camp HBCYouth plans to expand to Texas Southern University in Houston.
The model treats exposure as a form of capital. A child who has eaten in an HBCU dining hall, sat in its classrooms and been coached by its students does not meet the idea of college as a stranger at seventeen. Camp HBCYouth is built to make that introduction at five, six and seven, and to pay HBCU students to deliver it, so the grant money circulates on both sides of the mentor relationship.
Fresnel, the camp’s executive director and chief executive, thanked the foundation in a statement posted on Instagram. “Your grant helps us put more children on HBCU campuses, hire more HBCU students, and keep camp within reach for the families who need it most,” she wrote, in a message addressed to Beyoncé Knowles-Carter and Tina Knowles. BeyGOOD said it was proud to invest in a program that introduces children in grades K-5 to the history and reach of HBCUs through education, wellness, arts and sports. The foundation’s stated work covers scholarships, entrepreneurship, emergency relief and community-based investments.
Early bird enrollment for the coming summer opens Nov. 9. The next class of five-year-olds is about to learn the chants.
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