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High school students participating in the annual Ten Colleges in Ten Days tour, sponsored by the Carver Center, are reporting back daily as student-journalists. Their first stop was Tuskegee University-- fitting since it is where George Washington Carver produced his most imporant research. Today's reporter is Marcus L. Hooks. His report:
At Tuskegee University, our tour guide was Zackary Beasley who is majoring in architecture. Beasley is married and has a kid coming in September.
We learned that Louis Adams and George Cumbe helped transform Tuskegee from a school that helped slaves learn to read into a major university. George Washington Carver completed most of his research at Tuskegee. There is a museum bearing his name and dedicated to his life's work. He is also buried on campus along with Booker T. Washington.
The singers Lionel Ritchie and Tom Joyner both attended Tuskegee. Tom Joyner was part of the original Commodores but left the group to finish his studies. Lionel Ritchie left school to pursue his musical career.
The graduation rate at Tuskegee is 60 percent and a contributing factor, we learned, is the high cost of tuition. The tuition is $20,000 per semester, including room and board. But 85 percent of the black veterinarians nationwide graduated from Tuskegee. To gain admission, a student needs to have a minimum GPA of 2.5 percent.
Zack told us that the student/teacher ratio is 30:1 for the first year but, after that, it goes down to 15:1 and 12:1. The majors are business, liberal arts, agriculture and science. Zack said if we go to Tuskegee, we should expect to have good access to the professors. He explained that one of the reasons he likes Tuskegee is the connections students have with their professors.
Before we ended our tour, we went to the chapel which is known as the Chapel of Light. This was not the original chapel at the university. The first one burned down in 1957 after it was struck by lightning. The new chapel was designed by Paul Rudolph and was completed in 1967. It has no 90 degree angles from the outside. Rudolph thought this design would make it more difficult to be struck by lighthing again. The chapel's stained glass wall, a copy of the old one that was destroyed in the fire, represents diversity.
Zack explained the chapel was where he had a change of mind. He told us about his past life and how he changed and became more focused. I really enjoyed today and can't wait until tomorrow.
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