HBCUs Reach Out
To Latino Students Schools cite similar needs and goals
By Ronald Roach
It had not occurred to Lorena Sajardo to consider Texas Southern University as a possible college until her high school soccer coach suggested during her senior year that she try out for the newly forming women’s soccer team at the Houston-based historically Black university. Despite having grown up in Houston, Sajardo admits to knowing almost nothing about TSU at the time. But she decided to give it a try after the
university offered her a soccer scholarship.
“At first, it was hard because there wasn’t much cultural outreach and support, but it’s gotten a lot better … I don’t have any complaints,” says Sajardo, a junior accounting major who is now on an academic scholarship.
Freshman Arlene Delgado arrived on the campus of Huston-Tillotson University with some idea of what to expect. Her older brother and a sister-in-law were both graduates of the private historically Black school in Austin, Texas. Delgado, the youngest of seven children in a Mexican American family from Brownsville, Texas, says she’s finding the comfort and acceptance she had hoped for.
