NEW ORLEANS — As Michael Seaberry begins his first year of medical school at the University of Rochester, he can’t help but to reflect with great fondness on the institution that helped him to develop the skills and passion to want to become a physician.
Seaberry’s introduction to the STEM field came in high school, when he was selected along with dozens of others to participate in a summer program offered on the campus of Xavier University, the private Black Catholic college headquartered in New Orleans.
Not only did that summer program help Seaberry decide on a future occupation, but it also made deciding on a college to attend post high school graduation much easier.
“As soon as I got to campus, I fell in love with the university,” says Seaberry, a native of Lake Charles, Louisiana. “In fact, Xavier was the only college I applied to.”
As historically Black colleges and universities across the country continue to struggle over how best to recruit and retain students, Xavier has used its summer campus programs to create a direct pipeline for middle and high school students, exposing them to the campus and rigorous study as early as the 7th and 8th grades.
Now, other institutions are looking to replicate the program, arguing that if HBCUs are too be competitive in luring students to their campuses, they have to court students and their parents much sooner.
At Xavier, the summer program model is the brainchild of Dr. Norman C. Francis, the school’s president, who has presided over the storied institution for almost five decades and has become an active cheerleader for these kinds of initiatives.
