Building Bridges with HBCUs, HSIs, and TCUs at NAGC’s The Dream Unencumbered Preconvention Forum

By Dr. Shelagh A. Gallagher, President of NAGC

Five years ago, the nation suffered yet another wound in the heart of its efforts to create a more perfect union with the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor. At that time, NAGC’s Board of Directors published Championing Equity as a statement of solidarity, reaffirming our decades-long commitment to advocate for all gifted students, regardless of what they look like or where they live. Since then, we have sought ways to put our words into action, including the upcoming Opportunity and Access Symposium on May 29th.

The NAGC Board also seeks to extend our advocacy network, inviting people outside of gifted education to speak and work on behalf of traditionally disenfranchised gifted students. This effort began with the invitational colloquium The Dream Unencumbered, where educators and advocates from outside of gifted education joined NAGC Board members for a day of learning from each other. That event created new relationships with several organizations outside of NAGC.

But it is impossible to have too many friends on the journey to equity, so NAGC will engage in relationship building again this fall at the NAGC convention, where we will host a forum titled The Dream Unencumbered: Extending Advanced Pathways, designed for the directors of honors colleges of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), and Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs). An ad hoc committee comprising members from the Diversity and Equity Committee, the Special Populations Network, and the Board of Directors will plan the forum program. We aim to engage this special group in discussion about the opportunities and barriers along the pathway of advanced learning, to problem solve and strategize, and then have our special invitees join us for the regular convention.

NAGC will offer each invited honors college director free registration to the forum and the convention. We hope to gather a critical mass of potential partners to discuss our shared vision of sustaining the intellectual engagement of Black and Brown youth throughout their educational journey. Like the Dream Unencumbered colloquium, the forum will be small and intimate to encourage an open exchange of ideas. You can help in Pittsburgh next November by keeping an eye out for our guests and ensuring they have a warm welcome.

There’s also another way you can help. The NAGC board approved $7,000 from the James J. Gallagher Fund as seed money for the event. That sum will cover program expenses and registration for around eight honors college directors, but we would love to invite more, and you can make that happen.

Please consider contributing to the forum by donating using this link. We will extend an invitation to another honors college director each time we reach $600 in new donations, whether from an accumulation of small contributions or a single gift. Your donations allow us to extend our welcome further. There is no better place than Pittsburgh, PA, the home of Fred Rogers, to ask these colleagues, “Please, won’t you be our neighbor?”