McNeil, a fourth-year doctoral candidate studying
educational leadership, was selected from more than 300 students from 24
states. FAMU has consistently been represented on the list of ambassadors who
are tasked with providing outreach opportunities and communicating with other
students about the value of both education and the Initiative as a networking
source.
“Various issues that I would like to address as an HBCU
All-star are issues that affect HBCUs nationwide such as enrollment and funding
student debt,” McNeil said. “At FAMU specifically, I have some additional
initiatives I’d like to work on this year that involve increasing the amount of
educators we’re drawing into the field in terms of student enrollment in
College of Education programs.”
According to McNeil, it is his passion for education and
policy making that led him to apply to be an HBCU All-Star. While attending the
National Summit on Teacher Diversity, McNeil said he was able to network with
representatives from the White House Initiative on HBCUs and this sparked his
interest in the program.
“Being the national vice president of AACTE led to an
invitation to the Summit held by the United States Department of Education,”
McNeil said.
For McNeil, opportunities such as these are a large part of
the reason he is passionate about participating in the HBCU All-Star program.
He explained that attending more national and regional conferences through the
program will allow him to represent the School of Graduate Studies and
Research, the College of Education, and FAMU on a large scale. While doing so,
McNeil said he plans to use this platform to network with HBCUs across the
country that may be interested in partnering with FAMU in the future.
“As the Graduate Feeder Program coordinator, I think this is
a great opportunity to develop more relationships with other HBCUs. Right now,
out of the 40 partner schools in the program there are only a few HBCUs. One of
my major goals this year as an All-Star will be to change that,” McNeil said.