Jay-Z’s foundation teams up with Toyota to take high school seniors on HBCU tour

Jay-Z’s Shawn Carter Foundation has teamed up with Toyota to provide a free bus tour to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) for high school seniors.

The annual Shawn Carter Foundation Bus Tour, which was established in 2007 will take students from more than 125 schools from the New York and New Jersey area on a week-long tour of HBCUs from Atlanta to Washington, D.C., reports Black Enterprise.

According to the Foundation, the annual tours “exposes aspiring college students to the world of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in order to promote increased college attendance at these institutions of higher learning.”

All high school seniors who in the past made cuts for the tour have gained provisional admissions to at least one of the stops.

The tour would afford students the opportunity to meet and interact with college admissions counselors as well as current and former student beneficiaries of the foundation. A preview event is set to be held at Howard University on Thursday with Jay-Z’s mother, Gloria Carter, who is the president of the foundation set to make an appearance.

Additionally, building up to the tour, the foundation will organize college preparation workshops for students in the select schools where they will take part in weekend sessions aimed at sharpening their skills in ACT/SAT prep, college essay and academic resume building, interview skills, and how to dress for success, Black Enterprise further reports.

Founded in 2003 as a public charity by Jay-Z and his mother, the Shawn Carter Foundation, whose mission is to “help individuals facing socio-economic hardships further their education at post secondary institutions” has raised over $4 million to support youth empowerment initiatives as well as support communities in need through its various programs.

Besides this foundation, the Grammy-award winning rapper and his wife, Beyonce, are known for other notable charitable endeavours. During their famous On The Run II tour last year, the couple gave out scholarship funds worth over $1 million with a $100,000 scholarship being given to an exceptional high school senior in each of the U.S. cities the tour stopped.