This story originally appeared in GW Today.
As an alumnus of George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs and a historically Black college and university (HBCU), Tevon Blair understands the transformative power these institutions have in cultivating strong, passionate leaders uniquely equipped to create meaningful change in the world.
“When you look at HBCUs, you think about our Black leaders,” Blair said. “You think about a Dr. King, Kamala Harris, Reverend Warnock or a Stacey Abrams. All of these people are HBCU alums. Something happened on those campuses that launched their leadership.”
Historically, HBCU students have consistently been at the forefront of social change, Blair said. And he believes there are still many more HBCU students ready to emerge as the next generation of great leaders if given the right opportunities. And that’s where his GW graduate school education comes in.
As the co-founder of Xceleader, Blair, M.A.’21, has dedicated countless hours to empowering HBCU students, helping them grow into leadership roles and recognize their collective power as voters.
Xceleader’s “Vote HBCU” program is a nonpartisan, national civic engagement program with a mission to educate, mobilize and activate students on campus and in their communities. The idea of furthering that mission with a tour of HBCU campuses that merges civics and culture was inspired by a graduate school project at GW.
Blair channeled his passion for voter outreach into his project, combining his real-world experiences with classroom instruction to develop a plan that has resulted in hundreds of students registering to vote ahead of the 2024 presidential elections.
Blair graduated from Dillard University in New Orleans in 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in communication. Soon after graduation, Blair, along with two other HBCU alumni, Jade Agudosi and Aarian Forman, founded Xceleader.
The three graduates were searching for a way to give back to their universities and decided they could do so by mentoring HBCU students.
They hopped on a Zoom call with students pursuing leadership roles on campuses and discussed everything from how to run a successful campaign to doing the work of a leader. Around the same time, Blair had moved to Atlanta to work on Stacey Abrams’s gubernatorial campaign in Georgia.
He took what he learned from working on a professional campaign to guide the students he mentored through Xceleader.
“We were training them on the work needed to be a leader,” Blair said. “We wanted them to understand how policy works on their campus, how to do outreach and build a team of supporters.”
Xceleader held its first national event a year later, connecting 50 HBCU students through Zoom, offering them guidance on running campaigns and mobilizing their campuses.
“That’s when we realized, we might have started something,” Blair said.
The experience of working on a political campaign and mentoring students helped Blair realize his passion for politics and connecting with young voters about the importance of civic engagement.
“I decided I wanted to pursue political communications, and I started looking for a program. A lot of the people working on the campaign were GW alumni. Everyone I was meeting at events went to GW, so I thought I needed to go to GW,” Blair said.
He enrolled in 2019 to pursue a master’s degree in media and strategic communications.
When it came time to select a topic for his capstone project, Blair drew on his experiences working for Abrams’ campaign that highlighted to him the importance of effectively mobilizing and engaging Black voters.
While Blair was in graduate school, Xceleader started a Vote HBCU initiative. Because the program was still in its infancy, Blair wanted to use his capstone project to research ways to expand and maximize Vote HBCU’s impact.
He did his capstone project with Peter Loge, the director of the SMPA, and Ethan Porter, an associate professor of media and public affairs. “I did extensive research on what it looks like for young Black voters to be mobilized and how this impact can be had,” Blair said.
His work on the capstone set the stage for a tour of HBCUs to engage students directly about civic responsibility.
“It’s important for Black voters to have someone who looks like them engaging them face to face about their power and rights as voters,” Blair said.
It was important for this program to be non-partisan, Blair said, because to truly empower voters, the message couldn’t be telling students who to vote for but instead equipping them with the knowledge to decide for themselves.
Xceleader held their first tour, “Vote HBCU Say It Louder,” in 2021, with stops at North Carolina A & T and Bowie State universities. Since then, Xceleader has continued to tour HBCU campuses, merging civic engagement with the vibrant culture of HBCU life.
“We bring the energy of an HBCU campus—music, Greek life, student organizations—and merge it with the importance of voting,” Blair said.
In August, Xceleader’s tour reached 10 schools across the South, registering over 700 students to vote.
Through his work with Xceleader, Blair has witnessed the students they’ve mentored grow into leadership roles in their careers while remaining connected to support others, fostering a cycle of mentorship and community.
“When HBCU students are given the opportunity to lead, they can do so much,” Blair said. “It’s why I believe our work is so important.”
To learn more about Xceleader and support their work, visit xceleader.com.