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College was where I got to actually experience the difference between black and white.

I have a father who was the first black student at his junior high and high school and had to do a lot to get to that point.

It was a given at UCSB that if there was a role that called for a person of color, it was going to be handed to me. There were certain times when maybe I didn't try as hard. Going to Yale was a way more diverse experience.

They were often the first students in their family to go to college and the very idea of higher education was still foreign to them. They had to make a conscious and often difficult decision to come to college.

Typically, historical black colleges and universities like Delaware State, attracted students who were raised in an environment where going to college wasn't the next natural step after high school.

Enrollment in colleges, especially black colleges, across the country increased tremendously during the five-year run of 'A Different World,' and I don't think you could have a better legacy than that.

Education is an incredibly personal issue for me. If you're the first generation to go to college, sometimes you don't realize your potential until others point it out.

Imagine filling a college with the first 1,000 students to get perfect SATs. Whatever the racial composition of that class would be, the notion seems absurd because we know that college in America is supposed to be about creating citizens and leaders in a diverse nation.

When I got into Stanford in high school, I had some friends from school who told me that I just got in because I was black and whatnot.

As technology breaks down the physical barriers of college campuses, the extraordinary intellectual capital of the educator community is becoming available to anyone committed to learning - regardless of age, income or location.