To help Renton high school students get the chance to be part of the upcoming Renton School District Historically Black College and University (HBCU) Delegation and Tour, a fundraiser will be held as a “Pathway to Promise.”

The fundraiser will kick off at 6:30 p.m. March 4 with an inside look into the HBCU programming, personal stories of students who have been part of the district’s previous HBCU tours, food, drinks and a keynote address from former Seattle Seahawk and local philanthropist Doug Baldwin, the founder of Family First Community Center in the Renton Highlands.

“Doug is big on youth and helping the community,” said Curtis Riggins, a safety officer for the Renton School District and founder of local youth mentoring program FIGG Mentoring. Riggins came up with the idea for the Renton HBCU Delegation and Tour with Lindbergh High School academic advancement coordinator Shaquille Blair-Kimber. The inaugural tour was in 2023.

The first tour was fully funded by the Renton School District’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) and the second trip in 2024 was made possible through the CTE program, private donors and sponsors, which included Renton Education Association, Washington Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE), FIGG Mentoring, Marlene Anderson, Karen Keiser, Kathie Thornton, Claudia Peterson, Ellen Willis and Jana Robbins.

This year, the fundraiser will be necessary because it will cost $10,000 to $15,000 for students to attend this year’s tour. According to GEAR UP district coordinator Kirsten Thornton, the cost is about $3,100 per student.

Partnering with the Renton Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by Vault89, Delta and Eileen & Callie’s Place, the Pathways to Promise fundraiser will require a minimum $100 ticket for the event, which will be at the Weatherly Inn in Renton at 4550 Talbot Road South.

Once fully funded, select high school students throughout the district will get the chance to tour several HBCUs in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia. Of the 2024 tour, Alexis Lane of Hazen High School said that getting to tour the HBCU campuses gave her “something to look up to.”

“Especially here [in Renton], we have Black people, but not a lot of Black people, and just being around Black people who are meeting their goals and are doing the things that they want to do is really inspiring to see,” she told the Renton Reporter.

For more information on the HBCU Delegation and Tour and the upcoming fundraiser, visit chamber.gorenton.com/events/details/2025-hbcu-pathways-to-promise

Twenty-eight Renton high schoolers across five schools visit Fort Valley State University, one of several Historically Black College and Universities that the group toured in February. Photo courtesy of Kirsten Thornton.