Alumni Stories: Dwayne, Class of ‘81

What inspired you to choose Tuskegee University?

Well, it was a family thing. Scotty's uncle and his aunt went there. We were real close as first cousins because their mom and my mom were sisters. So we used to go to Alabama all the time, every summer growing up. When I started to get into high school and started thinking about colleges, Clifton quickly told me, "Man, you need to go to Tuskegee."

I went to Catholic school for 12 years. The first six was all Black. Everything else after that was all white. So after going Catholic school, they push, you know, private universities like Boston College, Notre Dame, and all of that. But I wanted to go somewhere where I saw myself. And that was what Clifton recommended. I applied and was accepted. I also applied at Southern Tech in Atlanta but I decided to go to Tuskegee.

The other part of it was that I wanted to pursue a trade or engineering because my father was a master electrician. So, I grew up being an electrician. So I had to trade, but he always pushed me to do better and better, and that's why I wanted to go into engineering. So that kind of steered me to the major, but going to Tuskegee was more about talking to Clifton and Joyce and wanting to go somewhere where that was an HBCU.

Aside from the career that you were able to have, what other ways did Tuskegee help you grow as a person?

The thing about going to an HBCU, or Tuskegee in particular, is you learn more about life than you do just getting an education. Having gone to white schools, you know, as I was growing up, it was all about just education. Wasn't no family. Wasn't none of that. And when you go to Tuskegee, it taught you a lot about how to make something out of nothing. So it was more of learning about life, growing up there, and being around a lot of people who look like you, that, in my opinion, was more valuable than education.

What was the biggest takeaway of all the things you learned there?

Excellence. You know, we had to work for everything there. People talk about, "Well, you know, don't go to an HBCU. They may not have the best equipment, the best this, the best that." But I think they challenge you more than the PWIs did. And I think that from that standpoint, when you leave there and go into industry, you're not only prepared technically or based on your field, but you are prepared to deal with the different people you will come across. You know, Tuskegee had students from 29 countries, so we got a flavor of everybody during those five years there. So I think the big takeaway is, you know, I was prepared for life, prepared for the industry, and it made the transition easier.