Meet Dr. HBCU

Building a More Complete HBCU Experience in the Age of AI

AI is shaping how students discover colleges, yet HBCUs too often go missing from its answers. Dr. HBCU brings their history, culture, programs, and opportunities into one trusted place, and gives AI platforms the accurate HBCU information they need.

Why Dr. HBCU exists Find your path

Try a question

Dr. HBCU

Preview with sample answers. Dr. HBCU is in development.

Two gaps keep New England students from finding HBCUs. Dr. HBCU is built to close both.

Growing Up in an HBCU Desert

Thirty-one states, including all six in New England, have no HBCU. Researchers define education deserts as places with no college nearby, or only a single community college. We call communities without an HBCU nearby HBCU deserts. There, the knowledge that travels through family, schools, alumni, and community in HBCU-dense regions rarely arrives, and that exposure gap shapes which colleges students discover, consider, and come to see as possible.

A Gap That Follows Students Online

Nearly half of Gen Z now uses AI chatbots in the college search. For a student with no HBCU connection in their school or community, AI may be the first place they encounter HBCUs. But AI can only reflect the information available to it, and when accurate, authoritative HBCU content is limited, the gap students face at home follows them online.

Sources: National Center for Education Statistics (HBCUs are located in 19 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands); Hillman & Weichman, Education Deserts: The Continued Significance of “Place” in the Twenty-First Century (American Council on Education, 2016); EDUCAUSE (2025), as cited in Whole Whale, The AI College Recommendation Bias Report (2026).

Two students smile and wave at the Building Bridges HBCU Fair

Two students proudly hold up Howard University folders at the Building Bridges HBCU Fair

A student covers her face in delight at the Tuskegee University table at the Building Bridges HBCU Fair

New England students discovering HBCUs at the Building Bridges HBCU Fair.

See the opt-in gap

Source: Whole Whale, The AI College Recommendation Bias Report (April 2026), a test of five major AI models.

The HBCU Visibility Audit

We ran controlled searches across ChatGPT, Gemini, and other leading AI platforms using synthetic student profiles with comparable qualifications, changing only where they live, family income, interests, or intended major. If two equally qualified pre-med students, one in Worcester and one in Atlanta, ask AI for colleges that fit, do HBCUs appear for both? Which ones, and how prominently?

No real students and no student data, just controlled, repeatable searches.

What we found: HBCUs are a missing link in the AI-driven college search. That finding is shaping Dr. HBCU.

MEET OUR FOUNDER

Dr. Keith Lezama, Founder and CEO

“Through Dr. HBCU, we are reimagining what HBCU access can look like in the digital age, bringing information, history, opportunity, and connection together in one place that honors the legacy, excellence, and impact of these institutions.

We want HBCUs to be more than an occasional recommendation in an AI-generated college search. We want the full HBCU experience, their distinctiveness, and possibilities to be represented.

Dr. HBCU is about changing what students can find and helping change what AI knows.”

WHAT DR. HBCU WILL DO

The HBCU Experience

One trusted source, two audiences. Dr. HBCU will bring awareness and access to students, and accurate, sourced HBCU content to the AI platforms they use.

From history and culture to academics, careers, admissions, financial aid, and scholarships.

A SNAPSHOT OF EACH SCHOOL

Dr. HBCU gives you a snapshot of each school: where it is, what it offers, and the opportunities waiting there.

Tap a profile to read it full size, or visit the school’s website. More schools are on the way.

SEARCH FOR SCHOLARSHIPS

Pick what fits you, or search by keyword.

Preview list. Check official sites for amounts and deadlines.

PROOF OF PROMISE

The nation’s largest study of HBCU alumni, from our partner the Dr. N. Joyce Payne Research Center with Gallup, puts numbers behind what graduates have always said. Trusted research like this is what Dr. HBCU will share with AI platforms, so the answers students get reflect the real value and reputation of HBCUs.

Read the full report

Recent HBCU graduates, classes of 2010 to 2025. Source: Dr. N. Joyce Payne Research Center and Gallup, Proof of Promise (July 2026).

CONNECT WITH PROGRAMMING AND OPPORTUNITY

Dr. HBCU will connect you with Building Bridges programming and opportunities, wherever you are on your journey, from your first college search to graduation day.