For nearly 25 years, the MLK Scholar program at Ithaca College has tasked its students with more than
just achieving academic prowess. By participating in service projects and addressing social issues, the
scholars gain a deeper understanding of the inequities that shape the world around them. One of the key
factors in leading scholars to this greater understanding is broadening their viewpoints, which is where the
cohort tours come into play.
Over breaks in the school year, the program sends its cohorts to different locations across the country to
immerse them in the history of the areas, with keynote speakers and a themed tour providing a vehicle for
enlightenment. For first-year scholar Addison Carter, the Civil Rights Tour through the Deep South was
an emotional rollercoaster that left her with a new goal in mind.
“There was a lot of tears,” Carter said.
“A lot of having to debrief about my emotions and the different aspects of the trip, especially hearing from a lot of elders who have actually gone through and lived through the Civil Rights Movement. Hearing that they're still going through racial injustice really hit me hard, so this trip did a lot for me in terms of wanting to move forward in the process to respect the elders, in a way.”
Carter has relatives who live in Alabama, so she was already familiar with many of the museums and
historical areas the freshman cohort visited as part of their tour, but the tour’s context changed her view
on these places significantly. She made direct mention to Montgomery’s Legacy Museum and National
Memorial for Peace and Justice, whcih stand as some of the most honest and unfiltered exhibitions in the
country. Their respective depictions of slavery and lynching paint a sobering reminder of the ills of the
past and their longstanding effects on the present.
Still, when asked about the main highlight of the trip, Carter’s response fell in line with the consensus
most cohorts come to: the visit to Selma, Alabama’s historical district and subsequent conversation with
civil rights activist Joanne Bland.
“We all sat on the couches or on the floors, and everything was just kind of surrounding her,
” Carter said.
“I was sitting next to her, and she just told us all about her experiences, and she reminded me a lot of my
grandma… I think hearing from specifically her, who was a woman of color and was active during the
movement really [inspired me].
”
While Carter’s college experience is just beginning, more tenured scholars like senior psychology major
Zoe Gainer are getting ready to cross the stage, diploma in hand. During their final winter break before
graduation, upperclassmen close out their MLK Scholar experiences with a week-long trip of their own to
Washington DC. Gainer had also been to some of the museums in Washington DC before going on her
senior tour, but she said the four years she had spent as an MLK Scholar had changed the way she looked
at many of them.“When I first went to the [National Museum of African American History & Culture] I was a teenager,
”
Gainer said.
“So I was just kind of looking around and taking in all the visual stuff and treating it like a
sort of display or gallery, not really absorbing any of the information. But when I went on this trip, I really
told myself that I was going to try and read every single info card next to one of the displays or artifacts,
because I wanted to understand the history that's not behind each item. I've come to learn that the context
is so important when you're looking at history. The smallest detail can change the way that you
understand something.
”
As opposed the Civil Right Tour’s focus on a very specific period of time, the Human Rights Tour focuses
much more on the history of human rights in this country as they pertain to marginalized individuals. ONe
of the most important aspects of this is noting that the fight for equal rights did not stop at gaining them,
but continues to this day in the effort to maintain them, something Gainer found especially motivating to
have visualized.
“They had exhibits on current activism as well, like Black Lives Matter, and protests throughout the
diaspora that are more recent and modern,
” Gainer said.
“Seeing that in a museum, having that
affirmation that you know the things we do in real time do change history and do matter in the long
term… that is affirming to see.
”
In years past, week-long international excursions were commonplace for scholars as a way to expand their
worldviews in preparation for annual research projects. However, as these opportunities have been phased
out of the program, current students have expressed their desire for more touring opportunities going
forward.
“I think the trips can be a hassle, and it's a lot to set up, and it's a lot for students to work their schedule
and breaks around,
” Gainer said.
“But I think knowing that MLK scholars use very overseas to all these
places, and knowing that the current cohorts or the past few generations haven't had the opportunity to get
a more global perspective on the things that we learned about here, makes me sad.
”
It seemed nobody in the program was more determined to reintroduce a third cohort trip than the program
director himself, Cliff-Simon Vital. While Vital said that international trips are not yet on the table, he
presented a new idea: a trip to Philadelphia with a focus on civic rights.
“My goals and objectives for a trip like that [are] to examine the ideals of liberty and equality as
articulated in the Philadelphia conventions that led to the founding of our country,
” Vital said.
“How that
might have influenced the civil rights movement, and how that continues to shape our society today.
”
As of December 4th, 2025, Vital says the program has secured the funding needed to make the
Philadelphia trip a reality as early as Spring 2027.
“It's not going to be the same program for next year either. This is a robust, changing program, right? [It]
keeps me up at night when I think about it because I feel like it's never done developing.
”