Annual HBCU tour hosted by Montco nonprofit goes ‘haywire,’ parents say

Mykia Capers, who sent her daughter with about 50 other teens on a tour of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, spent Thursday morning trying to make sense of just when the trip started to go “haywire.”

“We have no clue whatsoever where our children is at,” Capers said from her Schwenksville home, where she’d been talking with other parents with children on the trip.

Her 16-year-old daughter was supposed to be touring 14 HBCUs with Montgomery County OIC, part of the national nonprofit network Opportunities Industrialization Centers, which offers educational opportunities and workforce training. Instead, Capers and other parents said the tours fell short of expectations, with last-minute itinerary changes and limited communication with chaperones that left parents unclear on the exact whereabouts of their children at points throughout the trip.

Capers’ daughter told her Thursday that the group was leaving Atlanta and heading to North Carolina. Still, Capers was unclear on the timeline and why the group had detoured from an itinerary that placed them in Baltimore and Washington that day.

According to parents, Thursday was the latest example of poor communication. What had been advertised as structured introductions to schools turned into self-guided walks and rides through some campuses, said parents. Most alarming to families, however, was a last-minute change to lodging the first night with no official explanation offered until the next day. The last straw for parents was when OIC leaders disabled parent and student comments in a WhatsApp group thread after parents began raising concerns about the trip.

“We were concerned parents asking questions and instead of answering they shut down the chat,” said Heather McCall, who sent her 17-year-old daughter on the trip.

Montco OIC declined to comment.

Capers said the $500 spring break trip was billed as an opportunity for the teens to see what it’s like to live on a college campus and get some of their application questions answered. Students were supposed to tour storied schools, including Howard University in Washington and Spelman College in Atlanta.

“Many students conclude our tour with scholarships and acceptance to the schools we attend,” reads the Montco OIC website on the tour.

Monique Lewis, who sent her 17-year-old daughter on the trip, said parents resorted to creating their own group chat Wednesday where they would keep each other updated on the day’s activities with what they pieced together from their children’s messages. Parents said Montco OIC administrators did post photos of the teens on campuses in the group chat, usually at the end of the day.

“Nothing was really organized, it was a bunch of confusion,” Lewis said, unclear on what schools her daughter ended up going to and which ones she got a guided tour of.

Some students told their parents schools said they needed to have requested a tour in advance. The Montco OIC website does warn that schools are subject to change based on availability.

Throughout the week the teens told their parents they were safe and enjoying the other activities on the schedule, such as laser tag, though some expressed disappointment in the school tours and frustration at how some chaperones were interacting with them.

“The kids had fun, that’s not the problem,” said McCall. “It was the lack of communication and organization.”

For McCall, news that her child was safe and found a way to enjoy herself was a relief, though the whole experience left a bad taste in her mouth. She paid the $500 because she thought the trip would be a good experience for her daughter. Instead, it felt like a waste of money and needless worry.

Parents said they signed their children up because they’d heard the annual tour has been taking place for more than a decade, with a stellar reputation. Parents said that a Montco OIC staff member was responsive to questions and even helped some students get scholarships to help pay for the trip, but that staffer left before the trip took place and communication hasn’t been the same since.

The teens returned to Norristown Friday afternoon to parents eager to have them home. Capers, who was hoping for some clarity or apology from the main organizers upon their return, didn’t get either. She took comfort in the road trip’s end.

“I just want my baby and be done,” said Capers.