How HBCUs Are Prepping Black Students for Blockchain Careers

Oct 12, 2020 at 19:45 UTCUpdated Oct 12, 2020 at 19:46 UTC.Dozens of historically Black colleges and universities are exploring the next phase of decentralized technologies in a bid to put Black students at the forefront of new blockchain protocols.

With many programs being only a couple years old, few schools have dedicated blockchain courses, even as students from blockchain groups have started to teach themselves.

Blockchain will likely remain just a part of courses at Howard University and not become a full-blown major "Until there is a killer research rationale for doing so," said Todd Shurn, a professor of computer science at Howard University.

"We'd like every university to have a blockchain major," Schnidman said.

Last year at the HBCU Blockchain Curriculum Development Institute, Morgan State brought 45 faculty from roughly 30 universities who had to submit course proposals to teach new courses or modify a course to include blockchain education.

While Morgan State already offers a class, the university would have to make many decisions about which blockchains to include before creating a blockchain major, said Ali Emdad, associate dean of the Graves Business School at Morgan State.

One of the current barriers to creating blockchain programs at HBCUs is a lack of funding.

"It's tough particularly in COVID times because budgets are even tighter than they were. Do you add a blockchain course or a cybersecurity course?".

"We're more interested in blockchain and blockchain applications then we are in crypto," Shurn said.

Howard was in the middle of applying for grants from fintech companies and fintech accelerators before the pandemic hit, Shurn said, and the university was going to put on a blockchain event that would have involved stakeholders who could have helped fund the blockchain program at the school.