Kamirria Wallace, a Howard University graduate turned entrepreneur, is championing higher education within the Black community with Black & Scholared, her fashion-forward collegiate apparel brand.
The number of Black students enrolling in higher education has been historically lower than their counterparts. Recent research has shown that enrollment rates have increased from 17.9% in 2010 to 22.6% in 2023; however, according to The Census American Community Survey, the number still falls short of the national average recorded at 32.9%.
Kamirria is on a mission to flip those statistics through her purpose-driven fashion brand. In 2020, she started Black & Scholared to build an HBCU legacy for her daughters. The company has magnified its mission three years later, offering collections of officially licensed HBCU collegiate apparel designed to celebrate and encourage higher education within the Black community. Items in the collections range from sweatshirts, t-shirts, and hoodies to totes, hats, and alums lapel pins.
But Black & Scholared is not just for current and past students. Kamirria has stayed true to the motivation for starting the business by nurturing aspirations for higher education in toddlers and youth with the company’s youth collection.
For Kamirria, Black & Scholared is more than just a business. She is committed to helping Black students finance their dream of higher education. Consequently, Black & Scholared offers a scholarship fund to help students with tuition and living costs. She said: “education is the key to decreasing the wealth gap in the Black community. As an HBCU graduate, I can attest that a sense of belonging is important to student success. That’s why we also support our HBCU partners with a portion of our profits.”
When Kamirria started Black & Scholared, she only had one HBCU license. However, the business has expanded to include licenses for 7 HBCUs, including Howard University, Morgan State University, Norfolk State University, North Carolina A&T State University, Hampton University, Virginia State University, and Texas Southern University. With over 100 HBCUs nationwide, Wallace plans to expand the company’s license to include more institutions.
She said: “We want to support institutions that provide education and the environment for Black students to thrive. We are building a brand, but we are also building a legacy.”
Since the company’s inception, Black & Scholared has reached over 500K scholars and contributed over $30,000 to the HBCU community. The brand is currently sold online and in major retail stores, including Foot Locker and Barnes & Noble College HBCU campus bookstores.