Charles-Anthony Woodfork

Food and nutritional science major and Dowdy Scholar Charles-Anthony Woodfork is one of two N.C. A&T students selected as this year’s White House Initiative HBCU Scholars.

Woodfork, a senior in the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, was chosen from among 110 students in 77 HBCUs across the country by the 2024 White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

“Opportunities like this are so imperative for HBCUs, especially land-grant universities,” said Woodfork. “Events like these aren’t usually marketed towards us. But HBCUs are the top producer of all Black professionals. To not have us in the room is not only a disservice to the students like me, who work so hard and prepare ourselves, but also the nation, as some of our best and brightest are products of HBCUs. So this initiative is highly important and special.”

A California native, Woodfork was drawn to N.C. A&T based on the university’s academic record.

“I knew that attending would not only provide me with a world-class education but would allow me to be surrounded by people who look, think, and have a similar drive as myself,” he said. “I didn’t think I could find that kind of enriching environment anywhere else but A&T."

Drawing on his interest in medicine, Woodfork chose food and nutritional science as his major as a way to prepare himself to help improve African American public health.

“I feel like many of the chronic conditions facing the country, particularly in the Black community, are caused by diet,” said Woodfork. “I felt that nutritional science – how the body works, what is good or bad for the body, how nutritional science combats these diseases – gets to the root of that problem and was the major I needed.”

Now beginning his senior year, Woodfork is a 2021 Dowdy Scholar, 2023 Benjamin A. Gilman Scholar, an Association for the Study of African American Life and History Carter G. Woodson Fellow, and president and founder of A&T’s Family and Consumer Sciences Leadership Council, Woodfork learned in mid-June that he’d been named a White House HBCU Initiative Scholar, alongside fellow N.C. A&T student, Dowdy Scholar and pre-law major Khelsei Dorsett-Wilson.

“I was so surprised, but it was good to see that my hard work paid off,” said Woodfork.

He and Dorsett-Wilson will be invited to monthly master classes hosted by the initiative and its various partners representing a wide range of disciplines. They will have the opportunity to network with fellow scholars, federal agencies and private partners to showcase individual and collective talent across the HBCU community, as well as attend the 2024 Annual National HBCU Week Conference, scheduled for Sept. 15-19 in Philadelphia.

“As high-achieving North Carolina A&T students, Khelsei and Charles-Anthony are advancing the human condition through their leadership,” said Tonya Smith-Jackson, provost and executive vice chancellor of Academic Affairs. “We know they will make the most of this opportunity to gain greater knowledge and expand their positive impact, and we are confident of their continued success.”

Since 2014, the White House Initiative program has recognized and supported more than 500 students from a diverse array of disciplines, including science, technology, engineering, math, humanities, social sciences, and the arts, providing them with opportunities for personal and professional growth, mentorship, and networking.