(chanting) NIC ASKEW: We have to continue to commit to dispel the myth that Black people don't swim.

(cheer) DWAUN WARMACK: We want to be the thought leader in the country to be able to provide the African American data set in rural America.

KARINA LILES: Claflin allows that space to be innovative.

TINA MCDUFFIE From Maryland Public Television, Howard University Television, and South Carolina ETV, two films that celebrate innovation at HBCUs on Local, U.S.A. ♪ ♪ HBCU Week showcases the many untold stories of creativity and achievement on the campuses of Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

For more than a century, HBCUs have provided quality education for students of color who were barred from whites-only colleges.

Today, HBCUs attract students who want to learn in top-level programs led by innovators and changemakers.

In this episode, we'll celebrate two of those programs.

We travel first to Howard University in Washington, D.C., where director of swimming and diving Nic Askew is creating an elite swim program.

Historically, Black children were excluded from many public pools, making it difficult for them to learn how to swim.

Now, as a mentor and leader, Askew inspires excellence in water sports, where Black athletes are still underrepresented.

♪ ♪ ASKEW: Early civilizations, including African civilizations, were around waterways.

In those civilizations, being in the water, whether it was fishing or pearl diving, that's how they supported their families.

♪ ♪ So now you fast-forward into slavery, the transatlantic slave trade.

Our people were taken from those civilizations against their will, and they were put on ships, and they were brought to foreign countries.

And then they were forced, as property, to work as, work as enslaved people.

And what happened was, now these civilizations are, in the new country, are still around waterways.

So for a good amount of people, they were seen as a means of escape.

And what happens when the slave owners would then see their property attempting to escape?

They were punished severely.

So the psychological new course in everyone's mind was, don't go around the water.

Imagine a mother of the children in this new space knowing that she knows how to swim.

But unfortunately, they witness someone being severely punished, most of the time by death, going near the waterway.

What would you tell your child?

"Don't go near the water."

"Do not do that," as a form of survival.

So that broke the cycle for our people.

♪ ♪ Then you fast-forward into segregation, where the access was denied, where you had municipal pools in major cities.

Now, they were only, they were whites-only.

Then you institute Jim Crow laws.

And then even desegregation, from an HBCU perspective, started to really hurt.

How many Black people were able to swim at the collegiate level?

Because there was a limited amount that are already choosing HBCUs as a pathway to education, and use, and being able to swim and compete at that institution.

But now you're able to take that very small pool of people, and now they have access to anywhere.

That's why we started to see so many HBCUs cutting their programs.

NARRATOR: Nic Askew, the current head coach of the Howard University swim and dive team, has sparked renewed interest in swimming within the college world in the Black community.

♪ ♪ The Howard University swim and dive program is the last remaining HBCU D-I program of its kind.

I'm Christina Vortia.

I am the chief librarian of the Library Division of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center.

I work to preserve and conserve the history of the global Black diaspora here at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center.

So, I was able to find information about the swim team in the Howard University archives.

They really hold the institutional memory.

And it really is The Hilltop, the yearbook, and The Academy Herald that really tell the story of the swim team over time.

The program really developed in 1927, when coach Clarence Pendleton joined the Howard University faculty, and he was a swimmer, a gymnast.

He did a lot of different things, but he led the first intramural meets that were happening on campus.

It was so popular and well received that, in 1928, they made it a varsity-letter swim team, and official.

And the rest is history.

NARRATOR: The Howard program has proven to be an essential platform for the world's top Black swimmers.

Since its founding, the program has achieved championships and swimmers have participated in the Olympics.

However, success doesn't always come easily.

ASKEW: Before I even took the position, I was the biggest advocate for, "Cut the program."

I was very upset with the administration and the department, because I didn't think that they were supporting the team enough, and I, I was tired of swimmers coming in and divers coming in, thinking they were gonna have a chance to get better and develop and have, you know, this four years of great swimming opportunity.

And I was, like, "Cut it."

And then I guess I spoke so loud that they took notice, and they were, like, "Okay, well, you fix it, big mouth."

(chanting) MAN: Yeah!

(all clapping) (all exclaim) (starting tone beeps, spectators cheering) ♪ ♪ (spectators cheering and whistling) SALIM KING: After 15 years of winlessness, 34 years of not having won a championship, we finally were able to break through and win our first conference championship, which was a huge, huge, huge accomplishment.

You know, it goes all the way back to 1989, was the time prior to that happening.

So you can just imagine how long that was.

ASKEW: You know, the team's going crazy, because they, you know, the name was called last.

That's, that's the goal, and, being the conference champions, and, you know, then getting the trophy.

Uh, celebrating in our special way.

You know, uh, the, they didn't have a DJ at the conference championship, but the announcer is very familiar with us.

He knew exactly what to play.

He turned on what has become kind of our, our signature song after meets.

And, um, you know, everybody got together, and it was the most amazing swag surf... (laughs): ...ever.

- (chanting): Swag Surfin'!

Swag Surfin'!

Swag Surfin'!

Swag Surfin'!

(chant continues) NARRATOR: The H.U.

swim team aims to achieve success both in and outside of the pool.

But more importantly, it strives to develop future swimmers.

♪ ♪ ASKEW: There are a lot of things that are super-important to this program as a whole.

We're not just in it to touch the wall first or to break records.

We're in it for the, for the betterment of our community.

KING: When we see these kids today, it's such a privilege, because they're getting exposure.

The one thing that we didn't get in our time was exposure.

There were so few Black swim teams.

There were so few programs where the interest was about how to successfully achieve a swim at the collegiate level.

You know, Howard University is the only Historically Black College and University with a swimming-diving program.

I don't think there's enough representation.

And the only representation there mostly is is that Black people can't swim, which is definitely not true, because we have this camp.

We have this team at Howard.

So obviously, it's not true.

It's just, I think people are focusing on the wrong things.

ASKEW: There's no one-size-fits-all.

Everyone can do something.

I think some of the, the low-hanging fruit is, number one, everybody in the community has to learn how to swim.

Swimming is a life skill.

You don't want to put yourself in a space where you're fearful around the water, or you're not able to save yourself in the water if something happens.

A lot of that starts with the parents.

Statistics show that if a parent knows how to swim, then their children are more likely to know how to swim.

And the exact opposite-- if your parents don't know how to swim, then your children are less likely to know how to swim, and therefore more prone to drowning.

And that's something we can prevent.

We have to continue to support measures that are gonna get our Black and brown community into the water.

We have to continue to commit to break the cycle.

We have to continue to commit to dispel the myth that Black people don't swim.

♪ ♪ In our next film, we'll look at technological innovation at Claflin University in South Carolina.

Here, students are creating a smart home, a house complete with a combination of software and technology designed to improve health outcomes in the Black community.

WOMAN: ♪ When the sun of Carolina ♪ ♪ Mounts the eastern sky ♪ ♪ Proudly stands our alma mater ♪ ♪ On the hilltop high ♪ ♪ Orange, maroon floats for aye ♪ ♪ Claflin fair, o'er thee ♪ ♪ May we all be leal and loyal ♪ ♪ To thy memory ♪ WARMACK: My name is Dwaun Warmack, and I have the distinct pleasure of serving as the ninth president at this historic institution.

We're the number-one-ranked Historically Black College and University in the state of South Carolina and top ten in the country.

And so what makes us special is the people.

It is the people that buy into the culture, it is the people that buy into the mission, and it's the people that buy into the vision.

Social justice is our focal point as an institution.

Mass incarceration is a social justice issue.

Healthcare disparities is a social justice issue.

So the university has put it, resources to ensure that we do everything in our power to combat some of those healthcare disparities.

Our intentional focus, 100% of it, it is ensuring that our community is safe and well.

And when I say "well," holistically.

We began to look at some data impacting African Americans in Orangeburg County.

And we began to think about our own family trajectory.

And I talked about my mother dying from hypertension, my grandmother dying from hypertension-- my grandfather passed from hypertension-- and how it's generational in our communities, but not talking about the preventative work that comes behind it.

And so I approached our computer science faculty member Dr. Liles and said, "Hey, I want to do something "very creative and innovative, "something that can really combat healthcare disparities but is also, too, infusing technology in that work."

I am Karina Liles, and I chair the Department of Math and Computer Science, and I'm also an associate professor of computer science at Claflin University.

Computer science is a way for us to build solutions to everyday problems.

We have a very forward-thinking president.

And so it was very easy to get him on board with the smart home.

We met and talked about things that we could do as a university to make an impact in our community, because we understand that we have a purpose here.

I presented him the ideal about the smart home, and he loved it.

We purchased a home in the community, and within that home, we began to invest all of the technology that, that is there.

LILES: It's very important for the smart home to be a home and not a house, because we want this health consciousness to just be a part of everyone's life.

We're really trying to shift lifestyles here.

Imagine going into your home, but then having the additional amenities that will help support the things that you need to do to take care of your health and well-being.

(barking) LILES: Imagine walking into the living room... - (sighs) LILES: ...taking your blood pressure.

Then realizing it's elevated.

The house will recognize that, as well.

It might dim the lights, and it might change the colors of the lights, and it might also play soothing music.

(soft music playing) While the home is doing these things in response to your medical state, it's also informing you.

So we have the displays around the house, because that's the way to engage and interface with the user.

The house will alert you that your blood pressure is elevated, and then also give some recommendations and things that you can do to alleviate this issue.

Now let's imagine you woke up from a night's rest, and you got up, as you normally do, to get ready for work or to get ready for school, or just to start your day.

♪ ♪ When you go into the bathroom, the smart mirror gives you all of your sleep stats.

And it shows the graphs, it shows the charts.

It tells you the cycles of sleep that you were in and how long you were in those stages.

It tells you how much you might have snored.

It takes the information from the bed, and then it makes sense of it to tell you you slept well last night.

Or, if you didn't, here are some things that you might want to do to get through your day.

So you might want to think about reordering your to-do list, because something that requires more cognitive load might not be what you want to start out with, because it's just going to make you more drained and more tired.

If you go into your bedroom, there's a workout mirror.

The workout mirror allows for the cardio workout, but it also allows for meditation and yoga.

A big part of the smart home is providing that health education.

There are going to be times when someone might need to go to the hospital, or to visit their doctor, and there may be times when you might just need to relax.

And so giving them that education will help them to determine when it's time to seek medical attention or when there are some things that we can do at home for self-care.

We want to rely on the community of the individual to give them the best services possible.

And so with the smart home, this data about your health can be sent directly to your health care provider.

It can be sent to your doctor or your nurse, or even a family member who might be monitoring your health.

It allows that open line of communication, but it allows that transparency that doctors sometimes need.

Or sometimes we might not think of things that we should share with our doctor, and, but the information is there now, because the house has already sent that information over.

So they know what to look for, even if we don't know what to disclose.

Oftentimes, you hear these studies that are impacting large metropolitan areas.

Then if you extrapolate the data, you don't have a large African American data set.

And then extrapolate it further in rural America.

So we want to be the thought leader in the country to be able to provide that data set, where it is our hope that this data set will allow folks to make more informed medical decisions, but as also preventative health decisions, as well.

I am Shamaria Stroman, a senior computer science major here at Claflin, and I am a smart home researcher and team lead of the robotics team.

Growing up in my family, I was always known as the tech-savvy person-- fixing the computers, downloading all the softwares.

So it is, it was always my niche.

As a researcher, our job is to always research and develop ways to basically help our community's well-being.

So currently I am working on a project called the nutrition label analyzer.

The goal of the analyzer is to, basically, analyze labels and make it easier for users to understand to increase their nutritional awareness.

When you're grocery shopping, and you're purchasing things in a store, there's this propaganda of, "Oh, there's no sugar."

But there's actually more harmful ingredients.

And so if you don't know what's harming you, you can't make better decisions.

So the goal is just for everyone to make better dietary choices to help these chronic illnesses and health issues.

It's connected from a personal experience.

My grandfather had cancer, and my grandmother has hypertension, so it was, like, growing up, I knew they had these issues, but I didn't know the answer, so I didn't know why or what was causing it.

So doing this research kind of gives me a lens to see, "Okay, this is what's harming our community, "and maybe I can help fix this or develop a solution that could help other African Americans."

I think the smart home plays a critical part in closing the gaps for health disparities in rural areas, because one important thing is that we are the minority researchers doing the work.

So a lot of this work hits close to home to us.

We see our family members and our loved ones who are dealing with a lot of these ailments, if it's not us ourselves.

We're driven by a different purpose.

Working with Dr. Liles has been an amazing experience.

She's like a second mother to me.

She, she's really focused on just us growing and evolving.

Coming from behind the computers, developing this project, being in a smart home where I'm actually able to test my products, it just gives me, like, a sense of comfort, that push that, you know, I can help my community and I can actually see it.

I think my biggest lesson working in a smart home is that effective research starts with identifying real-life issues and targeting solutions at those issues.

So being in the smart home is unique, because I'm actually able to test these products that I'm developing with my community, with my peers, and with my school to actually see if it's working or if it's not working, and how I can improve that.

There's been a longstanding concern with healthcare in the African American community, even more so in rural communities, and we recognize that.

And we're very careful about the programs that we design.

This is an interdisciplinary project, so we include majors from humanities departments.

So we include psychology majors, because one important factor is understanding the humans' connection to the technology that's around them.

We naturally have the computer science students writing the programs.

We naturally have computer engineering students developing the hardware and the products, but this information is informed by biology students and nursing students.

We also have art students who've decorated the home with their artwork, but even more, they're helping us develop the user interfaces.

We actually have a cybersecurity program here at Claflin University, and those students are particularly focused on dealing with the security and privacy that could pertain around the data that happens in this home.

I think working with other majors is great, because it allows different points of views.

Working with someone from biology, they could bring in the genetics, like, the health issues, so I just think it brings a general view of the world, and we can all collaborate to make better choices, developments in the world.

With the home, while we bought a lot of technologies off the shelf, the goal is to have our students develop these technologies and develop different technologies that cater specifically to the minority communities, and with that, we'll be able to scale those products, so they would be accessible and available to all.

Right now, we are in the early phases of development.

Students are building their prototypes and testing them out.

Eventually, we will have this space open to the community so that they can actually use the products in their final stages.

I see smart home impacting the community just as a health resource for the community, to serve them and educate them whenever they need.

And it's not only just for health-related education, but it just also gives the community the support to see how to handle these health disparities in their home and starting where they're at with their health journeys.

LILES: Our smart home is the first and only smart home that is dedicated to combat health disparities for minority communities.

We are also the only physical home in the state of South Carolina.

We're now able to be a showpiece for other schools and other universities to get ideas and think about things that they might be able to do in their areas.

Claflin allows that space to be innovative and do that.

President Warmack pushes transformation and elevation, and the smart home is a product of that agenda.

How do we see this thing from a theoretical perspective, and have the research and the data, but also practical?

How do we have folks who'll be able to say, "I can live this healthy life by seeing it for myself"?

Our goal is to become an international model that we can show, "Hey, based on this work "that is happening in the metropolitan "of Orangeburg, South Carolina, in this rural America, that you can do this anywhere."

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