Something remarkable is happening in Jamaica, Queens — and the woman behind it is just getting started.
Dr. Asya Johnson is the founding principal and creator of the HBCU Early College Prep High School, the first and only school of its kind in the entire United States. Located in Southeast Queens, New York, the school opened its doors in September 2025 with a mission that goes far beyond academics: to give Black students a clear, culturally grounded path to higher education, leadership, and community impact. The response from families was immediate and overwhelming, with more than 1,000 students applying for just 100 available seats in the inaugural class.
America’s First HBCU High School and the Vision Behind It
The HBCU Early College Prep High School is built on a straightforward but powerful idea — that Black students deserve a learning environment that celebrates their identity, challenges their intellect, and connects them to a legacy of excellence before they ever set foot on a college campus. The school’s mission is to cultivate a community of learners dedicated to academic excellence, diversity, societal contributions, and social justice.
What makes the school truly unique is its dual enrollment structure. Students take both high school and college courses simultaneously, earning up to 64 tuition-free college credits by the time they reach their fourth year. Upon graduation, scholars walk away with both a high school diploma and an associate’s degree from Delaware State University — Dr. Johnson’s own alma mater — along with automatic admission into the university.
Superintendent of Queens South High Schools, Dr. Josephine Van-Ess, put the school’s significance into broader perspective.
“As someone who grew up in this community and walked these same streets our students walk, I know firsthand what it means when young people can see a clear path to their future,” she said. “When our young people graduate with college credits, exposure to HBCUs, and a deep sense of cultural pride, they return to this neighborhood as doctors, educators, entrepreneurs, and leaders who lift others as they climb.”
Dr. Asya Johnson’s Impressive Career Path Before HBCU Early College Prep
Dr. Johnson did not arrive at this moment by accident. The Philadelphia native brings two decades of educational experience to her role, including time as a principal in both the South Bronx and Harlem. She also played a meaningful role in developing special education instruction for incarcerated youth at Rikers Island correctional facility — work that reflects a deep commitment to reaching students that other systems have left behind.
Her academic credentials are equally impressive. She holds an Ed.D. from Drexel University, an Ed.M. from Bank Street College, an M.Ed. from Holy Family University, and a B.A. from Delaware State University. That HBCU foundation is not incidental — it is the very thread that connects her personal story to the school she was called to build.
Together, her credentials and lived experience make Dr. Johnson uniquely equipped to lead a school that sits at the intersection of cultural pride, academic rigor, and community transformation. She is not just an administrator. She is an architect of possibility.
How HBCU Early College Prep Students Are Giving Back to Their Community
One of the most distinctive features of the HBCU Early College Prep experience is how deeply it connects students to the world around them. Rather than keeping learning theoretical, Dr. Johnson has built a curriculum that puts students in direct service of their community from day one. In physics class, for example, students are working alongside New York City Housing Authority residents to collect real-world data, design low-cost solutions for safety and health problems in public housing apartments, and pitch evidence-based recommendations to organizations like Empower NY and NYCHA.
That kind of project-based, community-centered learning does something that textbooks alone cannot: it shows students that their education has immediate, tangible value. They are not just studying physics. They are using physics to improve people’s lives — and the people whose lives they are improving are their own neighbors.
Beyond academics, the school’s extracurricular life is equally rich. Students participate in a Young Debaters team, an HBCU Band, and female self-empowerment programs with the Greater Queens Links, Inc. Through the KAPPA League and the Junior Investment and Stock Market Challenge — supported by 100 Black Men of America, Inc. — scholars are also building financial literacy skills that will serve them for life.
A Trip to Ghana and the Deeper Meaning of a Global Education
During winter recess, a group of HBCU Early College Prep students traveled to Ghana for a week-long trip that went far beyond tourism. They completed community service at a local junior high school, building real connections with students across the African diaspora. They also visited Cape Coast — one of the most significant sites in the history of the transatlantic slave trade and a place where ancestors of many Black Americans were forcibly taken from the continent.
Experiences like that cannot be replicated in a classroom. They create the kind of historical and emotional context that shapes how a young person sees themselves in the world — and what they feel called to do about it. For students who are simultaneously taking college-level coursework at 14 years old, that grounding in ancestral memory adds a layer of purpose to everything else they are learning.
Dr. Johnson has made it clear that international exposure, cultural connection, and community service are not extras at this school — they are part of the core.
The House System, HBCU Homecoming, and Building a School Culture
Community does not build itself, and Dr. Johnson knows that. To create a genuine sense of belonging and identity from the very beginning, she introduced a House system inspired by legendary HBCUs. Each of the school’s 25-student houses is named for a prominent institution: Hampton House, SpelHouse (Spelman x Morehouse), Howard House, and Clark Atlanta House. Two dedicated Deans are assigned to each house, and students dive into the institutional histories, notable alumni, and academic offerings connected to their house’s namesake school.
The school also established its own Homecoming tradition rather than simply visiting an existing one. The inaugural celebration included a pep rally, a step show performed by each house, a Homecoming dance, and the crowning of the school’s very first Mr. & Miss HBCU. All of it was grounded in the African proverb Ubuntu — “I am because we are” — a philosophy that runs through everything Dr. Johnson is building.
“This approach allows us to immerse our students in authentic HBCU culture while building our own unique traditions from the ground up,” Dr. Johnson explained.
What Dr. Asya Johnson’s Students Are Teaching Her
Amid all the milestones and initiatives, perhaps the most telling measure of what is happening at HBCU Early College Prep is what Dr. Johnson says her students are teaching her. Being a 14-year-old college student is no small thing. These young people are navigating rigorous coursework, high school social dynamics, extracurricular commitments, and community service — all at once.
And yet, every one of them has shown up with dedication, purpose, and a clear-eyed sense of where they want to go. Many have already identified specific HBCUs they hope to attend, demonstrating a level of intentionality about their futures that is remarkable at any age.
“They are teaching me what’s possible when schools provide students of color with the right opportunities to be challenged, coupled with the appropriate amount of support,” Dr. Johnson said. “Their potential becomes limitless.”
That sentence says it all. When the environment is right, when the culture affirms rather than diminishes, and when the expectations are high and the support is real — students rise. Dr. Asya Johnson is proving that every single day in Jamaica, Queens.