Alabama A&M University staff and students completed a 1,300-mile bus tour of the state. (CONTRIBUTED)

NORMAL – Alabama A&M University staff have a new perspective for the hills, valleys and shorelines of Alabama after their bus tour of the state.

AAMU President Andrew Hugine Jr. and employees covered 1,200 miles across the state during five days in this first-ever bus tour of select metropolitan and rural areas from Feb. 25 through March 1, public relations spokesperson Jerome Saintjones said.

Student leaders, faculty and alumni accompanied Hugine. “More than 100 persons participated in some way to the success of this trip,” Hugine said. “Throughout, we engaged alumni and friends, communities and stakeholders. We pleased to receive the support of true alums from the 1940s.”

The entourage visited 16 high schools and a community college. During the trip, AAMU officials awarded more than 70 scholarships totaling $1,365,841. “The trip netted 75-100 students who applied and were accepted on the spot,” Saintjones said.

On Day 1, they visited George Washington Carver High School in Birmingham, Bessemer City and Fairfield high schools, and Jefferson County Cooperative Extension Office. They attended an alumni reception at the Birmingham Sheraton Hotel.

In East Central Alabama on Day 2, the AAMU group presented scholarships at Carver and Jefferson Davis high schools in Montgomery and Bullock County High School in Union Springs. They toured historian John Henrik Clarke’s birthplace and met Tuskegee alumni at a Montgomery reception.

On Day 3, the bus headed to the Black Belt region for South Side and Selma high schools. After a presentation at Demopolis High School, the group headed to Mobile, Saintjones said.

On the coast, the group enjoyed breakfast with Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority members. They stopped by Blount High School in Eight Mile, Vigor High School in Prichard, John LeFlore High School in Mobile and Bishop State Community College.

Day 5 was devoted to West Alabama with a stop at the University of Alabama. Hugine made presentations at Central High School in Tuscaloosa and Bryant High School in Cottondale.

For more information, visit aamu.edu.