For Hassan Abdus-Sabur attending Howard University was a dream come true. But he never imagined that staying would prove to be so difficult or that he wouldn’t go on to graduate. 

The Newark, Latest Jersey native says he spent two years on the well-known Washington D.C.-based HBCU studying elementary education before financial struggles forced him to depart the university and return home. 

“That place [Howard University] molded and shaped me in a way that, , no other place could have…having to depart was like such a bitter pill, , it was hard,” he tells ESSENCE. 

On the time, Abdus-Sabur was a 19-year-old first-generation college student. Now, he’s 48 and says not having the ability to finish his 4 years at Howard stays considered one of his life’s biggest regrets. But, he has since taken that private experience and turned it into a chance to pay it forward in a significant way. 

Some 30 years after he had to depart school as a consequence of financial hardship, he now raises money to help students who attend HBCUs in order that they can complete their education. He also works to lift awareness about HBCUs or historically Black colleges and universities, which produce almost 20 percent of all African-American graduates and 25 percent of America’s Black graduates within the STEM fields of science, technology, mathematics and engineering, yet remain chronically underfunded.

“Every time you hear someone can’t pay something at Howard, especially for me knowing funds were the rationale I left and didn’t finish…it was triggering for me. I knew I could do something to assist. And higher than me doing something, I knew we as a community could do something to assist since it’s not nearly me,” he says.

Since 2020, the previous Howard student has helped raise greater than $100,000 via GoFundMe with an annual bike ride and it began with a straightforward request. One among his former college classmates told him his niece Marabella was a student at Howard but needed help covering her tuition. Abdus-Sabur says he donated $150 to the GoFundMe page but felt there was more he could do to assist her make her $18,000 goal. 

He got here up with an idea to lift money by doing a motorbike ride from Newark to Howard University. 4 friends agreed to hitch him on that inaugural journey of over 200 miles in 2020. Together they raised about $7,000 for Marabella. For Abdus-Sabur, who usually rides his bike to work for the town of Newark, a motorbike ride was not only a technique to raise money but to also construct community across the cause.

“One among the dopest things concerning the ride is the people who we meet along the best way.”

“One among the dopest things concerning the ride is the people who we meet along the best way,” he says, recounting the experience of receiving a $1,500 dollar donation on the spot during considered one of the rides. “So everybody sees these folks riding on these bikes and also you’re going through these little places in Maryland and Philly and things like that people see you, they know you’re not from there, however the love and support that we get along the best way…That’s special.”

Now referred to as the annual HBCU Scholarship Ride, the initiative has since expanded and provides scholarships to students from Newark who attend not only Howard University but other HBCUs as well. In 2021, ten riders raised $38,000 for five students. This 12 months, 15 riders helped raise over $65,000 for six Newark students attending schools, including Morgan State, North Carolina A&T and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.

“People really don’t understand after I walked on that campus…I knew I used to be a part of something great. I need kids from Newark to have the opportunity to go to those places [HBCUs], share in those ideas and that greatness and experience that very same vibe,” he says. 

Staff members at GoFundMe took notice of Abdus-Sabur’s efforts. He was recently recognized as a GoFundMe Hero and is now working with the corporate on a project to offer $500 textbook grants to students at HBCUs. That effort is being done through the corporate’s GoFindYou initiative, which is described as “a spot to rejoice stories of Black joy often ignored.”

“He’s establishing future generations for achievement and really wanting to offer back on to his community and help these young folks live out the dream that he really wanted for himself,” GoFundMe Communications Director Leigh Lehman tells ESSENCE. 

“When you consider that, there’s just something so beautiful about that story,” she continues. “Definitely, that is figure to be celebrated and acknowledged. But hopefully, it also provides some inspiration for other people who could have an analogous idea.”

To this point, the HBCU Textbook fund, launched initially of homecoming season in October, has raised over $26,000 toward its $75,000 goal. Lehman shares that the corporate is working to spread the word concerning the latest fund amongst students who can profit in addition to potential donors who can contribute. “That is an ongoing cause, so it is just not one and done. The goal is definitely for it to live to tell the tale and in perpetuity and almost develop into form of its own endowment,” she says.

“My latest motto is I’m gonna give away 1,000,000 before I make it.”

Abdus-Sabur, who has since began a nonprofit organization that distributes the funds raised, desires to see students graduate and provides back to their communities. He also hopes to encourage more people to offer. “My latest motto is I’m gonna give away 1,000,000 before I make it,” he said.

The primary HBCU Scholarship Ride recipient has since graduated from the identical university Abdus-Sabur once attended. Two others who received funds are set to graduate in 2024. That 12 months will even mark Abdus-Sabur completion of his bachelor’s degree at Rutgers University.

“I actually have to be an example to those students,” he says of himself after being inspired to return to highschool. “If it feels good to be recognized, but I don’t stay there in that good feeling because I do know that feeling got here about through my work. If I need it to proceed, I actually have to proceed to work hard,” he said.