Adams draws directly from her own story. Her mother did domestic work — cleaning and scrubbing white folks' floors — and never finished high school, let alone attended college. But she understood how important education would be. Adams walked the ghetto streets of Newark, New Jersey, before an HBCU in Greensboro took a chance on her. She earned her bachelor's and master's from North Carolina A&T, then a PhD from Ohio State. The message to graduates at this small, historically Black college is deeply personal: HBCUs believe in opportunity, and they help students see past their circumstances to the full range of what they can become.