(upbeat music) - The Merze Tate Explorers focus on setting up young girls for success using tools such as storytelling skills, communication, and critical thinking.

We follow the group as they create art and continue to explore.

Well I'm here with Sonya Bernard-Hollins who really founded the Merze Tate Explorers.

And once I saw on social media that she had climbed Kilimanjaro, I had to talk to her again.

Thanks so much for talking with me here today.

- Well thanks for having me back again.

- So tell me a little bit about Merze Tate.

Who was she?

- Oh my gosh, where do I begin?

She's such an amazing woman.

She's a Michigan native.

Grew up in Blanchard, Michigan.

And the connection that came across for myself was I was a reporter at the Kalamazoo Gazette when I did a story on the first African-Americans of Western Michigan University.

And Merze Tate's name was on the list as the first African-American female to receive a distinguished alumni award.

And I was like, well who is this woman, and what did she do to deserve this?

And boy did I learn a lot.

So I went to the archives at Western and learned that not only did she leave $1 million to Western when she died, but she was the first African-American graduate of Oxford University, the first African-American female to get a PhD in political science from Harvard.

She was a Fulbright scholar at India, traveled the world twice, spoke five languages.

I mean, I was like, who is this woman, and why do I not know about her?

And I said I wanna write a book about her.

So I started scanning all these photos that she left when she passed away, all her photo albums.

And one of the photos had a picture of her with a bunch of kids and a sign that said Travel club.

And so I started unraveling the story and learned that when she graduated from Western Michigan University with the highest academic record in the school's history, she couldn't get a job teaching in Michigan because she was Black.

And so Dr. Waldo, who was the president of Western at that time, got her interviews at places like Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis, Indiana.

And that year, 1927, was the year the school was really being founded.

And the interesting thing is that it was founded by the Ku Klux Klan because they didn't want Black students going to school with white students, they made a special school called Crispus Attucks High School just for Black students.

And Merze Tate was the first history teacher there and started a travel club.

And that in turn got me intrigued about doing my own travel club.

And today we've traveled all over the world.

When I first started in 2008, I just put in an ad in a paper if girls wanna travel and learn about media.

So 12 girls showed up and we didn't have any money or anything.

So we started off locally, Ladies Library Association, we had tea with women there and took a tour.

We did things like Lawson Ice Arena where we did ice skating, and eventually we started branching out a little bit more.

So we took the girls to Motown Museum in Detroit then eventually went to Canada, then we went to Hawaii and Europe.

So we've been to Italy, Japan, just had amazing experiences.

- And I think I read that the girls recently were introduced and had a chance to talk to the first Black woman in space.

What was that like?

- I mean we've talked to a lot of amazing Black women first and Mae Jemison was amazing.

So she came to Kalamazoo to speak and our girls got a chance to be a part of the media crew who had an exclusive interview with her.

We've also met women like Ruth Carter who was the first African-American woman to receive an Oscar for costume design for "Black Panther."

So we've interviewed some amazing women throughout history because our focus is not only taking girls to cool places, but meeting women who've gone to amazing places.

And who better than a woman who traveled to space.

- What was your hope in forming the Merze Tate Explorers, what was your hope for these girls that are part of the group like when you look into the future?

- So we've been able to do some amazing things.

Just the goal is get these girls out of the community and into some places that they never maybe thought they could have gone.

And you know, a lot of students don't have the money or the resources to travel the world.

And world travel opens your mind up to so many things, not only about the world but about yourself because you're learning how to get on the plane, how do you act when you're in different countries, learn different languages, respect other people's cultures.

So each year we ask for applications.

Students apply, they write why they wanna be a part of the group and we talk to them and bring them on in.

And we usually start in like September with the new group and they stay together for the whole year.

- We catch up with the girls as they create positive self-image art with professional photographs taken of each explorer.

On each piece, they decorate and describe themselves.

So we got Jasmine and Julia on here and purple's my favorite color.

And you got your cover and you are?

- I just describe myself as nice, pretty, kind, funny.

I could go on forever.

- And what about you, Julia?

- I describe myself as a nice, helpful, caring person who will look out for my friends.

Pretty athletic, funny.

- Creative for sure.

How about you, Ziggy?

- I would just describe myself pretty active, funny, social, like very social, and fashionable.

- And fashionable.

What are some of the words that describe you?

- Strong, fast, smart, brave, courageous and all that.

- So Adiya is the mother of a Merze Tate Explorer.

Being part of this, have you seen changes?

Tell me about that.

- So my daughter, she loves to do any and everything.

So this has just given her an awesome opportunity to explore some different areas, and I just see her being excited about trying new things, participating.

I think she's doing a fantastic job.

- My favorite adventure was when we went skiing and it was very fun.

My mom was pretty scared because she didn't really like it because she really is like a business person and she's a home working mom.

But I love doing, I liked it because I like doing activities because I get bored easily.

- I had a family member, a cousin that was in Merze Tate, and because of Merze Tate, she graduated a year early because of the community service and the things that she did with Merze Tate.

- We were doing something with planes and I got to drive one in the cockpit.

- Sonya's daughter Sasha joined us here on the set.

And I wanted to talk to you, having this mom, you've been part of the program probably since the very beginning, right?

So what have you done?

What do you do part of the program?

- I have had a lot of exposure to talking to people, just getting ready for any situation.

I've been to Canada, Hawaii where we learned like about the animals that are there about Pearl Harbor.

And then I recently went to Mount Kilimanjaro with my mom and we just hiked that.

- A few years ago, because of the Merze Tate Explorers and exposure we've given to Merze Tate, Western decide to name Merze Tate College.

So there's a college name for her and she's one of the only I think three African-American women in the country who have a college named for them on a predominantly white campus.

So it was great to keep her legacy alive.

When we first started off and learned about her, it was like she sounds like an amazing woman we need to know about as young women.

But now not only does Western know about it and the students who go there, but now more of the nation knows about the amazing legacy that Merze Tate left behind.

- [Announcer] Support for "Kalamazoo Lively Arts" is provided by the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, helping to build and enrich the cultural life of Greater Kalamazoo.