During the 2009 college tour , students visited universities in New York. Six students from EOYDC and 4 from Berkeley Musicians Program met with administration personnel from Julliard, Columbia University, The New School and NYU. In addition to college campuses, the students were in the on camera audiences of Good Morning America and 106th and Park. They visited Ellis Island, met with President Clinton in his Harlem office of the Clinton Foundation and shopped along Fifth Avenue with actress, Natalie Portman. In addition, to eating at great places like the Hard Rock Cafe and Bubba Gumps they were also treated to the off Broadway musical, Billy Elliot.

During the Spring Break, the PUSH Excel organization took five EOYDC college bound high school students to visit historically black colleges and universities to inform and expose them to institutions of higher education. The purpose of the tour is to promote increased college attendance amongst minority youth through a mode of early preparation. Students traveled to Morgan State University, Howard University, North Carolina A&T State University, Winston-Salem State University, Savannah State University, Fort Valley State University, Clark Atlanta University and Morehouse/Spelman College all of these historically black college campuses, which are spread across several states, were visited during a one week period.
Click on a name to read a essay about the college tour experiences of Charlotte Jones and Kory Gibson

During the Winter Break, the East Oakland Youth Development Center took eight EOYDC college bound high school students to Washington DC. They were given the opportunity to meet with John Wilson, Executive Director for the White House Initiatives on Black Colleges and Universities during their tour of the Howard University campus. They also toured the Georgetown University campus. The EOYDC group was hosted for lunch by Maya Soetoro-Ng, (President Obama’s sister) who had previously visited the Center during the 2008 presidential campaign. As with all EOYDC college tours their purpose is to inform and expose our participants to institutions of higher education, in order to promote increased college attendance amongst minority youth through a mode of early preparation. Students were also given tours of the Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, the Newseum, and the Smithsonian Museum of African Art and topped off by a White House Tour.