How many other schools can say that the cast of A Different World came to their school?

What is even better is that when the cast came to Norfolk State University this past Saturday, the audience greeted them by singing the Different World theme song.

Jasmine Guy (Whitley), Kadeem Hardison (Dwayne), Darryl Bell (Ron), Cree Summer (Freddie), and Charnele Brown (Kim) spoke on a panel to benefit the Access College Foundation and the Honors College at Norfolk State University in Virginia.

During an interview with the local ABC station, Bell said that he still gets misty-eyed when he speaks to people and they give credit to the show as the reason that they continued onto higher education.

“Every step that we made and every show that we took on a hot topic, I knew we were breaking ground,” said Bell. “I knew we were going places that shows hadn’t gone before. I knew it was important for young people of color to do all of that. So I knew.”

Currently, schools like Norfolk State are suffering financially, so it is good to see the former cast making an effort to bring awareness.

A Different World lasted for six seasons from September 24, 1987 to July 9, 1993, and was a spin-off of the Cosby Show. The show followed students at Hillman College, a fictional historically black college in Virginia, which was inspired by student life at Howard University.

This video is a must-see! See below.

(Photo Credit: Norfolk State University)

Author

  • Travis Henry is a senior at Rutgers University studying Communication, with a concentration in Strategic Public Relations and Public Communication, and French. Currently, he is looking at the relationship between consumer brands and African-American youth and how the Black-white racial segregation has manifested online. When he is not doing research at school or writing at work, he finds himself “curating the human experience” via his magazine DWNTWN and editing his school’s magazine Voice. He sees himself in the future finding a career that hybrids music, activism, media, and writing.