The school year is in full swing, the kids are back in class, and in Oakland, California, Claudia Walker just finished teaching a class, finding time to squeeze in a call in the middle of a busy school day. In addition to being a full-time teacher, she is the founder of HBCU Prep School and Black Parent Group Chat — two platforms guided by a singular mission: to empower Black children in their education journeys.

The educator, best-selling author, and mother of three spoke with MadameNoire about her journey from Wall Street to the classroom, helping families navigate higher education, and seeing her own children discover the richness of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

With the end of summer break, Walker had just dropped her daughter off at Spelman College, her alma mater. “It is such a full-circle moment,” she said. “But it didn’t start that way, and that’s why I do the work that I do.” It was her daughter who inspired Walker’s first book, The ABCs of HBCUs. “There came a point in my daughter’s journey where she was listing off schools and none of them were HBCUs.” But with patience, encouragement, and guidance, Walker got her daughter (and now co-author) to see the value of the HBCU experience as a whole — not just academics, but the community around it.

As a second-generation HBCU graduate — Walker’s mother attended Savannah State — it was important to the mother of three that her children understand that HBCUs provide an experience that other colleges and universities cannot. “Within our home, we created this appreciation for Black colleges,” she said. “I never wanted to force any school on them. I wanted them to take ownership of where they would go for college, but I wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing key opportunities to share with them why HBCUs were so important.”

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A proud Spelmanite, Walker is clear on what the storied Atlanta HBCU instilled in her. “It gave me a level of confidence that I don’t think I fully appreciated until later in life,” she said. “When I left Spelman, I truly believed that I could walk into any space, any boardroom, any organization, and feel like I deserved to be there.”

“I spent four formative years surrounded by brilliant Black women and Black professors who expected me to lead,” she continued. “I didn’t feel exceptional — whereas in other spaces, sometimes when you are one of a few Black students and show that you are intelligent, you’re made to feel like you’re the exception to the rule. But at an HBCU, excellence doesn’t feel exceptional, it just becomes the standard. And your professors and classmates expect greatness from you.”

“At an HBCU, excellence doesn’t feel exceptional, it becomes the standard.”

As her daughter settles in at Spelman, Walker’s boys are also thinking ahead to where they’ll go for college. Whether they land at Tuskegee, Morehouse, or another school of their choosing, Walker is there to guide them. “It’s their journey and their decision to make, but I feel really proud that my husband and I, and the community that we built around my children, have helped them to understand how important these institutions are.”

Life took a few unexpected turns before Walker got to this point. After Spelman, she spent four years working in finance. Though Wall Street was the last place she expected to land, “especially as an English major … I absolutely loved it. It completely changed my trajectory.” 

But everything changed the morning of September 11, 2001, when tragedy struck just steps from her office. “That caused me to really pause and recognize how quickly things can change, how fragile life is. And I started thinking, as much as I like this, I don’t believe that it’s my heart’s work,” she said. “I grew up with parents who were educators. I saw how impactful they were in so many of their students’ lives. So many of them became extended members of our family.”

Walker left New York and returned home to Oakland. “I got into teaching,” she said. “When I stepped into the classroom, I thought that it would just be something to hold me over until I came up with my next amazing idea. That one chapter turned into over 20 years in education.”

Fast forward to 2020, the year Walker founded HBCU Prep School, her publishing and education company that launched with the release of The ABCs of HBCUs — a series which has grown to spotlight even more stories of Black history, culture, and achievement, with The ABCs of Black Wall Street, The ABCs of the Harlem Renaissance, The ABCs of R&B, and The ABCs of Cybersecurity. (Stay tuned — more titles are coming soon.)

Walker’s passion for education and her expertise as Director of Internships & Early College Programs with the Oakland Unified School District laid the groundwork for this next chapter. In November 2025, she launched Black Parent Group Chat, which in under a year has blossomed into a 40,000-strong community of families committed to finding and sharing opportunities that support their children’s education and development.

Through this dynamic platform, Walker shares career resources, summer programs, and internship opportunities at institutions like Hampton, Howard, Harvard, and MIT — covering a wide range of fields from STEM and law to business and the arts. “Having a platform that allows parents to come together and have access to information in support of our children is something that I think every family needs,” the founder said.

For Walker, it’s about bridging the gap between access and opportunity for Black children everywhere. “Education truly is the key. But oftentimes the information resides in silos,” she explained. “I have always worked in communities where access has depended on your zip code and whether parents know about the right program, or they know the right person, or they understand how to navigate the system and ask questions. So I have always wanted to be the person who tries to bridge that knowledge gap for families.”

“I just want Black children to have access to every opportunity that is available to them, and I want parents to have the information and the community they need to help them get there.”

Walker not only guides students as they map out their futures — she helps them dream without limits.

“Talent is everywhere, but access isn’t. I’ve had the privilege of having children sit in my classroom who could be engineers, filmmakers, journalists, investors, doctors, entrepreneurs — but someone has to expose them to the possibilities,” she said. “I recognized that there were so many of our students who were either not dreaming big or they didn’t have access or exposure to truly meet their fullest potential. And that’s really what my work has been about.”

It’s a lesson she had to learn herself. “Even in my case, I only knew to dream as big as what I was exposed to,” she reflected. “I had to learn not to think small — not to limit what I, with this community, can be building. We’re better when we come together and pool our resources in support of our community and our kids.”

Walker doesn’t have to wonder about her impact — she sees it firsthand. She cherishes when families reach out to let her know they followed through on opportunities she’s shared — whether it was an accounting program at Hampton or an NIL deal-making program at Howard, the stories keep coming in.

“I think people can tell that we are on the pulse of something amazing,” Walker said. “It’s not about one person, it’s not about me — it’s about our community collectively coming together in support of our children’s greatest good, their highest good.”

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