Atlanta Falcons cornerback and Westlake High School alum, AJ Terrell, Jr., also attended Camp HBCYouth.
Photo by Noah Washington/The Atlanta Voice

Earlier this week, it’s AJ Terrell Jr. Day in the “A”.

Camp HBCYouth hosted its second annual field day on Thursday, July 3. The event brought together youth attending summer camps from multiple historically Black college and university campuses for a day of recreation and community building.

The event, held at the Morehouse football field, B.T. Harvey Stadium, featured students from Camp HBCYouth sites at Spelman College, Morehouse College, and Clark Atlanta University. The day included traditional field day activities like tug-of-war and relay races, combined with football training sessions sponsored by the AJ Terrell Foundation.

“We want this to be the funnest day of the summer,” said Lauren Reed, Director of Marketing for Camp HBCYouth and a 2011 Spelman College graduate. “Today is all about fun.”

The AJ Terrell Foundation, founded by Atlanta Falcons cornerback Aundell  “AJ” Terrell Jr in his rookie year, has sponsored the camp’s health and wellness programming for two years. Photo by Noah Washington/The Atlanta Voice

The camp serves rising kindergarteners through fifth graders and operates for six to seven weeks each summer. Reed said this year’s sessions were shortened due to construction on participating campuses.

Reagan Fresnel, co-founder and executive director of Camp HBCYouth and a 2018 Spelman graduate, said the program aims to create the same supportive environment she experienced in college for younger students.

“The HBCU values that were fully instilled in me at Spelman College of higher excellence and community and stewardship were things that really resonated with me,” Fresnel said. “We wanted to extend this type of experience to the younger generation and really start that pipeline sooner.”

For Fresnel, bringing the camp to Spelman represents a full-circle moment. The college has not had youth programming sponsored through the school in more than 20 years, she said.

“So much pride, to be able to come back and support my alma mater and support the local community surrounding the school that did so much for me,” Fresnel said.

The camp employed HBCU students and graduates as counselors, providing them with workforce training and development opportunities. Reed said the staffing approach is intentional.

“We want them to be able to work with and look up to people who they can actually see themselves in,” Reed said. “So pulling HBCU students is just a small piece of the puzzle in this pipeline that we are trying to build to get Black youths to HBCUs.”

Spelman College rising senior Skylar Sanford (above) sets up a water gun table during last week’s camp. Photo by Noah Washington/The Atlanta Voice

Skylar Sanford, a rising senior sociology major at Spelman working as a counselor, said she joined the program to combine her passion for mentorship with her interest in marketing and business.

“I really have a big passion for mentorship and just giving back to kids who just need a big sister or just any type of support,” Sanford said. “I’m just so excited to see their faces when they see the balloon bounce, and they see the water guns, and they’re just so happy to be here.”

The AJ Terrell Foundation, founded by Atlanta Falcons cornerback Aundell  “AJ” Terrell Jr in his rookie year, has sponsored the camp’s health and wellness programming for two years. Terrell, who attended the field day event, said community involvement has been a priority since early in his career.

“It wasn’t even something that was hard to find or hard to want to do. It was kind of something that was super important to me,” Terrell said. “I don’t like to give back and be virtual. I like to be present, giving back so the kids can actually see and I can hear and give advice straight to them.”

Executive Director Ashley Cargle-Thompson and Philanthropy & Programming Executive Tanisha Valliant-Irvin of the AJ Terrell Foundation said the partnership aligns with their mission to strengthen Atlanta through youth development.

“The primary part of our mission at the AJ Terrell Foundation is strengthening Atlanta through its greatest resource, which is the youth,” Thompson said. “Camp HBCYouth just has such an amazing concept for inner-city Atlanta youth.”

The foundation, which operates under the motto “say less, do more,” emphasizes direct community engagement rather than traditional philanthropic approaches.

“We really firmly believe that finding other organizations that are doing the work on the ground and supporting them, amplifying them, and ensuring that everyone’s pulling in the same direction,” Thompson said. “That’s when you really get to see the impact most clearly.”

Valliant-Irvin emphasized the foundation’s commitment to long-term impact in Atlanta.

“We don’t ever want to just show up for a year or two,” she said. “We want to be here, and we want to have a long, lasting legacy of his name, his vision, his impact in the community of Atlanta.”

Camp HBCYouth operates on the principle of creating safe spaces for minority youth while introducing them to HBCU culture and values. The program has expanded from its original site at Morgan State University in Baltimore to include Tennessee State University and the Atlanta University Center campuses.

The day’s other sponsors included Amazon Access and Kraft Heinz

Fresnel said the camp’s impact extends beyond the summer months, with parents reporting that children continue to support Terrell during the NFL season after meeting him at camp.

“All of the kids look up to him,” Fresnel said. “Our parents reach out to us, and like, AJ is my child’s favorite athlete now, all because of the experience of them meeting him at Camp HBCYouth.”

Terrell said he plans to continue expanding his foundation’s youth programming. While this field day represents the final camp event before the NFL season begins, he has additional events planned during the football season and anticipates 2026 being “a big year” for his foundation’s camping initiatives.

“Year in and year out, I just try to find different ways to give back to the youth,” Terrell said. “These are one of those that I want to keep going on and on and on.”

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