The merger is intended to strengthen the interlinking missions of each organization by combining their resources. 

According to club president Jenessa Tompkins, their new organization, which has kept that name, Black Eudaimonia, aims to increase access to nature, encourage environmental stewardship on campus, and build community through outdoor activity. 

The organizations first collaborated on a hike and a community clean-up event last spring, and the merger was solidified this September.  

“I didn’t even know there was another club at Howard that specialized in outdoor activities and making them accessible,” Tompkins said. “So, when we found out about each other and I knew that our missions aligned, it was just perfect.” 

Tompkins first learned about Bison Outside through their parent organization, HBCU Outside, a nonprofit that provides HBCU students with funding to establish well-resourced outdoor clubs on their campuses. 

Bison Outside was created in 2022 through the National Park Trust’s College Ambassador Program, another non-profit effort to engage campus communities with outdoor recreation. 

Attendees during a Black Eudaimonia hiking event. Photo courtesy of Jenessa Tompkins. 

Tompkins, Howard's 2024 ambassador and president of Black Eudaimonia, oversees weekly programming, including their Wednesday Market, where students can get up to $30 worth of produce for free.  

“Waking up and having fresh produce, or even just studying not off a brain full of fast food, that’s something we’re helping with,” said Tompkins. “Now you can have an apple in the morning; now you can have breakfast taken care of; at least we can do that.” 

Inaccessibility to healthy foods and outdoor spaces is an ongoing issue in Black and low-income communities across the country. 

“This is that opportunity to have equal access,” said Tompkins. “Even though you came to school in DC, you can see more than just concrete; you can see the trees; you can be out there; you can breathe, and I think that’s the biggest thing that we provide is a space to breathe because Howard is a lot.” 

The establishment of outdoor clubs on HBCU campuses can largely be attributed to the efforts of HBCU Outside and National Park Trust. 

“HBCU campuses don't have outdoor clubs, adventure programs, or gear libraries where students have access to these kinds of outdoor opportunities,” said Ivan Levin, senior director of strategic partnerships at National Park Trust. “HBCU outside is focused on establishing those clubs and the right departments and faculty so that they can become formal outdoor programs, and what the National Park Trust is working on is identifying the youth.”

Levin said they work with youth community leaders to tailor the program to their campus's specific needs.

“The outdoors is different for everyone,” he said. “I think that working with the campus to see what opportunities they're interested in, what opportunities are local, and more importantly, making sure they're introduced to accessible outdoor opportunities so that they can actually come back and do it again on their own, I think that’s really important.” 

Black Eudaimonia hopes to retain members by building genuine connections, said Tompkins. 

"The beautiful thing about Black Eudaimonia is that we run on an egalitarian, sort of communal, socratic circle—all of our members have a say; we're open to comments, questions, concerns, and improvements; we're always open." 

The merger has aligned the missions of each organization, and Tompkins said she hopes to organize more events surrounding community care and trips to locally accessible outdoor spaces.