Minority Report

Bowie, Md.

Stephanie Kwader knows she turns some heads on the campus of Bowie State University. As one of the white minority at the 5,500-student historically black university, “I know I stand out,” she says. “I have had people shout out things like, ‘Why are you here?’ ” she adds.

But in the six months since she started as a freshman, Ms. Kwader, 19, has made many friends here. Her life and her education, she says, have taken on a new dimension since she left the small town in northeastern Pennsylvania where her family has lived for generations, and where almost no one is African-American.

What’s more, she says, she is getting a full scholarship at an institution that offers a strong program in her...