It all started with a casual introductory video uploaded to TikTok on January 20. The video briefly discussed the class structure and core syllabus for Dr. Leah Barlow’s Spring 2025 Intro to African American Studies course, while also including a short personal introduction to her new “students,” the thousands of followers on the social media app who were clearly hungry for this kind of content. A first-year professor at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University or N.C. A&T, Barlow never imagined that one post would fuel an educational movement and reach the masses. A movement so grand, it inspired a thriving TikTok trend, placing Black women educators, like herself, at the forefront.
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But this wasn’t the first time Dr. Barlow used the short-form video app to post academic content. “Funny enough, I did this all last semester and no one noticed,” she admitted to Unbothered over the phone. While Dr. Barlow’s recent video format is similar to the course clips she had previously uploaded, the social climate is much different.
@afamstudies Accessibility to education is what brought me to TikTok
♬ original sound - Dr. Barlow’s Intro to Af-Am
Was it a communal need? Was it an escapist response to the current political climate, one that seems to be anti-education? Was it sheer luck? Regardless of the reason behind her newfound virality, Dr. Barlow didn’t hesitate to reveal her initial uncertainty about her sudden success. “At first, I thought it was kind of funny,” she joked. “But as more and more people started to interact [with the video], I realized, ‘Oh, they think I’m teaching a course,’ and I was horrified,” she continued. In return, Dr. Barlow set her TikTok account to private with plans of deleting the page — until something within her shifted, driving her to reconsider.
“I wanted [the class] to be accessible for 35 students, and now it’s been accessible for so many. Let me not stop that accessibility [for others] and lean into it,” she concluded.
But before Dr. Barlow’s final decision to unprivate her account, other educators already began to follow suit. Instructors leveraged their platforms to educate viewers on diverse topics and skill sets that they specialized in, ultimately forming the virtual, A Different World-inspired HBCU, HillmanTok University. Here, the "professors" of HillmanTok explain their reasoning for joining the academic trend, break down their syllabuses, and explain what’s to come of their courses.
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Professor: Shannan E. Johnson, Class: Screenwriting 101
“I didn’t know if [Dr. Barlow] was being serious or not,” Shannan E. Johnson, Founder and CEO of The Professional Pen script consultancy admitted. Johnson continued, “I thought it was smart to try to have a connection with your students of this generation on an app that they’re already using.” After reading several lighthearted comments from “students” jokingly responding to their abrupt enrollment into Intro To African American Studies, Johnson took the opportunity to create a digital class of her own: Screenwriting 101.
To instruct her course, Johnson used her industry knowledge as a former creative executive and business owner to teach students about the script development process and screenplay analysis. “I already have a platform called Skool where I host my screenwriting community, and have grown my class from 480 people to almost 7,000,” Johnson detailed. But similar to Dr. Barlow’s dilemma, Johnson reveals that some viewers failed to recognize that she ran a legitimate business before the trend began. “Some people don’t realize that it’s real until they get there [on Skool],” Johnson said when referencing her course’s academic calendar and business service fees. However, Johnson continues to post daily screenwriting content on her social media platforms, encouraging students to learn at their own pace and within their means.
Professor: Rawan*, Class: Professional Development 101
A former business consultant for Fortune 500 companies and Program Manager in Big Tech, Rawan crafted her Professional Development 101 course to equip students with career readiness skills to secure internships and full-time jobs and navigate their job search successfully. Rawan’s passion for making professional development accessible to first-generation and BIPOC students prompted her to accept a position at HillmanTok as a professor officially. “It was a no-brainer for me,” she stated. For Rawan, involving herself in a powerful community such as HillmanTok makes her feel empowered as a Black woman educator. “I am proud to see us find creative ways to uplift and support one another.”
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We all uplift each other, and nobody wants to overstep because we all see that this is bigger than us. We all just want to serve the greater community.
Cierra Hinton, Co-founder of HillmanTok University
”
Professor: Kimi Ellen, Class: Wealth 101
“I’ve always had this passion to help people build wealth and demystify it for those that don’t understand how taxes integrate into their personal financial statement,” Kimi Ellen, CPA stated. A managing partner at the largest Black woman-owned public accounting firm, Benford Brown & Associates, LLC, Ellen has always maintained a passion for helping people build generational wealth. “I saw countless cases of people that made a decent income but could never get ahead.”
Enter Ellen’s Wealth 101 HillmanTok course where she teaches students just that— how to get financially ahead. The first assignment asked students to calculate their net worth with the intention of having their capital grow at the end of the semester. Ellen’s desire is for her students to be armed with knowledge debunking the myth of “being rich” to grow wealth. “As a Black woman, this space feeds my soul.”
Professor: Mercy*, Class: Baking 101
Self-taught professional baker Mercy began her confectionery career almost 30 years ago in the restaurant industry. Alongside her professional journey, she became a dedicated mother to four children who all played sports. “Along with having to put on four birthday parties for them every year, I’m making stuff for events because I’m a sports mom,” Mercy remarked. “When I began playing around in the kitchen, I initially started with just box mix, and I said, ‘Let me just see how I can make a cake.’”
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As Mercy continued to grow in her craft, she started making recipes from scratch and utilized YouTube to discover more baking methods to emulate. Her love for her children catalyzed her transition from restaurant management to founding her baking company, MercysCakesInCups. “It took me a few years. It wasn’t something that was overnight,” she admitted. Although Mercy had been baking for a while, she conducted a lot of research with the natural process of trial and error. Fast forwarding to 2025, Mercy saw Dr. Barlow’s Intro to African American Studies video come across her TikTok feed.
“I was one of those people that thought it was a real class,” she stated. Mercy initially intended to save Dr. Barlow’s video to educate her daughter, who is currently enrolled in a Master’s program. Witnessing the dramatic growth of educators participating in the HillmanTok trend inspired Mercy to instruct a Baking 101 course. In a matter of days, she grew her TikTok audience from around 5,000 followers to 43,000, and she owes it all to HillmanTok’s communal impact. “Every day has been very colorful with conversations, photographs, and DMs [from students],” Mercy relayed. Furthermore, Mercy credits the Black women who formulated HillmanTok for a great deal of the success she attained within the online space. “It’s very empowering, and this whole experience has made me so emotional,” she said.
Professor: Erin Darden, Class: Emotional Intelligence 101
For emotional quotient (EQ) coach Erin Darden, her journey with emotional intelligence started as something personal. Like many people, she first encountered emotional intelligence (EI) in the workplace, exploring conversations about leadership dynamics and professional relationships. When she started to apply the skills of EI to her corporate career, she was able to significantly improve a “toxic” work relationship. “I learned how to advocate for myself and set boundaries without feeling guilty,” Darden discussed. She shared that before discovering the skill set of EI, she repeatedly fell into people-pleasing and non-confrontational tendencies. But as Darden’s confidence increased, so did her desire to empower others through EQ and relationship coaching.
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“I believe our romantic relationships have a bigger impact on our overall well being and quality of life,” she said. When Darden encountered Dr. Barlow’s introductory video, she immediately envisioned how she could use her TikTok platform to educate viewers about EI. Soon after, Darden developed a weekly Live class to explore how EI affects communication, conflict resolution, and intimacy within relationships. Students can then integrate what they learned in class into their daily lives and receive actionable advice on how to improve personal connections.“People want to be better. They just don’t have the tools, and I feel privileged to be in a position to give them some of those tools,” Darden shares. She plans to continue her course until May 30.
@cierramichellec LESSON 3 FOUNDATION MATCHING Happy Tuesday ladies and welcome to Week 2 of Makeup for Beginners 101! For this lesson you will be referencing pages 5 & 14 in your Special Edition Ultimate Beauty Guide. See the video titled “Foundation” on pg. 14 for more details about how I apply my foundation as well as color match. As mentioned at the end of the video, if you need to color correct any dark spots on your skin, do that BEFORE you apply your foundation! After you blend it out a bit, set it with just a LITTLE BIT of your loose powder and then apply your foundation on top🖤 Ask any questions you have pertaining to today’s video and I’ll be sure to answer them either in the discussion board or in Office Hours this Saturday at 12p EST. @HillmanTok Univeristy #hillmantok #tiktokuniversity #hillmantokuniversity #makeupforbeginners #makeupclass #makeup #naturalmakeup #foundationmatching #foundationroutine #spring2025 ♬ original sound - Queen Expressions
In the present day, HillmanTok University is expanding by the minute, with classes in graphic design, financial literacy, foreign language(s), cosmetology, and more. The university now offers over 400 courses for students to discover and engage with. Cierra Hinton, Co-founder of HillmanTok University, made sure to emphasize her role as cofounder in the digital HBCU’s inception. “We [the HillmanTok network] all uplift each other, and nobody wants to overstep because we all see that this is bigger than us,” Hinton acknowledges. From the logo creation and University colors to the elected board members and forthcoming communal gatherings, every detail of HillmanTok is intentional, with an impactful story trailing close behind it. “We all just want to serve the greater community.”
The Spring 2025 registration for HillmanTok University has officially closed.
*For privacy reasons, the interviewees requested to be identified by first name only.
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