Hampton University in Virginia has won the 2025 Honda Campus All-Star Challenge. The annual event – now in its 36th year – is a national academic competition for students at historically Black colleges and universities hosted on the American Honda corporate campus in Torrance, California. Over 200 students and faculty advisors from 32 HBCUs across the country competed in the challenge, which also provides networking opportunities with HBCU leaders and Honda associates.
In the tournament’s final match, the Hampton University team bested Tennessee State University by accurately answering questions on history, science, literature, religion, the arts, and pop culture. Their win earned Hampton a $100,000 institutional grant. Runner-up Tennessee State received a $40,000 grant from Honda. Third and fourth-place finishers, Morehouse College and Tuskegee University, each received a $26,000 grant. Howard University, Lincoln University of Pennsylvania, North Carolina A&T State University, and Prairie View A&M University rounded out the top eight teams of this year’s tournament.
The Hampton University team was coached by Stella Nelms, a freshman academic advisor, and includes team captain Miles Cross, a freshman majoring in history and pre-law from Douglasville, Georgia; Jaron Haynes, a freshman majoring in business administration from Snellville, Georgia; Skai White, a sophomore majoring in mathematics from Stockbridge, Georgia; and Donte Wyatt, Jr., a sophomore majoring in biology from San Diego, California. This marks Hampton’s 30th appearance in the Honda event and its first win.
As a bonus for this year’s tournament, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund awarded individual grants to students from the first and second-place teams. The scholars from Hampton University each received $2,500, while scholars from Tennessee State University each received $1,500.
