“Still I Rise” was thrown by the organization You Beautiful Black Woman Epsilon chapter. The purpose of the program was to acknowledge the achievement of the “sheroes” in our community.
Three victorious women came to tell their unsung stories of success: Jocelyn Allen, communications director of General Motors; Eastern Michigan University alumna Jane Griggs, the founder of the nonprofit organization I AM P.I.N.K; and EMU associate professor Crissie Frye. Each of these women shared their own victories and triumph while giving the audience information that will help them achieve success as well.
The first speaker, Allen, spoke about her rise from being on welfare to support her son to writing the late civil rights leader Rosa Parks’s obituary. She shared with the audience the things that helped her along in her journey to success. Jocelyn talked about the defining moments in life that helped mold her into the person she is today.
Allen encouraged the audience to seize every opportunity that arises because you never know which opportunity will help you succeed. She preached on how to maximize your education by gaining experience in your future career field.
She noted that you should read up on the current leaders of your thought channel and present yourself in an appropriate manner on your social networks because employers do view them.
She also expressed the importance of not limiting yourself while working for an internship, but to network and ask many questions. Be careful how you treat people and don’t use your words to hurt others. The most important thing that she stressed was helping others.
At the end of her speech she showed her love for helping others by giving the audience members rental cars from GM.
Griggs, the founder of I AM P.I.N.K., shared her experiences as an student at EMU and how it took her a while to get adjusted to college life. After joining YBBW she was able to break out of her shell and realized that she was carrying around baggage in the form of pain. By letting go of past regret she was able to truly help in ridding herself of her baggage. She noted that you cannot help others without first taking the time out to help yourself.
Through realizing her need to help others she founded the organization I AM P.I.N.K. which was created to mentor young girls in the city of Detroit. Through the organization she was able to give back to her city in an impactful way.
The final speaker, Frye shared her journey from being only one of three African-Americans in her high school graduating class, to receiving her doctorate from the University of Iowa and teaching here today at EMU. She came from a family where her father only had a third grade education and her mother an sixth grade education.
Growing up, she had to fight racism thrown at her by the faculty in her high school to graduate and attend college.
She shared a memorable story about how her calculus teacher gave her a C instead of an A because she believed Frye had cheated. The teacher informed her that she believed that black people weren’t smart. The same teacher told her that she would never do well in college.
She explained how she had to do things in spite of other people. She stressed to the audience the importance of connecting with people in your future career field to gain ample knowledge.
She also told the audience to believe in themselves and stay encouraged for they will succeed. She left the audience with saying “You can do anything if you’re willing to put in the time and resources.”
