Martinique Hyman, a junior at Pace, believes that empowering young, black women is important to the Pace community.

Hyman is the youngest of eight siblings and believes that her parents have pushed her to have an impeccable work ethic that has pushed her to leadership positions on campus.

She is currently studying international management with a concentration in finance to help defeat the stereotype that black women don’t belong in corporate America.

“I know there aren’t a lot of African American women in corporate America. I just want to be the change that I want to see,” said Hyman.

Hyman encourages other black women to stand out from the crowd and to always remember that they have to work twice as hard in order to get what they want in life.

“A lot of people say that the typical black woman is very loud, very ignorant, disrespectful and for a lack of better term, ghetto,” said Hyman.

She believes that many of her peers aren’t used to seeing black students speaking eloquently and surpassing their peers academically and believes that raising awareness can help others become aware of the negative connotations this can bring.

Hyman is currently the client relations manager for Pace Connect, the public relations manager for High Definition, and an active member for the Black Student Union.

She believes that being a part of some of these organizations, or any organization on campus that is related to the celebration of a culture, can help raise awareness to the lack of representation on black women in corporate America, the media, and politics.

“Diversity is being open to accepting people of different backgrounds, different cultures, and sexualities,” said Hyman. “Representation is seeing someone that looks like yourself pursuing things that you want to pursue.”

Hyman believes that the lack of black professors can be detrimental to the black community on campus and that Pace should have more black professors in order to empower black students.

“I’ve only had one black professor since my time here at Pace,” said Hyman. “I feel like I can relate to a black professor more and I can connect with them more.”

Hyman hopes to see more diversity on campus because she believes that Pace is open to diversity, but there is still a lack of diverse students.

“On paper and maybe statistically, Pace is a diverse school and there are communities and organizations that help support it but Pace is considered a PWI,” said Hyman. “PWI stands for Primarily White Institution.”

Hyman believes that Pace has the potential to be a very diverse campus because of its openness to start organizations that are important to communities that lack representation and empowers black women to rise up and love themselves.

“I just want to tell my sisters that it’s time to rise. It’s our time to shine right now. If you see something you want, take it,” said Hyman.