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‘Black Girls Graduate’ Co-Founder On Why Championing and Celebrating Amazing Black Women Became Her Mission

Black Women in Business

‘Black Girls Graduate’ Co-Founder On Why Championing and Celebrating Amazing Black Women Became Her Mission

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In 2013, Ashley Obasi, her sister Ijeamaka Obasi and best friend Tikkara Cooper decided it was time to celebrate Black women who succeed in their pursuit of a higher education.

In 2010 during the first semester of her freshman year in college, Ashley Obasi lost her father suddenly. He died of a heart attack unexpectedly in her hometown of Chicago. She took some time off from school and returned to the Syracuse University campus in her own time. “Returning to school was crazy, and for a while, I was walking around campus dazed or just crying in the middle of class,” Obasi recalls. “It was a really tough experience for me. My 18th birthday was like four months away and I could not even fathom what four months would feel like. It was really difficult to want to move forward.”

 Something still felt different when she returned to campus. Over time, she found her groove again, and she knew that she wanted to help make a difference in the lives of other young Black women like herself in pursuit of a higher education, which led to the birth of Black Girls Graduate in 2013.Since then, Obasi (in pink) and her co-founders, sister Ijeamaka Obasi (in back) and best friend Tikkara Cooper have been devoted to celebrating women of color who graduate from univesities and colleges both big and small across the country. They also provide them with a resource for career advice, job and internship leads, scholarship opportunites and a space to simply acknowledge the accompishment of being Black, educated, boss women around…

Please read original article – ‘Black Girls Graduate’ Co-Founder On Why Championing and Celebrating Amazing Black Women Became Her Mission

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I am a future butterfly at the stage of growth when I am turning into an adult. I am enclosed in a hard case shell formed by love, family, and friends. It is the hardest stage of becoming a black butterfly. You will encounter many hardships only to come out stronger and better than what you went in. At this stage, you are finding out who you truly are and how to love yourself.

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