By Nicole Gregory, contributing writer
In honor of Black History month, a Feb. 22 Titan Table Talk featured four panelists who shared their experiences of Black empowerment as individuals and what it means for Black communities.
The Zoom discussion was moderated by Portia Jackson Preston, assistant professor of public health at Cal State Fullerton, who has conducted research on approaches to self-care and how racism can contribute to health inequity.
The four accomplished panelists — three alumni and one business community leader — described empowerment as access to opportunity but also support from friends, family and co-workers, as well as self-care.
President Fram Virjee emphasized the importance of acknowledging the barriers that marginalized communities face and how through allyship, action and solidarity, everyone can help to remove those barriers.
When Preston asked each of the panelists to define empowerment, alumnus Diamond Byrd, who graduated in 2020, said it meant reaching out to other people to help them. In doing so, she said, “You might be the first one giving power to other people.”
Byrd is the first Black female executive vice president with Associated Students, Inc. at Cal State Long Beach, and is working on her master’s degree in social work there. She is an Army veteran as well as a first-generation college student.
Najati Burrow, a 2015 graduate, also defined empowerment as reaching out to help others professionally, and he is passionate about encouraging young people to pursue STEM studies. He graduated from CSUF with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and is the principal design engineer for RICK Engineering.
One event that influenced Burrow’s vision of empowerment was attending a National Society of Black Engineers conference in 2013. “I saw a bunch of Black faces, STEM majors who were intellectuals in suits. This made me look at my role differently as a leader,” he said. He subsequently became president of NSBE as…
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