For Black History Month, we’d like to honor one of STRIVE’s amazing partners. Jacqueline Marrant is the President of Perfecting Apps, a company that helps provide STRIVE students with software and technology training. In Ms. Marrant’s own words:
“Being a Black Business Owner means operating in a state of excellence every day to provide top-tier services to all of my clients. I believe my job as a Black Business Owner is to support other Black-Owned Businesses in Harlem, ideas, and resources, so we can all rise together.
It is essential to work with my community because I understand the struggles and the negative or false narratives surrounding us and want to make a change. The saying “Each one teach one” is an African proverb that originated in America during slavery. Enslaved people were denied Education, so when one enslaved learned to read or write, it became their responsibility to teach the next person.
There are numerous ways we can begin to change the story. We must start with something that, once obtained, can’t be stolen, and that is Education. We must continue to educate one another. The facts about our past can’t change. But the story we tell ourselves going forward can lead us to prosperity.
Black History Month means taking the time to honor those who have paved the path to be who I am today. I pay homage to my parents, educators, mentors, and national heroes such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Harriet Tubman, to name a few.
Many of our Black heroes never lived to enjoy the fruits of their labor. It is incumbent upon us all not to let them die in vain. Therefore, I will take this month to acknowledge my history, evaluate my present, and organize my future while thanking the trailblazers before me. Without their sacrifice, my achievements would not be possible.”
We thank Ms. Marrant for her words and her commitment. We would not be able to do the work without partners like Perfecting Apps.