Nearly 100 students, faculty and community members, illuminated by string lights, gathered to celebrate women of color at the sixth annual Powerful United Ladies Striving to Elevate (PULSE) Banquet on Saturday evening.
The banquet, organized entirely by women, featured student performances, a recognition ceremony and the presentation of the annual Joanna E. Cardona Scholarship.
PULSE was founded in 2007 to serve women of color on campus and aims to provide a safe space and a network for both professional and personal empowerment. The organization strives to create an open environment where women of color can discuss their issues freely, encourage one another and gain recognition for their accomplishments.
Today, PULSE holds a number of annual events, including the banquet, a women’s leadership conference and a breast cancer walk.
This year’s banquet, titled “Once Upon a Time,” followed a fairy-tale theme. Each member of the executive board showcased one wish calling for justice, equality and female empowerment.
Mariam Traore, president of PULSE and a senior majoring in business administration, said the banquet included a female DJ and an entirely female waitstaff. It also featured student performances from the Black Dance Repertoire and the BU Gospel Choir, as well as other singers and poets.
Members of PULSE used the banquet as a platform to address the issues of sexual harassment and sexual assault directly, as well as raise awareness on how they affect women of color. The #MeToo movement was referenced when students recited sexual assault statistics and recognized Tarana Burke, a black woman and a civil rights activist who first started using the phrase in 2006.
In between performances, various awards were presented to other organizations and PULSE members, including the Organization on the Rise and the Womenpreneur awards. Traore said the event provided heightened recognition for minority women who often aren’t recognized.
“Historically, women of color aren’t awarded for the things that they do,” Traore said. “This is an event where we complete that mission.”
The final award of the night was the Joanna E. Cardona Scholarship, which is presented annually to a female student who has demonstrated a commitment to helping other women. The scholarship awards $250 to the winner, which can be used for college expenses. The scholarship honors Cardona, who currently serves as PULSE’s staff adviser and helped establish the organization in 2007.
The winner of this year’s scholarship was Ramona Singh, a sophomore majoring in economics. According to Traore, Singh directly impacted the community by helping a local person out of homelessness. In order to qualify for the scholarship, applicants must attend at least three PULSE general body meetings, meet a minimum GPA requirement of 3.0 and submit an essay.
This year, applicants responded to the statement “Empowered women empower women.”
“We don’t want people to just speak on things that they do on campus, but how they impact the community because we, as college students, have a great impact on this community, so we want to see some positivity,” Traore said. “Some of the essays are really beautiful.”
Courtney Small, a senior majoring in mathematics who attended the event, said her favorite part of the PULSE Banquet was the awards ceremony.
“People need that little push of encouragement and enthusiasm,” Small said. “So I’m glad they’re acknowledging everybody who has done little things around campus.”
Shavae Lewis, president of the Charles Drew Minority Pre-Health Society and a senior majoring in integrative neuroscience, said the banquet also allowed on-campus organizations to support one another.
“As president of a fellow student organization, I wanted to come out and support the student body,” Lewis said. “The event is to empower and strengthen women of color. PULSE, as an organization, has been doing that all year.”