Showing posts with label West Point African American women. Show all posts
Showing posts with label West Point African American women. Show all posts

Thursday, May 16, 2019

West Point graduates 34 African-American women, the most ever from one class

Thirty-four black women are expected to graduate from West Point next week.

That will be the largest class of African-American women to graduate together in the military academy's lengthy history, West Point spokesman Frank Demaro said.

"Last year's graduating class had 27," said Demaro. "And the expectation is next year's class will be even larger than this year's."

West Point's graduating class is seeing diversity in other minority groups. "Also, this year's class will have the highest number of female Hispanic graduates along with graduating our 5,000th female cadet since the first class of women to graduate in 1980," said Demaro.

Cadet Tiffany Welch-Baker, spoke to the website "Because Of Them We Can," about her feelings about being a part of this historic graduating class.

"My hope when young black girls see these photos is that they understand that regardless of what life presents you, you have the ability and fortitude to be a force to be reckoned with."

West Point created its office of diversity in 2014 to try to attract, retain and promote a "more diverse workforce" according to its website.

About 10% of undergraduate students are black and women make up about 20% of cadets, according to the school's statistics.

[SOURCE: CNN]