Ashley Petgrave, winner of American Banker's Young Women's Leadership Award, has always been involved in making change. She graduated from Francis Lewis High School in Queens, New York, last spring and is currently a first year student at Howard University, where she plans to major in computer science with a minor in business.
In February 2023, the spring of her senior year, Petgrave founded StudentsWhileBlack, a social media outlet that gives Black students across New York City public schools a place to discuss their experiences with racial discrimination within the school system.
"I don't believe that we can eliminate discrimination completely, I think that's something that's going to exist for however long that bullying exists and hatred exists; the most that we can do is provide education and emotional support for students that experience it," she said. "There were so many instances of racial discrimination that I experienced in school, and I was very tired of it. I noticed that there were a lot of Instagram accounts representing individual schools, and I thought it was important that someone put together all schools and make it a recognized issue." Her long-term plan is to take the information from StudentsWhileBlack to the Department of Education, giving the city agency the data it needs to mitigate the effects of racial discrimination toward students. "I hope that in the years to come, [the New York City public school system] is more diverse, safer for black students and less segregated," she said.
Petgrave has also always felt passionate about women's empowerment. "I've always been truly into pushing for the empowerment of women, however, I didn't really get into it until quarantine when I started to read books by Angela Davis and Bell Hooks and I learned more about feminism throughout history; it was all very inspiring and I thought that maybe I could make an actual impact in other women's lives," she said.
At school, she's a student ambassador for My Sister's Keeper, a club that brings together girls of color to talk about their experiences. "What I've learned from the club is the importance of talking about things that are bothering you and just having conversations … because how can we make any sort of change whatsoever if we're not talking about what the problem is? If we're running around the problem there is no solution being made," she said.
Petgrave hopes to help women further in the future through the creation of her own business. With a major in computer science and a minor in business, she hopes to start a technology company designed to encourage women, in particular Black women and other women of color, to go into STEM-related fields — and she plans to do the website coding herself. "There are so many barriers in corporate industries and the tech industry that don't allow Black women to succeed. There just needs to be something that just makes it easier," said Petgrave.
Petgrave believes that the most important qualities in a leader are a willingness to listen, confidence in yourself and those around you and empathy. She also emphasizes the importance of a leader's willingness to learn from missteps. "Be prepared to make mistakes, and know that it's completely fine to make mistakes," she said. "You will learn from your mistakes and how to correct them. … Being a leader is all about learning and then guiding people based off your mistakes."
