<div>D’Nayzah Charise Heyward will be competing as contestant #1 in the upcoming Miss Black and Gold pageant. She is a senior finance major. Goals of hers include encouraging financial literacy, spiritual well being and self discipline in her community. She is heavily involved on campus, serving as the community service chair for the National Association of Black Accountants, a model for Precise and a student manager at WCU’s Financial Aid Office, among other things. She hopes to become the next Miss Black and Gold to inspire others and be a further asset to the Zeta Psi chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated. Personal Background and ValuesQ: Can you tell us about your background and what motivated you to participate in the Miss Black and Gold pageant?A: I am from Philadelphia and Chester. I’ve lived half of my life in Philly, and the other half in Chester. I come from a small low-income family. I have two sisters and one brother. I am very family oriented. I love my community; they are what keeps me going. Some things that I did as a little girl were being active: playing outside, double dutch, football, dance, soccer, a lot of different things that kept me active. When I got to high school, I started to play sports like cross country and track and field. It was a mindset changing experience. I learned lots of self discipline through those years and learned how to push myself. I ended up coming to West Chester University for track and field, but then I realized I wanted to step into the creative version of myself outside of sports. That is kind of one of the reasons why I joined Miss Black and Gold. I started with Precise, then praise dance, now this pageant. Miss Black and Gold kind of puts together the many lives I have lived and kind of ties all my interests together. I really just wanted to gain my confidence back and broadcast myself. I’ve never competed in a pageant in my life. I’ve never competed against other women. This is definitely something new for me, so I am nervous but also excited. In all, the reason I joined the pageant was to tap into different creative avenues. I also learned a lot about the Zeta Psi chapter, and I would love to be an asset for anything they plan to do in the upcoming future as well. And there’s a sisterhood too. We enjoy ourselves and laugh all the time.&nbsp;Q: How has your cultural heritage shaped your identity?A: My cultural heritage has shaped my identity, because I come from poverty. I’ve seen things that I did not want to do. I learned how I did not want to live my life. From that I decided to go to college, study finance and push myself. I work full time; I study full time. I’ve learned things like emotional intelligence, financial literacy and self discipline. My community, if I’m being honest, did not teach me those things. Coming to college, I’ve seen a new perspective on life. What drives me is just breaking generational curses and habits that aren’t fruitful for my future. The idea of living in poverty has made me go ten times harder for the life I want to live in my future. Leadership and Community EngagementQ: Can you share an experience where you made a significant impact in your community?A: I would definitely say when I gave my life to Christ. I go to church at Pentecostal House of Prayer every Sunday. So when I got to college, again, I wanted to turn my life around. I didn’t want to live like the people in my environment. I knew that I needed God to get to where I wanted to be. So one day my junior year, when I came back to campus, I decided to get baptized. After that, my life was completely different. I wasn’t going outside much, my friends couldn’t find me. I was just at home fasting, praying and really sanctifying myself with the Lord. I was kind of isolated but in God’s presence. I thank God for that moment because ever since then, my life has been different. Although there have been ups and downs, I can honestly say I’m blessed to have an impact on the women that are around me. Like my friends all come to church with me on Sundays because I made the choice to walk the narrow path. The fact that I was able to turn my life around while we were still in college, it’s a blessing to watch my friends do the same thing. Now we kind of have a sisterhood in Christ. Them being able to experience the same God that I experience is special to me. I would definitely say my baptism and my choice to give my life to Christ impacted my community in a spiritual way.&nbsp;Q: What initiatives or causes are you passionate about, and how do you plan to promote them during your reign?A: What I’m passionate about is spiritual well being of course. But most of all I want to be able to give back to my community and promote financial literacy, self discipline and professionalism. All throughout college, I have acquired all three skills and they have been very beneficial for me, and I will take them into the rest of my life. Right now, I work in corporate America. I would love to one day teach students to get to where they need to be by implementing these skills in their daily lives. I think that self discipline is a barrier from where we are and where we want to be. I think professionalism and financial literacy is a way to make working worth it and working toward financial freedom. I plan to promote these ideas as the next potential Miss Black and Gold. Academic and Professional AspirationsQ: How do you balance your academic or professional responsibilities with your role as a contestant?A: I ask myself ‘How bad do I want it?’ I balance a lot. I’m working full time in corporate America, going to school full time, I’m in orgs on campus, not to mention this pageant. Like I said, self discipline is that barrier from where I am and where I want to be. Yes we should have fun in these years, but I do think that the decisions we make now will definitely mark where our futures should go. I also use planners. I have a planner in my bookbag, and I have a whiteboard planner on my wall. I write a to-do list every day and I check everything off every day. So overall, time management, calendars, to-do lists and asking yourself how bad you want it. Q: What are your future career aspirations, and how do you see yourself contributing to your community or society in that role?A: I study finance. I intend to pursue a Master’s degree in computer science. I like challenging things and coursework, so what I study has to be challenging for me to enjoy it. I plan to work in the financial technology field after school. As of right now, how I plan to implement the skills that I’ve acquired is I plan to teach financial literacy beyond my collegiate career. As your next potential Miss Black and Gold, I would be happy to teach and serve youth and young adults about financial literacy and to keep that going in my career. For example: making e-books and doing workshops, all while working in the financial technology field. Social Issues and AdvocacyQ: What social issues do you believe are most pressing for the African American community today, and how can we address them?A: I do think we deal with a lot of issues with income inequality. There’s definitely a wealth gap. We don’t have as much access to credit. There’s discrimination in different practices. We don’t realize this but a lot of African Americans don’t have access to credit. There’s employment disparities, hiring discrimination. While there is DEI in an effort to benefit us, there is now a lot of propaganda and imposter syndrome about whether or not we belong in certain rooms because of DEI initiatives. We don’t have that history from our parents on how to navigate jobs and the professional world so some things are lacking in that area. African Americans do struggle financially in America. We are not represented in the upper class as much as we should be. But I can say we are making progress. I do think we need more outreach and education with our youth and teaching kids how to be financially literate and change habits. Nobody in my community taught me financial literacy. We could implement more resources into our communities on that.&nbsp;Q: How do you plan to use your platform to advocate for social justice and equality?A: How I plan to use my platform is raising awareness… Social media outreach, programs, event planning, community service and more educational materials. Some people don’t know or don’t research it themselves, but lots of outreach and events would be the best way to promote social justice and equality. Personal Reflection and GoalsQ: What is one personal challenge you’ve overcome, and what did you learn from that experience?A: I would say controlling my emotions. As a young girl, I did lack emotional intelligence. That was not something that was taught to me in my upbringing. However, in order to step into certain rooms and maintain the image you have of yourself, you have to be emotionally aware and intelligent. I have been through some things. There’s been situations where I made the wrong decision and it ended up affecting me. Everything has a consequence of course. I think that after making the same mistakes many times where someone does you wrong and you react rather than thinking first, you start to realize the consequence that has on yourself. No one else is in control of your emotions but yourself. I think it’s important for everyone to have emotional intelligence. That way we can think before we speak, we can think before we act, other people aren’t controlling our emotions and we’re wholesome and we have individuality. So emotional intelligence is something I had to gain; the lack of it was a barrier. I am grateful I was able to learn that at a young age because some people don’t get the opportunity to overcome that hard reality.&nbsp;Q: If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be and why?A: I would not change anything. I believe that everything happens for a reason and that God is in control of the will of our lives. I believe he is the decision maker of everything right now. I don’t want to be in control of that in any way. I think we serve an intentional God, so I would change nothing. Fun and PersonalityQ: What is a fun fact about yourself that not many people know?A: I would say people don’t know that I used to play the clarinet when I was younger.Q: If you could have dinner with any historical figure, who would it be and why?A: I would have dinner with Maya Angelou. She was very poetic, wise and well-put together. I would just want to know personally what drove her. Maybe I would be able to feed off that energy and step into a more creative side of myself. I have learned a lot about the creative version of myself through the pageant process, and now that I’m here, I want to cultivate that creativity. I would talk to her because she is also a creative.Closing ThoughtsQ: What legacy do you hope to leave as Miss Black and Gold?A: The legacy I want to leave as Miss Black and Gold, I want people to gain knowledge from me. I want people to know that Miss Black and Gold is a woman who educates herself on many sectors of life. I want people to gain financial literacy and professionalism from me. Most of all I want people to gain their ‘why.’ Some of us are lost and haven’t found ourselves. As your next potential Miss Black and Gold, I want to be someone educated who is also helpful to her community. Justine Koffi is 4th year Strategic Communications Major with a minor in Computer Science (NABJ’s Treasurer)</div>

Mountain View, CA

NewsBreak

Miss Black and Gold: D’nayzah Heyward

D’Nayzah Charise Heyward will be competing as contestant #1 in the upcoming Miss Black and Gold pageant. She is a senior finance major. Goals of hers include encouraging financial literacy, spiritual well being and self discipline in her community. She is heavily involved on campus, serving as the community service chair for the National Association of Black Accountants, a model for Precise and a student manager at WCU’s Financial Aid Office, among other things. She hopes to become the next Miss Black and Gold to inspire others and be a further asset to the Zeta Psi chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated.