{"669314":{"#nid":"669314","#data":{"type":"news","title":"National Black Business Month Spotlight: Archel Bernard","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBoth of her grandfathers owned transportation companies. Her father owned a construction company. Entrepreneurship is in Archel Bernard\u2019s DNA.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EBut to Bernard, STC 2011, being an entrepreneur isn\u2019t just about owning a business. It\u2019s about representing African makers, celebrating the diversity of Atlanta, and letting people know that Georgia Tech prepares you for any challenge that can come your way.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt\u2019s never lost on me that I have a Georgia Tech degree. My grandmother grew up in south Georgia. She went to Clark College down the street, and when she was college-aged, she would have only been allowed on the Georgia Tech campus to clean the floors,\u201d said Bernard. \u201cBut look where we are now. I own an African store in a building my grandmother couldn\u2019t even shop in, and I have a degree from a school she couldn\u2019t attend.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe month of August marks Black Business Month. This celebration of Black businesses can be traced back to 2004, when engineer and entrepreneur Frederick E. Jordan partnered with executive editor John William Templeton to start this annual event. But until this year, Bernard had never heard of Black Business Month. Maybe that\u2019s because she\u2019s been too busy living it and being a representation of it, here and in her ancestral home country, Liberia.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cMy business is thriving in Atlanta, a city that is excited to celebrate diversity, growth, and community understanding,\u201d said Bernard. \u201cI\u2019m grateful to celebrate Black businesses. We know segregation and integration had often negative results for black businesses, even understanding that my business is around the corner from Auburn Avenue, which was once the richest Black neighborhood in the U.S. until a highway was built through the middle. Building a Black business right now is incredibly special, especially a unifying clothing company like my own.\u201d\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nBernard recently teamed up with the Georgia Tech Black Alumni Organization (GTBAO) to host their annual Summer Social for the third year in a row.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cGTBAO is probably the strongest alumni affinity group at Georgia Tech. GTBAO brings people together who consistently celebrate diversity and work toward keeping Georgia Tech as inclusive as we can,\u201d said Bernard, who served on the Board of Trustees at the Georgia Tech Alumni Association for three years.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI really enjoyed serving as a board member because I made a lot of fantastic friendships and unique connections with a range of alumni from different age groups and backgrounds. That\u2019s the wealth of being a Georgia Tech graduate. We are extremely connective, and we are excited to support each other.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EBernard says working with both groups has taught her a valuable lesson.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cSometimes it\u2019s not always about who can cut the biggest check and donate the most money. I\u2019m certainly not the biggest donor, but I am always so grateful to host an event where people can pull up and catch a real, organic vibe with fellow alumni.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAs the month of August closes out, Bernard will go far beyond these 31 days of a summer month to increase the influence of Black businesses in Atlanta, Monrovia, and everywhere else her brand leaves a footprint.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWhen you are given the opportunity to attend Georgia Tech as a Black woman, and certainly when you\u2019re not an engineer, you have to represent,\u201d said Bernard. \u201cWhen I graduated, I felt armed with everything I needed to grow a fantastic, impactful, culture-shaping, Black business, and I\u2019ve been building the company of my dreams with the support of the GT community ever since.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ETo Archel Barnard, STC 2011, being an entrepreneur isn\u2019t just about owning a business. It\u2019s about representing African makers, celebrating the diversity of Atlanta, and letting people know that Georgia Tech prepares you for any challenge that can come your way.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"To Archel Barnard, STC 2011, being an entrepreneur isn\u2019t just about owning a business. It\u2019s about representing African makers, celebrating the diversity of Atlanta, and letting people know that GT prepares you for any challenge that can come your way."}],"uid":"35766","created_gmt":"2023-08-31 16:05:39","changed_gmt":"2023-09-06 21:34:29","author":"dminardi3","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2023-08-31T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2023-08-31T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"496321":{"id":"496321","type":"image","title":"Archel Bernard, STAC 2011","body":null,"created":"1455120000","gmt_created":"2016-02-10 16:00:00","changed":"1475895253","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:54:13","alt":"Archel Bernard, STAC 2011","file":{"fid":"204587","name":"archelbernardstc2011.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/archelbernardstc2011_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/archelbernardstc2011_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":102082,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/archelbernardstc2011_0.jpg?itok=eEc2g92c"}}},"media_ids":["496321"],"groups":[{"id":"1281","name":"Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts"},{"id":"1283","name":"School of Literature, Media, and Communication"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJoshua Smith\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jsmith830@gatech.edu\u0022\u003ESocial Media Specialist\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jsmith830@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}