Campus Life & Inclusive Excellence, Queer Student Alliance and the 2017 Black Women Lead Summit Kick-Off Planning Committee hosted the Black Women Lead Kick-Off event to introduce DU’s second annual Black Woman Lead Summit on Feb. 2. This year’s kick-off event featured motivational speaker and former Miss Kentucky, Djuan Trent.

The purpose of the Black Women Lead Summit, hosted by DU on Feb. 3, is to, “provide high school Black women students with an opportunity to participate in a program that promotes leadership, academic achievement and community involvement while developing their Black woman identity,” according to the event’s Facebook page.

To introduce this event, Djuan Trent spoke on her own personal journey of self-acceptance, goal-setting, failure and achievement. Pulling the crowd into an intimate circle, she told the story of how she came out as queer while participating in the Miss America competition. She explained that learning to be herself was the most valuable lesson she could take from participating in Miss America.

Trent also spoke of the times that she failed, explaining that she failed many pageants in order to become Miss Kentucky. It was in this failing, she said, that she learned who she was and the importance of staying true to herself.

She ended the event by asking the crowd to repeat after her: “If I want to excel, I cannot be afraid to fail.”