On Thursday, March 31, Wayne State College hosted a seminar called Navigating Higher Education and Life after Graduation for Colored Women at 6:30 p.m. in Gardner Auditorium hosted by Jackie Martinez.  

Martinez is from California but works for University of Sioux Falls and is an international and multicultural program coordinator. She does presentations all over the Midwest’s colleges. Martinez does this presentation because she is a first generation Latinx and part of the LGBTQ+ and wants to help other minorities.  

At the start of the presentation Jackie handed out papers that asked 10 questions that will help one find their goals and succeeded in life as a colored woman. The back side of the paper detailed what code-switching is. 

“Code-switching is defined as the practice of alternating between two or more languages or varieties of languages in conversation in its most literal sense, code-switching is much deeper than oxfords translation,” Martinez said.  

Martinez talks about how code-switching is centered around Black experience because Black people switch the way they speak, act, and interact with people they work with within the companies, so they won’t be discriminated.  

Martinez also had a PowerPoint presentation along with the paper that asked questions for the audience like their stories, their assets and what obstacles they face. Many people stood up and answered her questions and she sympathized with them and told them how to get through their obstacles as a colored woman.  

At the end of the presentation, Edi Hernandez, a multicultural program coordinator for WSC, stood up and asked if anybody had questions and made people group up for a picture.