Pamela Mitchell

Thank you, granny.

My mother said, Pamela, you know as a black woman, you're going to have to work twice as hard to be taken seriously.

So don't think you can fool around like the rest of those girls.

So off I went with all their advice and love and support and pressure.

And I worked hard for those four years, and it was tough, but I finished.

And on that graduation day, when I stood there with my mother and my sisters, I said, you know, this is so great.

I have accomplished this, not just for me, but for my family, too.

And maybe now that I have this Harvard degree and it's on my resume, no one can take it away from me.

I don't have to work so hard to prove myself.

So I chose my graduate school based upon the fact that I don't have to work so hard to prove myself.

And I decided to go to the American Graduate School of International Management, also known as Thunderbird, in Phoenix, Arizona.

Now, given its location and its specialization, they barely saw any black students, much less one from Harvard.

But that didn't stop me.

I was going.

So I go to registration.

And I'm standing in line.

And I'm watching all the students.

And they're going up, handing their transcripts over to the professors.

And they're just checking it off.

And they're getting their class waivers and registering and going off.