ARISE and Shine: Bayer Celebrates Black History Month
By Cyeria Jackson, Black History Month Co-Lead, Senior Manager Internal Audit
It’s Black History Month! As a member of the leadership team for the ARISE Business Resource Group at Bayer, I’ve spent a lot of time over the last few months coordinating Black History Month activities across the U.S. — over my lunch, between meetings, after dinner — and it has given me incredible energy.
Our theme for the month: ARISE and Shine, illuminating culture, community and connection. We have events focused on small holder farmers, the impact of race and ethnicity on heart health, cultural events and community service activities.
In my house and in my family, we recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of African Americans and African American culture throughout the year. Now for me to be able to devote time at Bayer to share and celebrate pieces of African American history, culture and current issues with the broader Bayer community is very meaningful.
It has also been motivating to help connect Bayer’s individual ARISE chapters across the U.S. and get to know other African American colleagues throughout the company. We are all in different places in our careers and have had different experiences so sharing those and learning how to leverage and learn from each other has been good. As our ARISE Leadership Team worked through the calendar, we took care to connect what we do at Bayer to the African American community.
ARISE is a company sponsored business resource group (BRG) supporting employees of African descent. Members work to promote cultural diversity, awareness, and education and are key partners in Bayer’s efforts to cultivate an inclusive environment and to engage employees around critical Inclusion & Diversity objectives.
I’m proud to work at Bayer. This is an exciting time. The projects we are working on and the commitments we’ve made as a company will have a profound impact on world. Knowing that ARISE’s efforts, along with our other BRGs, will help ensure Bayer has an inclusive work environment is encouraging to me and other employees. We can bring who we are to work every day and help ensure people of diverse backgrounds can significantly contribute to this important work.
My hope is that years from now, I’ll reflect and share stories with future generations about how the work we are doing today impacted world hunger, health care for the underserved and climate change. That’s something that makes me ARISE and Shine every day not just during Black History Month.
