-
CHSOC Alum on the Move!
featured in Howard Magazine


NICOLE BLACK: CO-OWNER, PHILADELPHIA DIAMOND COMPANY

BY: 

BRIAHNNA BROWN
Like the diamonds she sells, Nicole Black (B.A. ’92) became the embodiment of The Howard Woman while under pressure. 
“The Howard Woman is bold,” Black said. “She’s resilient, she’s a trendsetter, she’s unbelievably resourceful, she’s
a groundbreaker, she’s fearless, she’s conscious.” 
As co-owner of the Philadelphia Diamond Company, with her husband, Kenyatta Black, Nicole Black credits a great deal of her success to the opportunities she was given while a student in the School of Communications. 
“When you have the exposure at Howard where it’s like you can make a way out of no way ... day in and day out ... that really set me on a course of success, quite frankly,” Black said. 
While at Howard, she knew she wanted to focus on public relations, so she landed an internship in corporate public relations at DuPont USA, a chemical and healthcare conglomerate. At 19 years old, she was incredibly steadfast in creating her future and interacted with the higher-ups at the company. 
Because of my can-do attitude and the confidence that was instilled in me from Howard, they were always so impressed with how I carried myself at that age,” Black said. “So, I got more opportunity because of it.” 
After earning her M.B.A. from Clark Atlanta University, Black went on to work as a brand manager at Johnson & Johnson, where she helped launch Splenda. But it was always the plan for Black to leave the corporate world to focus her attention on the diamond business that she and her husband, a second-generation jeweler, started almost 15 years ago and to spend more time with her elderly parents and two young sons. This past February, she did just that. 
Black has been working to make their business appealing to millennials with many customization options, appointment-only services and their Queen Cut diamonds. This business model differs from the retail storefront they ran back when they’d first started, and she said that she is excited to see how their business continues to grow. 
“Your version 1.0 is not going to look like your final success, because you have to learn,” she said. “You have to fail and adapt.” 
Categories: 
Issue: 

Share: 

Share page with AddThis

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

-
Image
2015 Paul Robeson Awards Ava Duvernay ,  Selma  director/writer and  Bradford Young ,  Selma  cinematographer and School of C alum, were honored at the 2015 Paul Robeson Awards. The awards event was hosted by the School of Communications Media, Journalism and Film department at the Embassy of France in Washington, D.C. The event included a showcase of the best student productions this year. Also honored were three faculty members, who are retiring at the end of the year:  Drs. Bishetta Merritt, Paula Matabane  and  Lawrence Kaggwa . The committee chair Professor  Sonja Williams  and other faculty and staff helped to make it a memorable event. Congratulations to everyone !
Read more
-
Image
Connections Make a Difference Today@Apple Sessions The Apple Carnegie Library welcomed students from Howard University's Advertising & Copyright Design and Audio for TV & Film and Multimedia Audio Production classes during the Spring 2020 semester. For more than 120 minutes, students explored how to take a concept for a campaign and map it out with a storyboard using Procreate and practice bringing a storyboard to life using the Trailers section of iMovie. The session was part of a planned three-part Field Trip series (prior to COVID-19 pandemic) in which students explored with Apple staff how to create media for advertising and marketing campaigns in iMovie and GarageBand. Thanks to Professor  Roger Caruth  for arranging this opportunity for students. Omnicom & ANA Visit Omnicom and ANA Educational Foundation's visited Howard in early March. The group provided students with information on internship and entry level job opportunities in the advertising
Read more
-
Image
School of C Highlights #DTU Coming full Circle From left, MCLyte, #DTU spokesperson, Tatyana Hopkins,  Rushawn Walters, Brandi Montgomery, Victoria Jones, Sidnee King, and Dr.Benjamin Chavis, NNPA President & CEO It was a time of celebration for the #DiscoverTheUnexpected (#DTU) fellows, who were recognized at a closing ceremony luncheon for the #DTU, NNPA/Chevrolet sponsored journalism fellowship program. Eight Howard University students participated in the summer 2016 internship and scholarship program. They worked in four markets – Atlanta, Detroit, Chicago and Washington, D.C. – at National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) member papers. The students developed content across multiple platforms to cover communities in the four cities with storytelling that reflected people and issues across a range of topics. During the Congressional Black Caucus conference in D.C., the NNPA recognized the fellows for the inaugural program, which was launched
Read more