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My name is Sharnay Hearn-Davis. I am 29 years old. I am currently a doctoral student at Duquesne University studying my doctorate in educational leadership. My Bachelors degree is in social work from Slippery Rock University. My Masters degree is in community leadership from Duquesne University. I am born and raised in the Hill District. I grew up on Bentley Dr. I lived in the Hill District until I was about 10 years old. I am an Ebeneezer Baptist Church baby. I went to Ebeneezer since I was about 5. I still attend Ebeneezer now as an adult as well, so I always say everything that I do is based off of my upbringing in the Hill District. I was a baby of Miller African Centered Academy School under the leadership of Doctor Rosemary Moriarty. While I was growing up on my professional journey, I started to think that I didn’t have many African American women mentors. It wasn’t until I got into my doctorate program that I reached back out to Doctor Moriarty, so she’s now helping me write my dissertation. I went from being her student as an elementary student, and now she’s helping me work on my dissertation. So every time I just listen to her wisdom, it’s like an eye opening experience, because who would ever think that you get to work with the principal, or work with your teachers? She is definitely one of the people who I say is one of the reasons why I do everything I do.
I am currently a graduate assistant at the Duquesne Center for Community Engaged Teaching and Research. What I do in my role is we have a program that’s called the Community Engaged Scholars program. So we take undergraduate students and teach them about community engagement and how to be a scholar beyond Duquesne’s campus. So I enjoy my job because I really get to take students who come from privileged backgrounds and teach them about social justice issues and really how to be involved when they go into communities of color and also helping them to expand their mindset around social justice issues.
There are a lot of changes currently happening in the Hill District. One of the things that I personally would like to see, I would like to see more small businesses with storefronts in the Hill District. I think the storefronts put a different feel for the community when you can actually look into somebody’s window and see businesses and successful entrepreneurs, especially African American entrepreneurs, being active in the community. It’s a spark for, I would say, youth, but also adults to really dream and begin to think about what they can be, and then also the violence, the youth violence. I think we need to be more proactive in asking youth what you all like to see versus what we want to see in regards to venues and things for you actually to do outside of school.
Miss Michelle Cooper, Miss Michelle Cooper was my first mentor in elementary school. Prior to last year, I was the Director of Workforce Development for the Hill House Association, and when I came into my role, Miss Michelle was one of the funders who was funding my program, so it was really exciting once again, because it was like I didn’t even know that she was planting the seeds in me for community development and Doctor Moriarty and Reverend Winset. All of those staple, or Hill staple, individuals were really all about making sure that we loved our community, not only loved it, but we actually took care of the community, and so I think that’s one of the reasons that I actually went into the community development work. One of the things that I always tell youth that I work with, find somebody who’s older than you that you can confide in, and then you can really have a conversation. Open the dialogue about what you’re experiencing through life. Oftentimes when you’re younger, you always sometimes go to your friends because you feel like no adults understand. But if you can’t find an adult that you find confident, journal. Journaling was my best friend. I always tell people “If you like to write, you never know, your story can easily impact and empower somebody else, so you never know those words or those experiences that you have can always be there for somebody else.”