University of Puget Sound student advocates for Black voices

“During the pandemic, when there were all these protests in Tacoma about racial justice, there were also a lot of businesses getting boarded up. The city brought in artists to paint murals on the boarded-up windows, and so this is an echo of that and a message that Black lives matter in Tacoma,” Pargmann-Hayes says. “My job is to keep things flowing, coordinate communication between everyone on the team, take notes during meetings, and manage the volunteers. I’ve never sent an email to 400 people before, so there was a bit of a learning curve.”

The mural celebrates the achievements of African Americans through history and points to future equality through images of Black Lives Matter protests and Black people standing in solidarity against historic oppression. Planning for the mural began in April 2022 with public input, and painting the plaza steps began in June. Every step of the way, Pargmann-Hayes assisted the artists in making their vision a reality, which included scheduling dozens of volunteers and inviting the public to add their handprints in the project’s final days.

“It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience—especially since I’m not an artist—to work on this mural,” Pargmann-Hayes says. “To have it line up with what I’m studying was amazing.”

Pargmann-Hayes is pursuing a double major in communication studies and African American studies with a minor in computer science. In addition to her summer internship, she’s also active on campus as an advocate for diversity—and for Black students in particular. Pargmann-Hayes is a member of the Black Student Union, works as a program assistant for the Race & Pedagogy Institute (RPI), is a resident assistant in her residence hall, and serves as the director of equity, inclusion, and justice for the Associated Students of University of Puget Sound (ASUPS).

“With ASUPS, I’ve been working to create a student justice board as a place for people to talk about issues of diversity and equity, with the goal to take some of the burden of advocacy off of the identity-based clubs,” Pargmann-Hayes says. “We can’t change the demographics of the university overnight, so we have to work to create a more culturally aware space with the community we have, and that starts with educating people and starting a conversation.”

Pargmann-Hayes was living in Eastern Washington at the start of the protests surrounding the death of George Floyd in 2020, and she noticed that the reaction in her community was overwhelmingly negative. When she started her first semester at Puget Sound that fall, she got connected with the Black Student Union, where she first learned how to articulate her feelings about social justice issues and speak up for her beliefs. After graduation, she plans to work professionally on diversity, equity, and inclusion issues, and hopes to address issues of racism in communities like the one where she grew up.

“Studying at Puget Sound has ignited a fire in me to make a difference for young Black girls,” Pargmann-Hayes says. “It’s made me aware of what I’m capable of and the change that I can make.”