During his time at Lehigh, Ralph Jean-Noel spent a lot of time soul searching – trying to figure out what he wanted to do. Ralph came to Lehigh as a Business major. He quickly developed interests outside of the classroom and became very involved as a student activist. Ralph served as Treasurer and VP of the Black Student Union and worked at the Office of Multicultural Affairs. Ralph helped to lead the “From Beneath the Rug” movement, which challenged Lehigh on its racist history and unfair policies that negatively affect Black and Brown students and pushed the institution’s leadership to taking swift and consistent steps towards change. Ralph also worked as a Diversity Recruitment Intern focused on helping to increase the recruitment and acceptance of Black and Brown students in the admissions office.
During his junior year, Ralph connected with a few faculty mentors, made a shift to majoring in Global Studies and minoring in Africana Studies, “and everything started to click” he says. “I realized I was passionate about people, and helping people. In Global Studies, we studied and analyzed the way that people, institutions and larger society interact. I learned how to look at a body of work – media, books, articles, etc., through a critical lens, and think about the author’s motivations, intent, and impact on the audience it was intended for. I researched and learned how to vet credible sources of information vs believing what meets the eye. We examined the evolution of national and global institutions, and the implications of these on people and communities. My new major finally married what I did outside of the classroom with what I studied and wrote about within.”
Ralph says that the Global Studies major gave me the space and freedom to explore the world and gain valuable career experience. Ralph participated in the Iacocca Internship Program in Ghana – completing an internship in Product and Business Development. He also studied abroad in Kenya, working on a sustainable development project exploring the challenges and impact of international social entrepreneurship. Through these experiences, Ralph says he started to witness the value of intersecting entrepreneurship and business with community building.
Because of the knowledge and experiences Ralph had as a Global Studies student, he says he has been able to navigate the corporate world with a humanities and socially focused lens. Ralph graduated Lehigh in 2015 and achieved his goal of working at the intersection of technology, entrepreneurship and community empowerment. Currently, he works at Facebook as a Program Lead for Facebook Elevate. “Our mission is to accelerate the economic impact of Black and Latinx & Hispanic owned businesses, creators, non-profits, community leaders and job seekers. We build educational programming and mentorship to help Black & Latinx communities take full advantage and access of the full power of the Facebook platform in support of driving economic growth, helping build generational wealth and closing the racial wealth gap.”
Ralph comments that, “My time as a Global Studies major gave me space to think, study and reimagine what institutions could look like, and what their roles should be in our society. I learned to think critically, to study the nuances, and be to incredibly intentional about what we do and the impact we want to have on the world – which are valuable skills to have in an economic and business driven world shifting to become more mission driven and community centric. My interdisciplinary experience as a Global Studies and Africana Studies student provided a solid foundation for how I approach the revolutionary work I do today.”