{"id":155680,"date":"2026-03-06T21:20:35","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T21:20:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/155680\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T21:20:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T21:20:35","slug":"orange-bank-trust-company-hosts-annual-bronx-women-in-business-empowerment-event-bronx-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/155680\/","title":{"rendered":"Orange Bank &#038; Trust Company hosts annual Bronx Women in Business Empowerment event \u2013 Bronx Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<img width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/16-_DSC7381.jpg\" class=\"crop-center wp-post-image\" alt=\"16-_DSC7381\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  \/>\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Jasmine\u2019Lee Martinez, Yaniely Rodriguez, and Elizabeth McGann speak amongst themselves during the Bronx Women in Business Empowerment Event. They were presented with an award for their essays, which described their perfect world. Photo by Alice Moreno.<\/p>\n<p>Orange Bank &amp; Trust Company hosted the second annual Bronx Women in Business Empowerment Event at the F&amp;J Pine Restaurant, located at 1913 Bronxdale Ave on March 5. <\/p>\n<p>Billed as an evening of \u201cwomen elevating women,\u201d the event celebrated their achievements throughout the years.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-141193\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/18-_DSC7423-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"467\"  \/>Guests were given goodie bags that said \u201cBronx Women in Business.\u201d Photo by Alice Moreno.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-141194\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/4-_DSC7232.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"467\"  \/>Bronx Women in Business committee members listen in on Vanessa Baijnauth\u2019s speech. Photo by Alice Moreno.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was blown away, inspired, not only to be part of the organizational process, but to be in a room full of women who are in different industry roles,\u201d said Swannie Batista, co-founder of Paralegals FTC. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cReally discussing how they overcame the different challenges in trying to take on membership roles and being able to expose these young women that anything is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-141195\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/9-_DSC7279.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"467\"  \/>Senator Nathalia Fernandez honors Michael Gilfeather, President and CEO of Orange Bank &amp; Trust, with a proclamation for his financial efforts. Photo by Alice Moreno.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-141196\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/3-_DSC7227.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"467\"  \/>Vanessa Baijnauth, Assistant Vice President of the Bronx branch of Orange Bank &amp; Trust Company, welcomes members of the Bronx Women in Business committee. Photo by Alice Moreno.<\/p>\n<p>The Keynote speaker of the event was Melissa Aviles-Ramos, the former Chancellor of New York City Public Schools. In her speech, she touched on the idea of sisterhood, reminding guests that they are not alone, and that they are important.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWalk in your purpose, be the first in something, or stand on the shoulders of a first to do it even better, build legacy and grab a sister so she knows she has you,\u201d Aviles-Ramos said in her speech.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-141197\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/17-_DSC7421.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"467\"  \/>At each table, guests were able to grab a rose that contained a special quote. For this activity, guests were to read the quote to the table and discuss. Photo by Alice Moreno.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLight the world up, because right now there\u2019s a lot of darkness, and what better time for us to all put our lights on and bring the world that light.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Bronx Women in Business event was founded by Vanessa Baijnauth, Assistant Vice President of Orange Bank &amp; Trust. The bank has sponsored the event since its inauguration in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jasmine\u2019Lee Martinez, Yaniely Rodriguez, and Elizabeth McGann speak amongst themselves during the Bronx Women in Business Empowerment Event.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,64432,64433,5396,9,24,63,14991,64434,129,131,130,64435],"class_list":{"0":"post-155680","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-bronx","9":"tag-bronx-women-in-business-empowerment-event","10":"tag-f-and-j-pine-restaurant","11":"tag-melissa-aviles-ramos","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-orange-bank-trust-company","16":"tag-swannie-batista","17":"tag-the-bronx","18":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","19":"tag-the-bronx-news","20":"tag-vanessa-baijnauth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}