A Breakthrough In My Thinking

We finished presenting the Amazing Women monologues today. My presentation went well - I felt like my legs were shaking the whole time, but I asked people later and nobody noticed at all. The other students asked several questions after my monologue about Rigoberta Menchu; I think her story came across as unique and interesting. Dean Rose came in as we were discussing the  Amazing Women as a group and asked what we had learned from their experiences. I volunteered my belief that they all pushed past both external and internal obstacles, and that the internal hurdle of self-confidence is the most important to conquer.

Kisa brought in a panel of professional women, which was very diverse. Their professions ranged from educators to doctors to leaders of community organizing groups. One of the women was rather soft-spoken, and I was almost surprised that someone quiet could be a successful leader. It was great to have role models that everybody in the room could relate to. Another brought her five-year-old daughter in and said that child-rearing was much harder than any career. Even those that did not have children said that it's important to stay connected to people that are important to you, such as mentors, family, and friends in order to keep a balanced life.

Today at 12:15, Lucero, Lupe, Lydia, Selene, and I made our way to the V-Dub. This was because last week, we (the ILC students at Brown) had arranged to have lunch with Mercedes Domenech of the Brown Admissions Department. We had met her 2 times before at ILC events, and she offered to answer any questions about the University or about admissions that we had. We learned more about the interviewing process and how students are selected. What stuck out was how she emphasized taking challenging courses in high school not just because they would look impressive, but because if we got accepted to Brown,  we wouldn't have distribution requirements or any required classes at all (excepting majors). Senior year is our last chance to show how much we love learning.

Mercedes also emphasized how important it is to study what you love even if it might not seem like it leads to a concrete career path. For example, Ruth Simmons, President of Brown University, holds a Ph.D. in French. Who would have projected her position now with her chosen field of study? Mercedes got me to think about how it doesn't matter as much what I choose to study, as long as I am educated in something and I know how to think and analyze. Undergraduate majors that are very specific are actually limiting because people may change their minds even if they initially think they're set on something.

I still have to finish my Action Plan paper and polish my Action Plan presentation, conduct another interview with a fellow student, catch up on my journal assignments for the past week, and meet with Ms. Stewart at 7 about the logistics of our departure. It's sad that we're already talking about leaving. In some ways I miss my family and others who are close to me, but in other ways I fear missing my friends, teachers, and mentors at Brown even more.

There's Always Someone There to Help

Today was the first day of the Amazing Women monologues. Everybody did very well, and we supported everyone if they felt nervous at all. Through listening, I learned things that I never knew before - for example, that Mother Teresa was Albanian by ethnicity and that Mary Wollstonecraft experienced all kinds of abuse at the hands of various men in her life.

We watched a film called about women in politics today, which brought attention to the shocking dilemma of the low numbers of women in national public office. The United States ranks 85th in the world in terms of female representatives, while developing countries such as Rwanda and Chile are making astonishing improvements with gender equality in political representation. Although Rwanda suffered through a devastating genocide in 1994, it has made great political and economic advances in recent years. 

Why hasn't the United States made such improvements? Jeanne Sheehan, former governor of New Hampshire and current US Senator, told her interviewer that she sees what's happening in other countries but that she believes change at home will happen slowly but surely. Anna Hidalgo, a former TA for Women and Leadership, led a debriefing after the film and urged us repeatedly to consider running for political office in the future. She told us that it is very hard to run for office, and that there's a 98% rate of success for incumbents, but that the biggest obstacle for women in public service is not the outside world, but their own lack of self-confidence. About 2/3 of men rate themselves as having basic leadership qualities, but women consistently rate themselves lower though they may have these qualities already.

Personally, I am very interested in political science, and I took her suggestions into serious consideration.

Here are two youth leaders named Kakeena Castro and Susan Anderson after their presentation to us. They introduced us to their organization, Youth in Action, which advocates for youth rights in the Providence area. They showed us a "Youth Bill of Rights", which asserted that, among various things, all youth should have access to free health care, healthy and enjoyable school lunches, a voice in the selection of their teachers and administration, and affordable public transportation. I agree with all those points. I wouldn't say that decisions should be left to youth and only to youth, but  I believe that we should be allowed to have input which should be valued by adults. Kisa serves on their joint adult-youth board and they stressed the importance of finding and utilizing mentors who can help you every step of the way. It opened my eyes to the fact that there's always someone there to help. I'm very glad that I heard these two women present.

After class, I went to the Partner Scholars gathering for Summer@Brown students who came here on a scholarship or with a group. It was lots of fun - we ate pizza while we asked questions of the 4 panelists who were all first-generation college students. I met Mo, who I believe is a Leadership Fellow here, and Soyoung, who is a student like me.

Another Fun, Busy Day

We started out the day by discussing the weekend's readings. We began in small groups and moved on to a discussion with the entire group. Kisa asked for a volunteer to facilitate the entire group, but I didn't raise my hand because I had just run our small group meeting. Just my luck - since nobody raised their hand at all, Kisa immediately chose me. I grinned and went up to the front of the class. The discussion went extremely well; I asked several open-ended questions and just directed the flow of conversation towards people who hadn't spoken up much before. Kisa stopped us when we ran out of time, and later she joked that I should be the one running the class!

Later we watched a short film in which young black children were shown two dolls - one black, one white - and asked to choose which one was better behaved, smarter, and prettier. In 15 out of 21 cases, the children picked the white doll. The clip illustrated how stereotypes become internalized both by those who are stereotyped and the rest of society.

The rest of class time was spent at the computer stations about a block away from our classroom. I finished all of my monologue, and I only have to rehearse to make sure that it's smooth. I learned a lot more about Rigoberta Menchu. I never knew that Spanish wasn't actually her first language, though she lived in Guatemala. She was Mayan, so she learned an indigenous dialect before Spanish. It shows that even if you have language barriers, you should still believe in yourself and your dreams. It was very nice to be able to use the practically new computers just by logging in with my Brown ID. I also quickly met with Kisa in order to go over my Action Plan once again. She thought it was a great idea, and I can't wait to present my idea to the panel on Friday. The whole process of research, preparation, and presentation will be exciting!

The evening activity consisted of watching a movie called "Iron Jawed Angels" about the women's suffrage movement. The pictures above show us getting ready to walk to the movie.

The movie was lots of fun. The soundtrack didn't seem to go with the movie, but it really brought my attention to how much the early women's rights pioneers truly struggled to gain what we have now. It's striking that only about 60-70% of women now utilize those rights to actually vote. I think that everyone who can should try to participate fully in our democracy.

When I was about to take a shower, I realized that I was almost out of clean clothes. I didn't want to forget to do laundry tomorrow, so I went down to the basement with Selene so that we could combine our loads. Unfortunately, the card reader connected to the washing machines was broken. We tried going into other dorms to do our laundry there, but we couldn't get in, and anyways the people who lived there said that their card readers were broken too. So we scrounged and exchanged money with people to finally get enough change to wash and dry two loads.

Today was a very productive yet enjoyable day. I hope tomorrow is just as good.