When Monzong Cha ‘13 snuck a peek at her e-mail last spring during her vertebrate biology lab, she jumped on her lab partner, she was so excited by what she saw. After days of hard work to prepare an application and presentation for a committee – followed by days of anxious anticipation – Cha found out that her proposal to start the “Women’s Empowerment House,” a new honor house at St. Olaf, had been accepted. “It felt really good,” Cha said, recalling the day she received the confirmation e-mail. “Afterwards I hugged like 50 people!”
Cha, a women’s studies and sociology/anthropology double major, is the president of the Women’s Empowerment House. She credits the project too, to the seven other Ole women who live in the house – especially Kristell Caballero-Saucedo ’13. Caballero-Saucedo came up with the name “Women’s Empowerment House,” Cha said. In previous years, there had been similar houses, the most recent house called the “Women’s Issues” house, but the new name is more positive and has a community feel, Cha said.
One of 18 honor houses on campus this year, the Women’s Empowerment House is located in the Aaker House, behind Regents Hall. Cha is straightforward about the main goal of the eight women living there. “We want to empower the community to empower women – throughout their lives – and just have an appreciation for [what] women have done,” Cha said. Another goal of the house, she says, is “Recognizing women who have impacted this world.”
[ (back row from left) Coraine Tate ’13, Bao Lee ’12, Monzong Cha ’13, Alisha Woodson ’12
A number of factors motivated Cha to start the house, first and foremost, she says, a situation she encountered with a friend. “What really inspired me was when I had the courage to stand up with my friend when her boyfriend was being abusive to her,” she said. “It was really risky to do that, because in my group of friends, they would look down on you if you are a woman who speaks up against a man. After that event, in freshman year of college, I’ve been pondering women’s rights… and then I came up with the house idea.” Cha also cites courses she took for her women’s studies major, such as a course on eco-feminism, and a course called Women Poets Around the World, as motivating factors for her to start the house.
At the time she applied for the honor house, Cha was also working on creating an independent research project pertaining to abuse in the Hmong community. “I went to talk to many professors to see if they could expand on my research or give me ideas,” she said, and “I noticed that I was so passionate for [the project].” Although she said she found the honor house application rather last minute – it was due a few weeks from the day she found it on the St. Olaf website – Cha was determined to apply for the house. “I pushed myself to do something,” she said.
Diane LeBlanc, director of writing and professor of interdisciplinary studies at St. Olaf, is one individual impacted by the fact that Cha did push herself to start the house. LeBlanc, who is also the faculty advisor for the Women’s Empowerment House, says she signed on as advisor because she felt that “Their particular projects seemed to fill a gap in campus, combining women, diversity, education, all of those issues.”
“I believe it’s really timely what they’re doing,” LeBlanc said, “because in this economy, empowerment – personal empowerment, community empowerment – thinking of the groups you belong to, ‘we are women, we are college students,’ I think that is very important in terms of networking, educating people, and adding another layer of how the college experience can make you feel empowered.”
Thus far, the Women’s Empowerment House has hosted a number of events, from their opening celebration to two dinner discussions (“The Common Hardships of Latino Women” and “Slutwalk”) to a homework night. “The opening event was really fantastic, I thought there was a good turnout,” LeBlanc said. Cha also said she has been happy with student involvement in the house’s events.
While the house has a number of upcoming activities for Oles to look out for, Cha says their next event will be held at the end of October and will focus on abuse awareness – a topic especially important to Cha. “Our goal of this event is to have people aware of how to recognize abuse. What to do about it, really how to recognize it first – one of the most difficult forms of abuse to see and understand is emotional – and we’re hoping to collaborate with experts from Hope Center,” she said.
Judging from how successful she thinks the house has been so far, Cha says she hopes to continue the Women’s Empowerment House next year. LeBlanc shared a more immediate aspiration: “I hope that they are able to really reach out to the community. It’s one thing to have a women’s studies program and to provide a forum, and for the women’s studies department to organize [women’s] history month, but its another thing for students to be the ones talking to each other and engaging each other,” LeBlanc said. “My hope is that they get the conversation going on campus in new ways.”
To find out more about the Women’s Empowerment House, you may look up the house president, Monzong Cha, on the St. Olaf Directories and e-mail her. You can also join the Women’s Empowerment House on Facebook.