On Tuesday, March 15, Cabrini’s PinK, Student Diversity, and the Body Image Coalition hosted Relating to Her. In honor of Women’s History Month, a panel of six women from Cabrini’s campus were invited to speak about their professional journeys as women. These women spoke of their struggles as well as their successes, giving advice to the young men and women in the audience.
The panel discussed how they struggled with their rights as women personally or in their career. Maritza DeJesus, the coordinator of academic counseling for the Center for Teaching and Learning, described the criticism she faced with being “only” a stay-at-home mom.
She dealt with the opposition from others as well as the criticisms she had of herself by redefining what equality means to her. She decided that equality means doing whatever she wants, even if what she wants is to be a stay-at-home mom. She took pride in her role as a mother and looked at it as her choice, which thus gave it tremendous importance to her.
The women on the panel also discussed how they balanced their personal lives with their careers. Many of the women, including Dr. Maya Gordon, an associate professor of psychology, are mothers who also work full-time jobs. Gordon described her experiences of raising four children whilst simultaneously keeping up with her profession.
Her advice was to embrace the chaos and understand that you’ll never complete everything on your to-do list, as well as to recognize that one’s family and career are of equal importance. Kathleen Maxson, the student access coordinator of the Disability Resource Center, added in that it is also important to remember to take care of yourself.
Lastly, the women were asked how they deal with failure. Many of the women commented on how failure is a learning opportunity, and, like Gordon stated, “You can’t learn if you don’t make mistakes.”
Kathleen Johnson, the director of the Disability Resource Center, compared failure to a scar, saying that it gives you tougher skin after it’s over. Maxson closed off the session by reminding us that everyone has failures, and that sometimes those failures lead you to exactly where you’re supposed to be.
Photos taken by Melissa Matsanka