To be honest, when I first got the emails about Douglass Residential College, I was skeptical.
I thought that being in Douglass would isolate me from the rest of Rutgers. There also seemed to be a stigma around being in a women’s college—a lot of people automatically associate Douglass with “feminazis”, or hipsters, or Women’s and Gender Studies majors.
The only reason why I joined Douglass in the first place was because while going through the website, I heard about the opportunity for a free week-long trip to New York City, with hotel, subway and dinner expenses covered.
So I signed up to be a Douglass woman, and ended up living in a part of my residence hall that was all girls. A few months later, now that I’m in my second semester, I can say that joining Douglass was one of the best decisions I ever made. For so many reasons, Douglass has inspired me to not only care more about female empowerment and social issues, but it has also given me the drive to pursue my career goals in the future. Here are a few of the many ways Douglass has inspired me to be a girl boss:
Events
If there’s one thing about Douglass Residential College, it’s that they host many career-related events. The first event I went to was called BOLD Conversations: The Douglass Career Conference. It was an awesome way to learn how to network with other women who were professionals in their industry. I had the opportunity to speak with entrepreneurs, scientists, doctors and more. What I remember most was being able to speak one-on-one with Tara Kousha, a Douglass alumna who landed a job at Google as an English major. She taught me to chase after my goals, and I remember leaving the conference feeling inspired to be as successful and driven as each of the women I met.
The Douglass Course
Every Douglass student is required to take a signature course called Knowledge and Power: Issues in Women’s Leadership. I initially thought it would be a burden, since I already had a lot of course requirements for my major and the Core Curriculum. It turns out that not only did the course fulfill one of the core requirements, but it was also one of the most enlightening classes I have ever taken. The course taught me about social issues, which included the wage gap and how women are treated in the workplace. It also taught me about what women were doing and facing in different fields, such as in technology, finance, etc. Most importantly, I had the opportunity to interview for a project a female astronomer, who told me about her story and inspired me to continue pursuing a career in STEM.
The Students
The most important part of Douglass is obviously the students. In my experience, every single time I’ve met a Douglass woman, they’ve not only been incredibly kind and welcoming, but also very motivated and passionate about something. The girls in my residence hall have become some of my closest friends, and even though we’re all majoring in different fields—economics, political science, cell biology and neuroscience, to name a few—we all share a common drive to change and make the world better in our own individual ways. Because of them, whenever I wonder whether the sleepless nights working were worth it, I know that there are people who will support me and believe in me.
Overall, I am so incredibly thankful that I made the last decision to become a Douglass woman. I’m not sure where I would be if I hadn’t, but I know that I would have missed out on so many learning opportunities, networking events, and friends that I otherwise wouldn’t have met. Being a part of Douglass has also inspired me to be a girl boss, to want to make a change in STEM and journalism, the two fields I want to pursue. I know that even after I graduate, I’ll take all the experiences I had and use them to make my own mark on the world.