Reina Otsuka and Lili Pfeifer are both sophomores who founded and preside over the “Worth” organization. Reina is studying Public Health, and is dual minoring in Sociology of Health and Medicine and Applied Statistics or Entrepreneurship. Lili is on the pre-med track, also studying Public Health, and is minoring in Sociology of Health and Medicine. Her Campus was grateful to sit down and talk to them Worth.
Her Campus: Can you describe your club, Worth?
Lili Pfeifer: We’re a new student org on campus, and we’re focused on women’s health rights. We do so through discussion of prevalent women’s health issues both on campus and in the global community, as well as through activism projects currently on campus and statewide.
HC: What do you do in Worth?
Reina Otsuka: We have biweekly meetings, and in each meeting we talk about a different health issue. First, we talked about being a college girl on campus, which was something people could relate to more, and how our identity as a woman has affected our college life.
LP: We’ve had guest speakers come in too. For example, we had a speaker talk about sexuality, and then we had a discussion following that. We’ve also brought in speakers from BICE, which is Bystander Intervention and Community Engagement, and they’re from SAPAC [Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center], so they led a sexual assault prevention workshop.
RO: The other component of our club is community outreach, and the biggest project we’re doing right now is we’ve teamed up with CSG [Central Student Government] and our goal for the end of the school year is to make feminine hygiene products accessible across campus in all of the restrooms, so we basically proposed a resolution and they funded us $2,000 to start a pilot program. Our other project that we’re doing right now is with the Rochester High School Chapter of NOW [National Organization for Women], and in December they’re hosting a panel event and our organization will be going. A few of our members will be speaking about how their identity as a woman has affected their college career.
HC: Why did you guys create Worth? What’s your goal?
RO: We both took Women’s Studies 220, which is Perspectives in Women’s Health, freshman year, and we were both just really inspired by the discussion component and also the content we learned from it. Women’s Studies 220 not only enabled me to learn about real-world issues pertaining to women’s health, but it also allowed me to learn more about myself as a person. The knowledge that I gained from the course has allowed me to make better-informed decisions and have better control over my health and wellbeing, and I wanted to make that opportunity accessible to other students as well. After the class was over, we both like, “wow, we want to join an organization that has this mission”, but we found that there wasn’t really anything on campus. We thought it was a really important to have, so we just decided to start it on our own.
HC: What is your favorite thing about Worth?
LP: The freedom we have in tackling these issues in women’s health because I think especially as college women, we have a lot of power and influence on each other in how we perceive these issues and hopefully on society as a whole too.
RO: I really like how we’re really mindful of each other, we acknowledge each individual’s personal needs. Whenever we get together, we really work to engage with each other and empower one another. Also, I think one of the great things about this organization is that women’s health is applicable in many different areas and many different fields, and it affects everyone, so it can bring their personal talents and skills into advocating for women’s health rights. For example, one of our club members is studying art, and she’s interested in integrating her passion for the arts and also for gender and sexual identities into a way of advocating for women’s health rights. So starting mini projects like that is what we’re looking to do in the future.
HC: Anything else you’d like to add about Worth?
LP: I would encourage anyone who’s interested in women’s health to join! Even if you just come to check out one of our meetings. We are planning our next semester within the next month, so that’ll be exciting.
RO: Another thing we’re trying to work on is the diversity of our members; not just in terms of racial background but also what they’re studying because the more diverse our student body is, the more perspectives we have, and the better the ideas we can come up with.
Contact Reina (otsukar@umich.edu) or Lili (pfeiferl@umich.edu) if you’d like more information about Worth or if you’re interested in joining.