Brunch | Photo by Emily Mancuso | The Wright State Guardian
On March 8, International Women’s Day, students and faculty joined together in the Student Union to recognize ten women of Wright State University and the Dayton area who make the college “an incredibly vibrant, diverse, supportive environment” for the inaugural event hosted by the Women’s Center.
Recognition brunch
Assistant Director of the Women’s Center Bobbie Szabo began the event, speaking to a packed house in the Student Union beginning at 11 a.m. On the walls of the Apollo Room were posters describing the ten women being recognized during the morning’s event. At the back of the room, attendees could choose from a variety of breakfast and lunch foods.
Szabo planned this event single handedly, planning a month in advance.
“My position is all about facilitating discussions around gender and how it impacts all our lives,” she said.
Szabo engaged attendees by asking them to put a finger down if they or a woman they know has been treated unfairly in a variety of circumstances.
Szabo then launched into introducing the event and what went into putting it together. Before the event, students, faculty and staff nominated their top picks for ten women students, staff, faculty, alumni and community partners that they believe make our campus and the surrounding community a better place.
Szabo described how often women are afraid to celebrate their accomplishments lest they come off as conceited, but enough women are “not conceited enough” when recognizing all they have done. The brunch brings recognition to women who may be hesitant to recognize themselves.
“If we cannot brag about ourselves, we can sure as heck brag about each other,” Szabo said.
The women of Wright State
The Women’s Center recognized the following women who were called to receive a flower and short reading about their accomplishments at the front of the room.
Kayelin Tiggs is an alumna and a participatory action researcher, chair of the Women in the NAACP and Society for Neuroscience Neuro-scholars associate.
Liz Ball is an alumna and president of the African American Alumni Society, board member of the Alumni Association and member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
Amber Cornist-Bordeneau is an entrepreneurship student, member of the Association of Black Business Students, member of Xi Xi chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. and more.
Alexys Barfield is an elementary education major and operations trainer at Event Services.
Samantha Webb is a community partner, alumna and a public health nurse for Greene County Public Health.
Marcela De La Trigg is a community partner, a certified health education specialist at Planned Parenthood and owner and founder of MarYSoul Studio.
Dr. Jes Penwell Barnett is an associate professor of Sociology with a special appointment in the Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies department.
Peggy Kelly is an alumna, senior lecturer, academic director of Developmental Mathematics and fellow for the Center for Faculty Excellence.
Franchesca Alford is a staff member holding the position of coordinator of vice provosts’ operations.
Dr. Kate Page is a compliance specialist and Title IX coordinator.
“I hope more women get recognized for the work that they do,” Page said.
Significance
The inaugural brunch provides a space for female empowerment in an environment where they are often overlooked.
“Women statistically do a lot of unpaid work and do a lot of additional emotional work that is uncompensated for and that’s unrecognized in general, and I wanted the opportunity to recognize women for that kind of work,” Szabo said.
In deciding the final ten women to be recognized, Szabo made sure to recognize women not just for their impressive resumes, but also for how they support others around them, something that is not often recognized.
Szabo gleaned inspiration for this event from Leah Ward of the Women’s Center at the University of Dayton, considering Ward both a friend and a mentor.
Attendee Iwona Goodrich reflected on the date of March 8—International Women’s Day—in both America and Europe. European women are often given the day off and are presented with flowers to celebrate. While the day did not appear as widely celebrated in America to Goodrich, she still wanted to attend and recognize the cohort.
“We have a chance to see each other, to hear each other, and to acknowledge each other for what we do, and we need more events like that on campus,” Goodrich said.
The Women’s Center hopes to continue the brunch tradition into next year to recognize the next “Women of Wright State” cohort.
