FYS event: Tunnel of Oppression

On Friday, November 18, I went to the Tunnel of Oppression at Davis Complex. I wanted to go to experience what other people said had an impact on them last year. The Tunnel of Oppression actually involved dorm rooms, a dorm hallway and a stairwell. There was a tour guide that read things to us about each of the rooms. The rooms or sections were designed by students and their purpose was to remind people of the suffering some people go through every day. The issues in each of the rooms were relevant to our society today and each was interesting. The first section was the stairwell in which derogatory words were written on a piece of paper; the point was to recognize the impact these words said millions of times a day have on a person. The following rooms and their issues were about racism, the glass ceiling for women, transgender issues, and debt for college students. My favorite was the room about women and the glass ceiling; the glass ceiling was symbolized by clear plastic wrap that was taped to the walls so it was suspended across the room about halfway up the walls. On the ceiling were pictures of things women haven’t achieved, like holding half of the seats in U.S. congress since women are 51% percent of the U.S. population. Under the glass ceiling on the walls were posters that were demeaning to women. One poster said “Women: like a man, only cheaper” and it showed a businesswoman high-fiving a man in the workplace.

The purpose of the Tunnel was achieved with me because it helped remind me that all the issues discussed in the tour were relevant to today’s society, and that everyone should still be conscious of them.

The Women in Leadership Class

This class has taught me that there are numerous opportunities for women in the world, and that I will always have options. I try to lead myself as a responsible and hard-working young woman who is going to accomplish things one day in her life and make a difference in the world. I think that we are so fortunate to have the opportunity to listen to all the professional women that speak to us because we get to learn how they achieved the position they are in now,and how they conduct themselves to produce a better career for themselves. I love hearing about how all of the speakers got to where they are because I am still very unsure of what I would like to do. Listening to the speakers reassures me that if you work hard on what you are doing now and stay true to yourself that you will become successful on your own. Listening to the speakers has also reinforced how determined I am at doing my best in all of my classes to become the best person that I can be. I now also want to take more business classes that will help me become a better-rounded person. I feel more confident as a young woman and as a future woman in the professional world. I believe this class is helping me become more responsible and more aware of things that I would like to do, and also more aware of issues that women face. As a result, I am even more determined to accomplish good things in my life for myself and others.

First Girl's Club Meeting at Walnut Springs MS

Last week on Thursday was the first meeting that was held at the Walnut Springs Middle School. I always think its so weird going into other schools because they always look so different from the one that I went to. We had to sign in first for security reasons, and when we left we had to sign out. The mentoring session began in a regular classroom, and there were many more girls there for the program than I had thought, so that was good news. The first thing that I noticed was the number of girls, and then the appearance of little cliques or groups. I remember HS and MS being a lot like that and it probably always will be. We didn't do much interacting with the girls, but we did go over the rules with them so they know what not to talk about with us and why we wouldn't discuss those things. Then we gave everyone journals to decorate with colored paper, markers, and all kinds of stickers. It was a fun activity. We then wrote five things in the journal that we would want to talk about and all of the MS girls did that too so we would have things to talk about next week. This week is when we do our Women in Leadership project with the girls, and that will be about body image and where they see themselves in 5, 10, or 20 years. I think this topic gives the mentors a good chance to instil some confidence in the girls about how things will turn out in the future, and will give them a healthier view of themselves by promoting healthy their healthy attributes and talents.

Beginning of Girls Lunch Club

Last week, as part of our mentoring project, we met at the Center for Community Engagement to learn more about the girls that we'd be mentoring. There was free lunch from Panera there, and it was so good. The informational part of the meeting, however, was a little daunting. Some of the stories of the eighth grade girl's problems including bullying of all kinds and problems with boys or relationships. We learned what should be done if a girl confesses to something that is harmful to herself, whether it be self-destructive or someone's abusing her. We also learned to not talk about drugs or sex, which is too much of an obstacle for us to take on. The guidance couselor from Walnut Springs Middle School came and talked to us about the girls and the problems they face. He told us stories of what some girls do on the bus now...not appropriate. The stories that he told us were shocking to me because when I was in eighth grade, I was really awkward and didn't know what anything to do with sex really was. I was a lot more innocent it seems. However, I know there are girls out there who really need help, and I'm happy to be involved in a program that has the chance to make a difference in some girls' lives.

A Busy Week

This week, I enjoyed the panel because of the different and untraditional perspectives that they offered on how they started their own businesses. Two of them had graduated with degrees that were very different from the profession that they now had, and that made me feel better about my decisions in choosing a major.

I also went to my first meeting for the Walnut Springs mentoring project. We had to go get background checks, and we're meeting again this week to talk with the Walnut Springs principal about the girls who were chosen for the program. It'll be interesting, I'm excited and nervous for the project, but we they're getting us Panera tomorrow though so I'm happy.

I signed up to be apart of the Women in Leadership team for St. Jude's and I'm really excited for it! I'm going to the letter sending party tomorrow before class. I just made my site and people can go to it online and donate in order to support St. Jude's and my team: www.myuptildawn.org/sskeen This is a great cause and I'm excited to be apart of it by raising money for the children.

Networking

This week we talked about networking in the class and how important it was. The speakers that we heard from were Tammy Roberts Myers from Limited Brands, Susan Merryman from the Columbus Chamber of Commerce, Jean Reynolds from State Auto Group, and Jean Halpin from Ohio Health. I enjoyed all of thier presentations, but I especially liked Tammy Roberts Myers because she offered the perspective of working in two different environments in the workplace. She said that when she got out of college she worked at the Bob Evans business company, which was a very male dominated environment. She now works at Limited Brands, which I learned was the parent company of Victoria's Secret and Bath and Body Works. This is a very female dominated environment and much more relaxed and laid-back compared to working at the Bob Evans company, which was very strictly business and everyone was always on time to the meetings. She said that even though she enjoys her work environment now and how relaxed she is about work, that she would have preferred that she had still worked at Bob Evans in the male dominated structured environment so that she had the knowledge and discipline of how to conduct herself in both of these different work situations.  I thought that this was a very different perspective, and she also gave us free lotion which I was really excited about. She also said that now she has professional networking connections in both of the businesses that she's worked in, and that she has always respected the people from Bob Evans because she knew the importance of building connections.

FYE event

This week I attended an FYE event called "Dude, where's my card?" that talked about financial responsibilities and avoiding identity theft throughout your life, especially at a young age when people don't know a lot about it. It was held by Fifth Third Bank on Tuesday at 7. The presentation really only lasted about half an hour, so I was glad that I went to it. My friend and I were waiting for the sorority kick-off at eight to start, so we figured we'd go to this class while we could! It was pretty interesting for the most part. I think that its very important for people to be as responsible as they can with their credit because, as I learned, bad credit can stay with for seven to ten years, which inhibits you from buying the things you want like expensive electronics, a car, signing for a loan, or paying for a house or apartment. I also learned that Columbus is a hot spot for identity thefts, which was rather surprising to me. The instructor Nick Nesbit said that Ohio was extremely popular for identity theft activity and Columbus was the most common place that it happened. He said it was due mostly to people misplacing their wallets, or giving out information like their social security number to scammers. What I took away from this FYE event was to always be extra cautious when giving out information, be super responsible with your purse, and hope that I never have bad credit!

10tv, Chasity Kuttrus, and Health

This week was exciting because we met in that huge boardroom in Roush hall and we felt like executives sitting in this pincushion leather chairs. To add to the powerful feeling, the 10tv news came and shot pictures of us while we sat in class. The footage was on the news on Monday and it made me so proud to be apart of such a thing! Also, I was very proud of President Krendl and all of us.
On of our speakers this week was Chasity Kuttrus, a high-powered Executive Coach who really talked about some interesting things. She talked more about women in the workplace, which was pretty much what my issue paper was going to be about: A lack of women in leadership roles like CEO/CFO's and boardmembers. I got a lot of starting information from her presentation for my paper.
I really liked the other speakers that we heard from who talked on health, fitness, and strength finding. I think that all of those things are really important to women, as well as men and children. The speakers motivated me to try and work out more and eat more dairy in order to reduce my chance of osteoporaisis. Though I haven't worked out yet, I have began to drink daily a glass of milk, something I otherwise would not have done!

Library Session

This week for class, we met in the library seminar room which proved to be a nice change from the crowed Roush classroom. I really enjoyed this week's class because it really held my attention. I especially liked the presentation done by Judge Mary DeGenaro.

I enjoyed all of the presenters. The information library session with Judy Carey Nevin was interesting because it made me wonder about being a librarian briefly; regardless, that's not for me. Next, we learned about volunteering on campus from Melissa Gilbert and more about our mentoring project which was good to learn about because I've been very curious about what's going to happen with that because I've never done anything like it before. That session was nice because we got to get up and change scenes by doing a group theater activity. From that I learned that no matter how different women may seem from one another, we all have the same insecurities and concerns about ourselves. We also listened to a presentation about women in Otterbein's history which I thought was very interesting because I loved looking at the old pictures of Tower's hall and all of the women. It made me prouder to be going to Otterbein to learn that their first two graduates were women in that day and age.

My favorite was hearing from Judge DeGenaro because of the way that I thought of her as her presentation progressed. At the beginning, I thought she was going to talk all about her job and what she did which I thought was going to be a little hard to pay attention to. As she began talking about her job, I started to understand more about the judicial system in which she served, but she began to also talk about her family and her life while she was doing that job. She talked about how, because of her family, she took a pay cut in order to spend more time with her children while they were young. I loved her point of view on women in the workplace and completely agree with her. Feminists would have seen her taking the pay cut for her family as a surrender to the male domination in our society; but, she said simply that having a family and working at the same time did not mean she was any less of a strong, independent women or caring mother and wife, and that you can be the same at the both time.