By Kayla Brown, Staff Writer
The first Women’s Empowerment Gala at Susquehanna, held on March 29, hosted a panel of women speakers to discuss women’s empowerment in honor of Women’s History Month.
The purpose of the gala, through socialization, food and a panel of successful women, was to remind women, as well as others in attendance the importance of women’s empowerment.
The event was hosted by Sigma Gamma Rho, WomenSpeak and the National Congress of Black Women.
The gala was open to everyone, including non-Susquehanna community members, which led to around 100 people gathering in the Lore Degenstein Art Gallery throughout the night.
According to sophomore Israel Collazo, it’s important to support women in general, which is why he took the time to go to the gala.
Collazo also went on to say, “Learning more about women’s struggles is also important.”
Donovan Gayles, junior, shared a similar sentiment when he said, “This is important, I have lots of sisters… women should be empowered.”
Most of the evening was centered around the speakers: Associate Director of Athletics Crystal Gibson, Dr. Anju Dayla, education specialist at Transitions of PA Rachel Farrow, Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) Program Coordinator Christiana Paradis and Penn State Harrisburg Track and Field coach Danielle Lynch.
Prior to Gibson’s career at Susquehanna as associate director of athletics, NCAA compliance coordinator and senior woman administrator, she ran track and played basketball for Lebanon Valley College and coached women’s basketball at St. Mary’s in Maryland.
As a college athlete, she faced struggles because she was a woman in a world that had originally been just men.
Having had that experience, Gibson works to help empower women and help them gain authority over their own lives and careers. For her players, she was a mentor like Notre Dame Head Women’s Basketball Coach Muffet McGraw was to her players.
Gibson used a quote from McGraw, who said, “One of the things I try to teach the women on my team is that you gotta fight…I want strong, confident women who are not afraid to use their voice and take a stand.”
Being a mentor to her players, as well as all the athletes that she is now in charge of, Gibson has a chance to show her support and help them follow and achieve goals.
Gibson was not the only mentor on the panel. Farrow, a mentor herself, works with victims of sexual and domestic abuse at Transitions of PA.
According to Farrow, the thing she hears victims say the most is “I am not enough”. In her job, Farrow is working to combat this and change the message to “you are enough”.
Following Farrow’s discussion, Paradis, adjunct faculty in women’s studies as well as OVW coordinator, shared another important message: “Everyone can support, and should support women’s empowerment.”
Following the panel, during Q&A, all the speakers came to a clear consensus that as women, it is their job to be a resource for each other and build mentorships with men or women who can help achieve goals, as far off as they may seem.
Another message became clear when Lynch said “Don’t let something you don’t have stop you from applying to a job.”
Women tend to forgo applying to a job if they are missing just one skill from the application, but men will be missing 90% of the skills and still apply.
According to Lynch, women should apply and let the people doing the hiring reject them, instead of taking themselves out of the running altogether.
The gala, which has been in the works since November, provided not only women, but all in attendance, with information, resources and experiences about women’s empowerment.
In the words of sophomore Samuel Emmanuel, “Men can support [women’s empowerment] too.”