Yesterday, I and all my fellow Katzenbach girls had plenary. Plenary, for those of you who are not awesome and aren't part of Douglass Residential College, is where everyone taking the Knowledge and Power: Women's Leadership course has to gather in Voorhees Chapel at the obscenely early hour of TEN FIFTY FIVE AM and listen to some guest speaker. On this particular Wednesday, there was a ceremony inducting three Douglass alumnae into the Douglass Society.
I was pretty sure it would be educational but slightly boring. After all, it was before noon; I was not quite fully conscious, and I was in serious need of a nap. So, I meandered in (precisely on time, of course) and watched as random people in robes marched down the aisle--OH HEY PRESIDENT MCCORMICK. What the hell was he doing here? This must be legit, thought I.
So, then there were speeches, and more deafening organ music, and more speeches about women blah blah blah, and just when I was starting to regret waking up that morning, one of the inductees, Inez Phillips Durham, took the microphone. And she started talking and I was just...awed. She was the only black woman in her graduating class. AND SHE HAD A PH.D. AND SHE WAS THE ONLY BLACK WOMAN IN HER GRADUATING CLASS. She said there had only been three black woman at Douglass before her (she was in the class of 1957). I couldn't even imagine it. Rutgers is the epitome of diversity today; how could she have been the only black woman in her graduating class? How did she handle it? I couldn't imagine being the member of my race in my graduating class; I'd feel so isolated. But she did it, even with the storms of racism and sexism she must have faced. She got her Ph.D and she did all these amazing things for her community.
It was inspiring. It made me want to be up in the front of that chapel in 50 years, wearing a weird black robe, and having the Dean of Douglass give a speech about me. I know I can do it; I don't have one-fourth of the obstacles she faced. WHY DON'T I ALREADY HAVE A PH.D? I must be slacking!
So yeah. To Inez Phillips Durham, Carolyn Grosse Gawarecki, and Josephine Potuto: YOU ARE AWESOME. And I want to be just like you when I grow up.
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