My Sunkissed Stories

I celebrated my first Women’s Herstory Month in March with The Women’s Center at Florida International University. The Women’s Center is housed within the Centers for Student Engagement and provides various resources, information, workshops, and events for women-identified students at FIU. We additionally collaborate with campus and community partners to educate and spread awareness about the various social issues impacting women locally, nationally, and globally. I started working for the Women’s Center in August 2023. It has been a great honor and a privilege to engage in education, community service, and advocacy for women that extends the everyday hard work and passions that I regularly engage in.

For Women’s Herstory Month, we hosted four events within the center while sponsoring a calendar for campus partners to add their events for sharing widely across campus. Our four events were La Colectiva: Feeling Hermosa, She Got Game: A Playbook on Gender, Identity, and Athleticism, the 17th Annual Women Who Lead Conference, and the Women’s Bazaar. Each event shows a snippet of the diversity of topics significant to women and students across campus today.

La Colectiva: Feeling Hermosa

For La Colectiva: Feeling Hermosa, the topic discussed mental health and imposter syndrome for women within the Latin American community. Sometimes, conversations around self-care can fall to the back burner when other necessities take more of a priority. “Feeling Hermosa” opened a dialogue about how women can be encouraged to speak up when feeling down, when they are not feeling like themselves, or need assistance with anything. Additionally, the session walked us through the steps for creating a vision board to write down and manifest personal goals that each person may want to achieve.

Tuesday Times Roundtable presents “She Got Game: A Playbook on Gender, Identity, and Athleticism.”

She Got Game: A Playbook on Gender, Identity, and Athleticism collaborated with FIU Global Learning, FIU Volleyball, and FIU Track and Field. In this discussion, student-athletes were allowed to share more about their experiences as women and describe navigating the collegiate space. I enjoyed hearing more about their experiences and the attention given to two sports that do not always get a lot of press because male-dominated sports like football and basketball can drown them out on large collegiate campuses. As a former student-athlete who ran track and field, I was happy to see women on the Track and Volleyball teams take center stage.

Some topics they covered were balancing their practice schedule with school, forming strong mentoring relationships with their coaches, and the community/sisterhood they have found as women athletes on a team. This topic is significant because of the recent press about women athletes and their performances at the collegiate and professional levels. 

17th Annual Women Who Lead Conference (2024)

Every year, FIU hosts a large professional development conference centered on women called “Women Who Lead.” I remember hearing about the conference during my first year at FIU. However, the WWL conference did not happen because the university closed for the pandemic in March 2020.

The Women Who Lead Conference is a full-day event that centers women’s voices in brave spaces by creating opportunities for intergenerational engagement. Attendees are invited to celebrate the accomplishments of women across various fields and provide practical tools for navigating the world as women. This year’s theme was “Women Who Are Change Makers,” focusing on women who continue facilitating local, national, and international change within their communities. The Women’s Center celebrates women who are leaders in their respective communities, women who embody the fullness of their narratives, and aim to curate safe spaces for marginalized communities.

I attended my first Women Who Lead Conference in Spring 2023 and was in awe of how much intention was involved to empower women at FIU. I brought in the same energy when I was honored to join the planning committee this year. I served as co-chair for the WWL conference and was deeply involved with planning to bring the conference from an idea to a fully realized vision. Our keynote speaker was Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez, the author of For Brown Girls with Sharp Edges and Tender Hearts and founder of Latina Rebels. Prisca reflected on her experiences as a high school student and a student at FIU while figuring out her next steps before leaving for Nashville, Tennessee, to attend Vanderbilt University. She discussed feeling the pressures of family, navigating friendships and relationships, and finding herself and her purpose in life. Writing became her passion as it allowed her to express herself and her story in a way that would enable her to release within a safe space while navigating life’s challenges.

I listened to her audiobook to prepare for the conference because I wanted to hear her story. I loved how she found writing as a pathway for embracing her whole identity and accepting her hardships, allowing her to release any experiences that have shaped her within her journey. I am very thankful for the opportunity to meet Prisca and listen to her read the letter “Dear Brown Girl.” This letter is very impactful, and I cried as I listened to her share it in the car. As a Brown Girl who grew up in the U.S., I have unfortunately had experiences where the community and spaces I have been in have not always been so accepting. I appreciate the strength of writers like Prisca, who empower me and other women to take pride in our experiences and who we are while knowing that your truth is yours and no one can take it from you.

Women’s Bazaar

To commemorate entrepreneurship as a growing lifestyle and option for many women, I took the lead in planning the “Women’s Bazaar.” The Women’s Bazaar aims to commemorate International Women’s Day and the international diversity of women at FIU and within surrounding communities. The Women’s Bazaar is a marketplace where local woman-owned businesses throughout Miami-Dade and Broward counties can showcase their merchandise for sale within the FIU Community. The bazaar can also acknowledge the increasing rates of women seeking entrepreneurship and starting their businesses as a form of economic opportunity and growing lifestyle.

This event was very successful, as I enjoyed connecting with local vendors and hearing more about their stories and experiences living here in South Florida. We had local vendors and businesses who offered jewelry, clothing, haircare, accessories, candles, and hats. I enjoyed being able to bring everyone who wanted to be a part of the event and meet potential new customers who are at FIU.

Reflection

I am thankful for the opportunity to participate in Women’s Herstory Month this year. I look forward to further celebrating women’s history and accomplishments through my work at the Women’s Center.