I had the opportunity to sit down with Evangeline and discuss both her previous inspiration for the READY Center and her future goals for the space.
I first wanted to hear more about the root of Evangeline’s passion for women’s wellness. She described that, while she hadn’t truly encountered many of these issues in her high school years, when she went to college she was “confronted by feminism… and realized how much [she] had not known or been exposed to.” On Barnard’s campus the Well Women Office was a haven of these ideas, especially in regard to women’s emotional and physical health. “Being in that office was completely mind-blowing and eye-opening” for Evangeline, since people “could have really open and honest conversation and ask questions about all sorts of topics from body image to nutrition to sexual health.” This sort of open dialogue and focus on women’s issues was a “completely new concept” to her, but she “found it at the right time in [her] life.” Evangeline described the actual physical space of the Office to be “very cozy, womb-like;” the quintessential image of this sort of space on a women’s college campus. She found the space to be extremely inviting, acting as a sort of “open living room” where “everybody… feels like it is their home or that they belong to it,” without being “intimidated by the person who is sitting at the desk.” The leader of the Office, Jessica, also served as a great role model for Evangeline, as she “let [people] start [their] own exploration” into wellness, simply greeting them as they walked in to the Office, but then giving the girls privacy to research and explore the resources of the Office. Overall, the Office was characterized by “women engaging in thinking, and expressing, and sharing.” I also wanted to learn what Evangeline’s top tips for wellness were, and sleep was “definitely at the top of the list” for her. More broadly, she also hoped that girls would feel comfortable “asking questions” to discover their wellness plan, especially since she noted that “everyone’s wellness plan is going to be different and is going to change.” She whole-heartedly believes that it is of vital importance “for young people and women especially to have practice in thinking about how they care for themselves, especially in the kind of society we are in now.” Ultimately, Evangeline wrapped up her goals for the READY center by expressing her hope that one day and alumnae would think back and appreciate the skills that had been instilled in them from the READY Center, skills that will “keep them happy, keep them safe, and keep them important, engaged parts of society.”
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Mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of, but stigma and bias shame us all. -Bill Clinton
Katherine WallaceEmma Willard Class of 2017. Archives
May 2017
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