As March crawls toward April, the curtain is closing on Women’s History Month, and the Women’s Panhellenic Association, or WPA, wants to send it off in style. Starting last Monday, March 20, and working through this weekend, WPA has a number of events designed to empower women in and out of the ten sororities they represent.
In collaboration with the Women’s Center and the Margaret Boyd Scholars, a campus program that selects a handful of women each year to encourage them in leadership throughout their years at Ohio University, WPA hosted a Women’s Empowerment Week From Monday, March 20 through Friday March 24. Friday, March 24 through Sunday, March 26, WPA also hosted their annual Sisterhood of the Traveling Dresses philanthropy campaign.
Hannah Taylor, a first-year graduate student in the college student personnel program, is a graduate assistant for WPA who helped oversee both this weeks’ events. She said the empowerment week was a collaboration with other departments because the week was intended to serve anyone on campus, not just sorority members.
“We were kind of like, ‘Where can we find partnerships on campus that are specifically targeted for women?’” she said. “Anybody can join Margaret Boyd, but a majority of their members are women. (Also,) the Sorority and Fraternity Life office is really just trying to build partnerships on campus, so what better office to kind of work with for Women's Empowerment Week during Women's History Month of the Women's Center?”
One of Taylor’s advisees is Daniella Dasti, a junior studying mild to moderate educational needs and the vice president of development for WPA. Dasti took on much of the task of generating programming for Women’s Empowerment Week.
“We kind of just picked events that we thought would be both beneficial and entertaining to women to come to,” Dasti said.
Women’s Empowerment Week kicked off with a Monday night showing of “RBG” in Morton Hall, room 235 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. The 2018 documentary follows the life and career of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and it was selected because of Ginsburg’s groundbreaking career.
“Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a huge leader of women and law and positions like that,” Dasti said. “I thought that would be something good that people could see, especially because she just did the impossible during a time where it was quite literally impossible.”
Tuesday followed with a words of affirmation station at Alumni Gateway from noon to 2 p.m. This was easier to attract non-sorority affiliates to, Dasti said, as it was more spontaneous.
Passersby could stop at the table and pick up a handwritten affirmation to better their day. Participants could also write a short affirmation for someone else to leave at the table.
“You didn't have to be a member of a sorority or any of the other organizations we're working with this week to just come up and get a little happy note,” Dasti said.
Wednesday night brought a guest speaker who Dasti had seen at a leadership conference last month. Presenter Tina Vansteenbergen spoke about how women should not be sorry to take up space in the world and worked with the nearly 400 attendees to build personal confidence.
“(The presentation is) called ‘Taking Up Space in the World,’ and it's all about being confident as a woman and how that looks different for women versus men,” Dasti said. “She talked all about using your voice and not always falling back into the things we've been taught … and understanding that you're allowed to be confident and you're allowed to take up space and be a bigger person than you think you are.”
Thursday brought an online social media campaign encouraging people to spread love to the important women in their lives. Friday caps off the week with a professional development event from noon to 2 p.m. at the Alpha Omicron Pi house, 8 Church St.
Taylor said the workshop will include people from the Center for Advising, Career and Experiential Learning and the Alumni Association, a LinkedIn workshop and someone taking headshot photos for all attendees. All of these opportunities are free of charge and open to all.
Friday also brings the start of Sisterhood of the Traveling Dresses, an annual philanthropy the WPA hosts to support local high schoolers afford clothes for prom. Gabby Ditto, a sophomore studying sports management and another mentee of Taylor’s, helped organize this year’s event in her role as vice president of philanthropy and service.
“We take donations of prom dresses, jewelry, shoes, other formal wear – including menswear – and we just collect all that and we do a pop up for one weekend, normally in March, where we give away the (things) that we collect free of charge to local high schoolers,” Ditto said.
Ditto estimated between 100 and 250 prom dresses have been donated this year alone, which measures much more when combined with their inventory of formal wear from past years. Brands like Kendra Scott have also contributed donations, as have people in and out of Athens.
“Seeing how it can be a bigger type thing is super cool too just because Athens is such an under-resourced community,” Taylor said. “A lot of students don't necessarily have the funds to go buy a prom dress, so us being able to get people from outside of Athens and even outside of Ohio to donate prom dresses towards this philanthropy and this cause I think is really great.”
Any high schooler is welcome to stop in and collect whatever they need for prom, completely free of charge, although the event is mostly geared toward high schoolers in Athens and the surrounding areas. The pop-up prom shop will be open this weekend at the Market on State, 1002 E. State St., where the team has their own storefront. The store will be open from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.
“Something I really enjoyed seeing last year when I volunteered for the event was the weight lifted off some parents’ shoulders when they realized they weren't going to have to pay hundreds of dollars for a prom dress that they might not have been able to afford,” Ditto said. “It's really fulfilling and rewarding to see the girls get to go home with their dream dress.”
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