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Angie Ekstrand

I became interested in feminism during junior high. I knew there was something wrong with the expectations placed on women; Feminism will always be an important part of my life. One way I have participated in activism at Beloit is by participating in the Womyn's Center. The Womyn's Center does all kinds of cool things. We: organize an annual Women's Week, participated in the March for Women's Lives in 2004 in DC, organized a voter registration campaign in 2004, and in 2006 brought feminist singer/songwriter Magdalen Hsu-Li to campus. There are a number of ways to participate in feminism or queer issues on campus, and this is one of the things I love about Beloit. I always hope to participate in activism. I also love about Beloit the interaction between faculty and students. My professors have been an invaluable resource to me in all the classes I've taken.

Ashley Hetrick Majors: Literary Studies

Nabi Joshi

I am from Kathmandu, Nepal. Since my goal is to go back home and work for the women in Nepal, I have chosen Women's and Gender Studies as my major. In Nepal, women's participation in political, economic, and social sectors is very low. Since women are facing problems due to gender inequality, I think it is necessary to involve them in the decision-making process through their capability enhancement and empowerment. The Government is working to bring women forward as a focal point for enhancing their economic and social prosperity and accelerating poverty alleviation through increasing their access to resources. Although a single person cannot bring a radical change, I definitely want to contribute to women's empowerment in my country. Beloit College has provided me with a lot of reasoning skills which will definitely be helpful once I start working in my country.

Sam Kleinman Majors: Women's and Gender Studies and Psychology I like Women's and Gender Studies, because it ties lots of different and important analyses together for me in a way that makes sense. The need to analyze issues of gender is implicit in everything. It's everywhere!

Christine Rendak

What I liked most about Beloit College is the open atmosphere to different ideas and people. Class discussions are always great because everyone is so passionate about studying various parts of academia. Even discussions over meals are intellectually stimulating but fun at the same time. I took Intro to Feminisms my first semester here and I really enjoyed myself. The discussions were entertaining, the readings were always thought-provoking, and we were able to have an open atmosphere to discuss women's issues with a professor who was understanding, fair, and informed. The intersection between Anthropology and WGST is really interesting. Using anthropology as a form of methodology and gender studies as the field I am interested in studying, I've found, has worked out really well.

Gwen Rusmisel

I choose to be a Women’s and gender studies minor partially because I felt like I owed it to all the rebellious women of the past that I never knew about until now. I also felt at home with the contradictions within feminisms because it recognizes how women are not a single category and that everyone is different. I was so challenged by my introduction to Feminisms class that it completely changes how I look at and accept or deny the world around me. My own response to the construction of femininity in the past was to avoid being feminine. But avoiding it doesn’t reconstruct it to include myself as a woman. It’s like I reclaimed a part of myself that I was trying so hard to deny.

Heather Salus Majors: Women's and Gender Studies, Literary Studies, and Creative Writing

Anya Ventura Majors: Women's and Gender Studies and Art History Off-Campus Study: Chicago Arts Program It took me awhile to realize after taking a ton of WGST classes that I wanted to take this path. I like WGST because it's really interdisciplinary, and it looks at power relations.

Rose Robertson

Josie Johnson

Maeve Connor Major: Women's and Gender Studies

Amanda Mehl
Majors: Women and Gender Studies, Health and Society, Modern Languages
Study Abroad: Spring 2004, Quito Ecuador
Fall 2005, Bamako Mali

My Women and Gender Studies Major has taken on a very interdisciplinary, hands on, and outside the classroom approach. I have combined it with my other two majors with the intention of continuing on to graduate school after Beloit to become a Certified Nurse Midwife. I have interviewed women and prepared and written research papers in Spanish and English based on my observations, interviews, and supplemental research on pregnancy and birth in the cities of Quito, Ecuador, Managua, Nicaragua, Rockford, Illinois, and Bamako, Mali. I had the privilege of attending 3 women’s births in Rockford, IL. This semester I am writing a combined Honors Thesis dealing with global maternity issues and the results and overarching comparisons from the research I have done in four different countries.Here are some pics (not the best quality since we adapted them from video) and comments from the alums:

Trina Peoples '03 -- "I came to Beloit thinking I knew who I was and I took these classes and I didn't know who I was at all, like I was searching… As I learned about the different feminist theories, I found myself changing…the more I learned the more I changed…. These classes provided a path… It was so validating for myself."

After working as the office mangager at ACM Urban Studies Program and as the ESL Coordinator at Latino Union, both in Chicago, Allison Rickard '02, is now completing her Masters at Roosevelt University in (heterodox) Economics. Allison said that her Women's Studies courses forced her to considers questions like "what is truth? what is knowledge? what is power? …things that you could go your whole life and never think about. So I think [WGST] is an important place to start your liberal arts education."

Not so sure at first whether Beloit College was for her, Nery Morales '02 said, "I think women's studies helped me stay at Beloit…I think it gave me hope for the future." Nery is now finishing up her Masters Degree in Women's Studies at Texas Women's University in Dallas, Texas.

About to start her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the Adler School of Professional Psychology, Julia Kamenetsky '01, said that WGST courses "allowed me to think about what is happening in the world in a critical way and try to change it or at least continue to speak up about it."