Welcome Back from Dean Rehbein
Dear Douglass Community,
This is absolutely my favorite time of year. There’s a palpable sense of possibility in the air as students arrive on campus. For first-year and transfer students, it’s a brand-new beginning. For continuing students, it’s a return to their campus home, to that distinctive mix of routine and discovery that college life offers. And, as a lifelong Jersey Shore resident, I’ll admit I also love this season because it’s “local summer,” when the beaches are at their quietest and best.
Over the past week, Douglass has been rolling out the welcome mat for our newest community members– check out some of the highlights. It’s always energizing to meet students who are experiencing Douglass for the first time and beginning to imagine their future here. I’m equally excited to reconnect with our returning students. I’ve heard from quite a few of them over the summer – participating in SUPER Undergraduate STEM Research Experience, or working with Faculty Fellow Brittney Cooper’s RAGE Lab, studying abroad with Rutgers Global, or simply enjoying summer in their own way.
Opportunities at Douglass are as wide-ranging as our students themselves. They are social and academic, local and global, rooted in advocacy and activism, and designed for moments of quiet reflection. Douglass students enroll here to take part in experiences they can’t find anywhere else—programs that center women’s voices in the classroom, residence halls, and public square. We encourage them to take risks and try something new: sign up for one of the public policy forums in Washington, D.C., visit the exhibit by fabric artist and Lebowitz Artist in Residence Liz Collins, take the Industry Perspectives course for STEM majors, join the book discussion with author and Douglass alumna Ingrid Hu Dahl DC’02, or explore the Clara method with Dialogue Across Difference.
The work of Douglass, the women’s residential college at Rutgers, remains as critical and necessary as ever. The World Economic Forum’s most recent gender parity report projects it would take 123 years before women across the globe achieve equity in education, the workforce, access to healthcare, and political participation. Closer to home, a recent study ranked New Jersey near the bottom for gender equity. I decided to study women and leadership, in part, because every time I hear statistics like that, I get both enraged and energized to change things. Douglass, alongside our partners at the Institute for Women’s Leadership, is working to change this. What we do here matters, and the engagement and support of our alumni across the globe help make this work possible.
If you haven’t visited the Douglass website in a while, I encourage you to take a look. You’ll find new programs, exciting opportunities, and an updated events calendar (check the ‘alumnae and students’ filter in the division field to see upcoming events you can attend). You can also connect with current Douglass students by hosting a Reilly BOLD Center externship, inviting them to an event or sharing an opportunity, reaching out to Douglass faculty or staff, or making a gift in support of our students and programs.
The fall season is full of possibility. As a Douglass student, every chance you took, or new experience you had, opened your world a little wider. Now, you are helping to change the future for people around the globe – and for future generations of Douglass students. Thank you, and welcome back!
Sincerely,
Dean Meghan Rehbein, Ed.D.
Dean of Douglass Residential College
Director of the Institute for Women's Leadership
