There is no doubt in my mind that my Douglass experience was instrumental in shaping me into the person I am today, and in making me a woman of confidence and courage. A little bit of my back story is relevant here. I am one of four children: an older sister, an older brother, and a twin sister. My parents were not college educated, and did not believe that women needed to go to college, “because they would just quit their jobs when they got married anyway.” My oldest sister, a wiz at math and a pioneer of sorts in our family, convinced my skeptical father otherwise, and ended up enrolling in Douglass. She graduated as a math major and went on to have a very successful career at IBM. It was while visiting her on weekends that I first fell in love with the place: the Jameson Quad, Voorhees Chapel, and Antilles Field are all firmly and fondly planted in my mind as among my earliest memories of Douglass. And so, when it came time for my twin sister Sharon and I to go to college (my parents were by now convinced that college for women was quite a good thing), I only applied to Douglass. And I got in! My dream had come true.
As I reflect upon how Douglass worked its magic on me and made me the person I am today, I would have to say that three factors were critical: First and foremost was the conviction that permeated the very air that we breathed-- that women are leaders. That conviction, that fact, was never questioned, and we had living examples all around us in our faculty, our deans, and our fellow students. Second, the fellowship and support of my comrades-in-arms, my fellow Douglass women, gave me a feeling of support and sisterhood I had not experienced before. I particularly recall that every Wednesday night, the residents of Corwin H would sit on the stairs and each in turn, one after the other, would pour out the traumas and victories of the week thus far. Today we might call that “Group Therapy,” then we just called it “Wednesday Night on the Stairs.” And finally, Douglass experiences gave me my professional start in life. As co-editor of the Douglass Caellian, I gained experiences that stretched me well beyond the campus, experiences that helped me land my first job as founding editor of a new in-house employee newspaper at Prudential Insurance Company in Newark. I would never have gotten that job had it not been for Douglass.
The Douglass Residential College of today is not precisely the Douglass College of my past, but the essential elements remain. Douglass is still where women learn to lead. Douglass still provides its students with the sisterhood and support so critical for women in today’s often hostile society. And Douglass still creates the co-curricular experiences that turn into giant stepping stones to the world our students will encounter after graduation.
I now proudly serve on the Douglass Advisory Board, and am delighted to still have such a close connection to a place I hold so dear. Douglass changed my life. That’s why I give.
Douglass Residential College
