Women’s Studies Graduation Remarks

Rosario Ceballo, Director of Undergraduate Studies
Graduation brunch, Michigan Union Anderson Room, April 27, 2007

I want to thank you all for coming today. My name is Rosie Ceballo, and I’m an Associate Professor of Psychology and Women’s Studies and the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Women’s Studies Program. I am delighted to welcome you all, graduating seniors majoring in Women’s Studies, your friends and family members, and Women's Studies faculty and staff members. There are lots of things that concern and worry me about our world today. There are mounting casualties of war, families living in poverty stricken conditions, women suffering from sexual assault and domestic violence, and signs of a growing intolerance of differences among us. I want to propose to all of you today that there are also tremendous reasons to be hopeful about our world and the future and that many of those reasons are sitting in this room. Our undergraduate students embody a spirit of hope, of the possibility for social change, and of tolerance based on the intellectual rigor of a liberal arts education shared among a diverse student body.

The Women’s Studies class of 2007 includes 52 undergraduate students who are majoring in Women’s Studies. The intellectual breadth of this group is displayed in the fact that a majority of our majors have chosen to double major or elect a minor. Thirty-seven of you have also completed concentrations in 16 other departments or programs, including anthropology, biology, communications, creative writing, English, French, history, Latin American and Caribbean studies, political science, psychology, religious studies, and spanish. The range of your intellectual pursuits is truly extraordinary, spanning fields in the social sciences, humanities, and hard sciences. Of course, as a psychologist, I am especially pleased that a double major in psychology and WS was the most popular combination this year.

Given the intellectual breath and scholarly commitment displayed by this group of students, it is not surprising that many of you have already received honors, awards, and other distinctions for your accomplishments. One of you was named a Clarendon Scholar to study at Oxford University and two of you wrote essays that were distinguished with an honorable mention in the McGuigan Essay competition for the best undergraduate essay to contribute to our understanding of women’s lives or to use a keen scholarly analysis based on gender and/or sexuality. Among you also are recipients of:

• the Margaret Dow-Towsley Scholarship,
• the Ginsberg Center Award for Community Service and Social Action,
• the Romance Languages and Literature Book Award,
• the Martin Luther King Jr. Spirit Award,
• an Office of International Programs Fellowship,
• the William J. Branstrom Award,
• and we have several recipients of the James B. Angell Scholars Award. Wow!

There’s still more. The Women's Studies Program is extremely proud to honor the largest cohort of WS honors students in our history. Ten remarkable undergraduate WS majors chose to do an original, independent research project and to write an honors thesis. I would like to ask this group of intellectually courageous undergraduate students to stand as I read their names: Emily Chaloner, Stephanie Christians, Amanda Hooper, Azmat Khan, Rachel Lappin, Laura Pisarello, Jessica Roberts, Rebecca Rueble, Elizabeth Turk, Smita Walavalkar.

The work of these honors students represents an extraordinary range and breadth of scholarly interests. They have written about women who are often disempowered by society, for example, women in prison, women who work as prostitutes, domestic violence victims, and Latina immigrants. And, their investigations have focused on pressing social issues, such as rape, domestic violence, the prison health care system, the use of emergency contraception, prenatal care, and gender stereotypes about internet use and information technology. Moreover, two women from this cohort of Honor students served as student members of the WS Undergraduate Committee, and we are grateful to Jessica Roberts and Smita Walavalkar for the time, energy, and insight that they devoted to the administrative side of our undergraduate program.

Enough about scholarship and the world of ideas, our undergraduate majors have not simply stayed in the classroom, engrossed in feminist jargon and book-learning. This group of WS majors has taken the feminist value of turning knowledge into action and practice to heart. You have engaged in an endless array of impressive activities for community service and social change and demonstrated a tireless commitment to social justice. You have tutored elementary and middle school children and participated in other programs for children like: Big Brothers, Big Sisters, Girl Scouts, and the Maxey Boys Training School.

You have volunteered at: American Diabetes Association, the Ann Arbor AIDS walk, the Battered Women’s Clemency Project, the Detroit Health Department, Habitat for Humanity, Michigan Abortion Rights Action League, Planned Parenthood, SAFE House, The Triangle Foundation.

You have organized an Amnesty International Campaign Against Terror.

You have written to the Michigan Daily about violence against women and the meaning of rape culture.

You have received training to work as a birth doula to help women through the process of child birth.

Where have you found the time?

Your work has not simply been at the local level. You have traveled abroad, sometimes together with our WS faculty, you have had semesters and summers abroad in Chile, Egypt, England, Honduras, Italy, South Africa and Spain, and you have countless stories to tell about these many adventures.

Transitions are often a time for some sadness as you consider the many possible “last times,” like the last time to enjoy a Stucchi’s ice cream cone, the last time to walk across the Diag, the last time to gather with friends at Seva, Cosi’s, or Afternoon Delight. Transitions also bring a time of reflections with private smiles and memories of salient moments and highlights of your college experiences. As you reflect, I hope that you will remember and take with you the intellectual skills and strengths that you gathered here in your community work, campus activities, and WS classrooms, starting with the moment when you decided that you were bold enough and strong enough to declare a major in Women's Studies.

Remember that you have unique interdisciplinary training, you are not afraid to enter a conversation about literary analysis or social science survey data, as you have been exposed to an array of methodological approaches in creating knowledge. Do not leave behind your sharp analytical skills and your critical awareness of what society tries to sell as part of the taken-for-granted, hegemonic social order. Remember to be humbled and respectful of the myriad ways in which relationships of power and equality are shaped by social identities of gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, sexuality, social class, and ability. I hope that you will always carry with you, as I do, the words or actions of those that truly inspired you as you learned about them—perhaps it was Gloria Anzaldua, Betty Friedan, Audre Lorde, Cherie Moraga, Adrienne Rich, or Elizabeth Cady Stanton—it will be different for each of you. And above all, do not stop questioning because what you started here—your engagement in living and learning and sharing ideas with those around you—is never over.

How many times has someone asked you, “Exactly what do you plan to do with a Women's Studies degree?” Parents, how many times have you asked this question? Okay, you don’t have to answer that. The truth is that our graduates are exceptionally ready for the world and the paths that their lives will take next. They are pursuing advanced degrees, careers and employment opportunities that are as diverse and as challenging as their undergraduate endeavors have been. Some of you will soon embark on jobs for the Peace Corps, the DirectAction Training and Research Center, and Teach for America. Others of you are headed for advanced degrees in art history, law, medicine, nursing, public health, and social work. There are even some of you that are not quite sure of what the next step will be. Let me assure you and your parents, that that is absolutely fine—take your time, take a breath, don’t rush down a wrong path; gather yourself and soon you will find the path that is meant for you.

My son, Miguel, is 5 years old and he simply thinks his mom works too much. However, my daughter, Elisia, is ten years old and like any professor’s child, she is absolutely obsessed with college. She wants to know everything about the undergraduates here today. She asks me, for example, Where do they live? What do they eat? Where do they eat? What things do they study? And she cannot wait for her college days to come. I, of course, am not quite ready to see my baby in college, but I know and hope that it will come some day. So, to the parents and grandparents and godparents in the room, I can honestly say to you that I tremble to imagine the mixture of emotions that you must have when looking at the mature, bright, educationally accomplished young adult before you. We thank you for entrusting their learning to us and I’d like to take just a few moments to acknowledge the faculty and staff who have done this job with devotion and commitment.

First, Susan Siegfried, please stand. Susan has been the Acting Director of the Women’s Studies Program for this past year and as far as I can tell Susan does not tire; she has led us with tremendous skill, energy, and endless vitality.

Next, I would like to ask that all of the Women's Studies faculty present here today stand. These are some of the faculty members who have taught you in courses, traveled with you to conduct service learning projects in Africa or Honduras, served as primary advisors for your Honors theses, and chatted with you during their office hours. Let’s give them a round of applause.

I would also like to say a word of tremendous thanks and gratitude to the Women's Studies staff. These are the people who make all of this possible—they handle the course schedule, making sure that every course has an instructor and a room and proper video equipment, they advertise campus meetings and workshops like the career fairs, they collect information on our graduating seniors, they manage all of the paper work that must be done in such a large bureaucratic institution every time a student drops a course, adds a major, or travels abroad. Their work is constant and it is often done behind the scenes, so I think it is very important to acknowledge them here today. Let me introduce them to you and ask them to stand as I do so.

A good team often starts at the top and that would mean starting with:

Sandra Vallie—She is the Women's Studies head department manager; she is the center of the wheel and the only one who knows all of its integrated pieces. She is a tireless, dedicated, and committed administrator who oversees everything with enormous grace, aplomb, and an enormous wealth of knowledge and experience.

Donna Ainsworth—is the Women's Studies program coordinator and the Women's Studies undergraduate program is deeply in her debt. The undergraduate program would simply ground to a halt without Donna! Donna spends many of her hours advising our undergraduate students about course selections, and she serves as the principal liaison between faculty and undergraduates. She is responsible for organizing so many of the events that happen for our undergraduate students, including this one.

Jen Sarafin—is the coordinator of the graduate program and we were told last night at another graduation function that the graduate program would similarly stop without all that Jen does.

Jennifer McJunkin—is the receptionist for Lane Hall and a strong member of the support team for the faculty and students in Women’s Studies.

Shelley Shock provides key academic services for the Women’s Studies program.

Jennifer and Shelley will always greet you with a smile when you enter Lane Hall and many of us are unaware of the many important files and charts they are helping to create and manage for the smooth running of the WS program.

Dottie Gallo—is the extremely able, level-headed, and unflappable secretary to the Women’s Studies Director.

Thank you all so much for coming to the Women's Studies graduation lunch. I hope you enjoy every moment of the graduation festivities over the weekend and delight in all of your accomplishments and achievements.