OWHE Blog
We Want Your Input! Mar 20 2017
Give Feedback on OWHE's Revised Mission, Vision, Values and Goals!
Written by Rachel Samuelson & Lea Griess
Over the past 9 months, OWHE has been working through a strategic planning process in order to strengthen our organizational identity, develop a measurable three year strategic plan and align our current services, offerings and programs with our mission, vision, values and purpose.
In summer of 2016, we identified and recruited stakeholders to participate in our strategic planning process. These folks were people who have been involved with OWHE in the past (previous board members, wise women panelists, etc.) and who may have an interest in seeing the organization continue in the future.
Be Heard & Valued Feb 17 2017
The Top 3 Speaking Points to Open Up Ears & Increase Respect in You
By Diane Allen
Many times women feel unheard and undervalued. We get frustrated, call it gender bias, and bitterness can ensue. It’s a complex problem with many different moving parts to address.
I chose this topic: being heard and valued, because at the recent OWHE Conference during the breakout sessions and during the wise women panel, people had brought up their frustrations about not feeling heard and valued.
I’m a women’s leadership speaker and blogger. Being passionate about “moving the needle” for increasing the number of women in leadership is my idea of a good time!
One thing that I’ve discovered is that when I show women some of the key tools that professional speakers use, that it makes a big difference with being heard and valued.
Permission to Push Pause Nov 1 2016
By: Britany Ellerbrook
Oregon women in higher education,
You are specialists, technicians, assistants, advisors, developers, instructors, counselors, coaches, coordinators, directors, deans, provosts, and presidents. You care deeply about the students and the communities you serve and the quality of education, services, and experiences your institutions provide. You are also sisters, daughters, spouses, mothers, grandmothers, mentors, friends, and colleagues. You care deeply for your people. If you are anything like me, you are generally quite good at taking care of everyone else’s needs before your own.
Most of us in higher education operate on the academic calendar, so June, July and August are spent working AND jam-packing as much fun and adventure as we can into our summer (doesn’t’t everyone in Oregon live for our glorious summers, or is it just me?) and before we know it the new school year is upon us.
“Am I overreacting?” Understanding and Combating Microaggressions Oct 20 2016
Originally Posted on July 27, 2016, on Higher Education Today: https://higheredtoday.org/
Gina A. Garcia and Jennifer R. Crandall discuss racial microaggressions on U.S. college and university campuses. This is the latest post in a series sparked by recent student protests and the national dialogue on diversity and inclusion.
I (Gina) recently participated in a diversity training focused on race and racism in higher education, an area I focus on in my own research. As I sat in the training, I felt invisible as the presenter provided numerous activities and resources that addressed a black and white mono-racial binary.
The Unintentional Impact of a Stranger’s Comment: My journey from high school drop out to community college management Sep 2 2016
Meet Amy Sikora:
It was 1995 in Phoenix, AZ, and I was at work, sitting on a stool in a plastic factory, bored out of my mind. My sole job there was to move a piece of plastic out of a box, put it into a machine, press a button, and put the plastic into another box. It was a monotonous job that was fitting for a high school dropout like myself. In fact, I was a two-time high school dropout.
I dropped out the first time when I was a junior in high school, because I’d decided that it would be more enlightening to hitchhike around the west coast with my boyfriend. I dropped out for the second time my senior year because I hated the social scene. From my perspective, I’d seen too much on the road to care about proms, homecomings or any of that other junk high schoolers were supposed to care about. That’s right, I was too cool for school.
I Want to See You Be Brave, written by Maureen Flint Aug 2 2016
I want to see you be brave.
In student affairs we talk a lot about authenticity. We talk about themes of navigating with courage, working towards a common purpose, and being bold without boundaries. And these are great, as national conference themes. As practitioners and student affairs professionals, we negotiate what this looks like day to day, and how we practice authenticity is shaped by our place and the intersectionality of our identities.
This heady topic was the theme of a conversation that began three years ago, and eventually included myself and three colleagues, Gretchen Moore, Kelsey Taylor, and Jessie Ashton. We were all at different levels in our careers, and navigating different spaces, yet as we talked, there was a connection around this idea of authenticity and our shared identity as women in the field of student affairs.
Meet Blanca Aguirre Jul 1 2016
Working in higher education has giving me the opportunity to learn and grow as a professional. Looking back I’ve realized that coming from a Mexican American family taught me the value of hard work. This value gave me the foundation and determination to pursue my journey in higher education.
After completing a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Western Oregon University, I started working as an Academic Advisor at Chemeketa Community College. I was working full time at Chemeketa and completing a part time Master’s Degree in Counseling from Oregon State University. I was lucky to have supportive mentors that believed in my success.
I am currently a Counselor at Chemeketa. My passion is working with students, career development and service learning. As a counselor I provide academic advising and career and personal counseling for students. It’s truly rewarding to work closely with students and help them reach their personal and career goals.