Elisabeth Martin, Campus Carrier Features Editor

Jamison Guice, Campus Carrier Asst. Features Editor

March is the month of basketball, midterms and the emergence of spring, but beyond that, March is Women’s History Month.

To celebrate Women’s History Month, Student Diversity Initiatives (SDI) hoped to draw attention to women’s history with a month of events featuring prominent women from the Berry community and beyond. This included a series of #WomenCrushWednesday luncheons, educational panel discussions and a “Voices” event featuring students. These events are meant to educate the student body on the journey of female academics.

“We wanted to get a group of women together here at Berry, of students and faculty, and have them be able to sit together, encourage each other, and share their journeys,” sophomore Julia Churchill said. “We also thought it would be cool to have people from the community in Rome, but also on campus, to come in and share their journey and where they are now and how they got there.”

Speakers included Thema Monroe-White, assistant professor of management information systems, and Sundai Stevenson, commissioner for the City of Rome. One professor that shared her story was Paula Englis, professor of management, where she talked about her academic choices, challenges and role models.

The luncheon allowed students to ask questions about why Englis made specific choices. She said a person can learn a lot from hearing another’s past by learning from their mistakes or taking advantage of their successes.

“If something that I have done in my life helps somebody else along their path then I’m happy to share it,” Englis said.

Englis said the luncheon was open to anyone interested in an academic path because her career is not just teaching but also research for academic papers.

“Some of the students there were trying to think about what their path forward is and how they can have success in their field and still have balance in their personal life and in the career challenges they have,” she said.

Englis also spoke about the importance of finding mentors because they can give essential guidance. For example, during her master’s program at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Englis said that her mentors impacted her choices to go into the academic field because she was unsure of her career path.

“I think it is good to have role models, and when I was in college there were not many female professors,” she said. “So, it is really good to hear some stories so if that is the path that somebody wants to take then somebody else has already done that.”