Nance and Robin~Courtney

I loved Nance and Robin when they were our guest speakers last week! They were very comfortable with us and they tried their best to have us interact with them. I liked it when Nance put us in her situation when she had to make the decision to take the money or Shell oil or not. We all agreed that she should not have taken the money since Shell Oil had taken part in the apartheid with South Africa and for the 10 protestors who were killed in Nicaragua. She decided that she would not take the HUGE amount of money from Shell Oil because “taking the money would go against the concepts that they the Academy goes by.” I thought it was brave for a woman to say have the courage to approach the men of that corporation and in her workplace that “no we are not accepting the money.” Robin Gerber’s article about Title IX did make it apparent that women deserve equal opportunities and sufficient equipment as the men. I believe that Title IX has helped women but there are still some discrepancies in the amount of money and publicity, but it is slowly changing. So I guess without Title IX, women would not even be noticed in sports, it is just that it is taking too long for it to reach equal status with the men. Like she said “sexism is alive and well in America” but with these laws being enforced it does make a difference. Hearing both of them speak together makes me believe that we [women] are going to reach to the top and share those executive positions with the men.
When they answered the question “If this is what this is the profession that they wanted to pursue?” they both said strongly NO! Nance said that she never believed that she would end up doing higher education, while Robin graduated from law school and vows to NEVER work for the government again so she directed her attention to writing. None of our speakers ever thought that they would have the career that they are currently doing. This reminded me of my interview with Professor Eby. She told me that it is perfectly fine to stray away from the conventional path if there is something that you feel is more important.
The other things that I found connections with the other speakers (including Nance and Robin) were these three things. One was to do what is right to you, the second aspect is to make time for yourself and your individual needs, lastly is to be passionate about what you are doing because if you are going to make a profession you need to love what you are doing. Hearing these women speak just excite me to go and search for my niche and my true love in life. I hope that it will be something that motivates people to do something better for themselves; after these speakers, I am pretty sure that it will be.