Dr. Jewel Plummer Cobb S.T.E.A.M. Women’s Empowerment Initiatives

This year we celebrated five years of furthering the legacy of Dr. Jewel Plummer Cobb.  Our theme for this year was “Reinventing Your Journey Holistically, in the Age of Covid-19″ where we provided programming that focused on women’s entrepreneurship, leadership, advocacy, mentorship, and Covid-19 vaccination awareness in communities of color. The honesty and depth of these discussions challenged us to truly think about the TRUE impact of the past year, and the many ways this pandemic has impacted women in society. This pandemic has taught us so much, but it also revealed a lot about the world we live in. 

Sonya Renee Taylor said, “We will not go back to normal. Normal never was. Our pre-corona existence was not normal other than we normalized greed, inequity, exhaustion, depletion, extraction, disconnection, confusion, rage, hoarding, hate, and lack. We should not long to return, my friends. We are being given the opportunity to stitch a new garment. One that fits all of humanity and nature.” As student leaders we challenge you to continue to reflect on what “normal” means to you. We challenge you to think about your own voice and how it can be amplified on and beyond campus. We encourage you to work across communities to challenge what we have known as normal, to work to “stitch a new garment”.

On behalf of the Dr. Jewel Plummer Cobb STEAM Women’s Empowerment Initiatives team, we’d like to thank everyone who took time to engage our initiatives throughout the month.

Congratulations to our 2021 Women’s Empowerment Prize recipients: Sandra Alex, Catherine Sackey, Murphy Boccher, Marie Yamaoka, and Veronica Bido!

We encourage you to visit this website for more opportunities to engage! We also encourage you to take a look at our post-initiatives resources below, and share within your network. Follow us on Instagram @stemHERstoryRU

For more information, please contact Karima Woodyard – karima.woodyard@rutgers.edu

Post-Initiatives tools: 

For the self-reflection journaling, here’s the prompt and subsequent questions:

Think of a time, in any setting or environment, where you as a self-identified woman has felt oppressed, silenced, or invalidated.

• What did you feel like you needed or wanted in that moment but didn’t get? Did you feel like something was taken away from you?
• What support (if any) did you receive from those around you? What do you wish others knew about why this may have been a triggering experience?
• What are some of the things you can do, using your voice/platform to provide space and opportunity for other self-identified women who may feel oppressed, silenced or invalidated?
• Action Plan: Write down a plan of action to begin creating change within your community in efforts to “Stitch a New Garment”. Fold your student organizations and other groups into your action plan.

Mentorship Week Checklist

Women’s HERstory Month Toolkit

Event Videos

Women in Leadership Advocacy Round Table

Girl Talk: Women of Color Talk Covid-19 Vaccinations and Communities of Color

Women Mentoring Women – Conversation Circles

Mentorship Week Live on IG – @stemHERstoryRU with Chanel Jordan, Hsui-Fen Lin, and Emily Haran

Mentorship Week Live on IG – @stemHERstoryRU with Dominique Little, Dean Sandra Castro and Jakora Holman

Goals

Unite, educate and inspire women to discover their passion and purpose and elevate their understanding of what it means to be a woman in today’s society.

Create an atmosphere where women from all walks of life can empower each other to achieve new levels of success.

Create a platform where we can recognize and celebrate self-identified female students, faculty, staff and alumni who have made significant strides in their disciplines, who overcame challenges and who have left their imprint on our community today.

Dr. Jewel Plummer Cobb, an influential educator, trailblazer and scientist who served as the sixth Dean of Douglass from 1976 to 1981.

Read her whole story…