Program Officer at CARE How were you affiliated with WGS? Women's and Gender Studies Minor. Tell us about your current work (paid or unpaid!) I am a program officer for the Health, Equity, and Rights (HER) team and the Gender Justice team at CARE USA. My role involves providing administrative and logistical support to staff both at a project and individual level. One of the main goals of the HER team is to provide sexual and reproductive health to women and children. They strengthen health systems and support marginalized groups to exercise their right to health. The Gender Justice team focuses on long-term, international, and sustained change to inequalities and injustice. How has your Women's and Gender Studies experience shaped your life and work post-graduation? Taking women's studies has profoundly transformed me as an individual. I have grown both spiritually and intellectually as I engaged with the teachings of feminist scholars and immersed myself in their literature. In my final semester of university, as I began looking for post-graduation employment, I made a conscious effort to find a job that allowed me to utilize women's studies in my professional life. Today, I always encourage others to take some foundational courses in gender studies, as I believe they provide a space for people (not just women) to put into words many of the injustices faced daily that they might now have been able to originally understand. What are your favorite memories from your time in Women's and Gender Studies at UGA? Courses, professors, events? I always enjoyed how women's studies courses did not conform to the same rigid structures of traditional academia. Many of my projects allowed me to introduce topics through different media like videos/podcasts and the freedom to explore the teachings allowed me to have a better understanding of my research topic. I also liked the diversity of topics and speakers in the Friday speaker series.
