My GSEC Experience

            I am a first year and I am interning at the AS Gender & Sexuality Equity Center (GSEC) for spring semester of 2013 for the women’s program. I wanted to intern during the fall semester, but I missed the deadline. I asked myself if this was something that I really wanted to do and the answer was yes. So I told myself that I would intern my next semester and I did. I was determined and it was the first thing I did when I returned from winter break. When I first stepped into the GSEC I thought to myself, “This is where I want to be.” There was something about the GSEC that resonated within me. Once I started my office hours for the semester I quickly learned something about myself; I didn’t know the subject of feminism or know what inclusive language was. I’m a nutrition & food science major and everyone in the GSEC has a major that is related to women’s studies, topics of sociology, psychology, etc. I definitely felt like I was out of the loop. In the beginning of the semester I felt weird being different in a group of people that had known each other for a semester prior to spring. I soon realized that many were new interns like me. The GSEC is a safe and inclusive space and I allowed myself to break out of my shell of shyness. I began to ask questions to inform myself more about the subject of feminism and learn more about the LGBTQ+ community. I was quick to assume that just because my major was different that I would be ostracized, but I was wrong. The GSEC staff interviewed me and thought that I would be a great candidate for their internship. I couldn’t comprehend at the time that someone wanted me. It took me awhile to understand that it’s ok to be different, it’s ok to not know something, and it’s ok to ask questions so you can further educate yourself. The GSEC has given me the opportunity to know myself as an individual and to confide in others. That’s something I didn’t have prior to my internship, that’s something I didn’t have before starting college. Being an intern at the GSEC as forever changed my life in a positive way. I’m so happy that I was able to experience this internship. I am eternally grateful for everything that I have learned through the GSEC. Whenever I tell someone that I intern at the GSEC I am able to share my experience and they see how happy I am and they want to experience that too. That happiness stems form acceptance of my own being. Acceptance of my own opinions and thoughts and to be able to validate my feelings and experiences. I love to help others and with my experience at the GSEC I can do that because I share my experience, I am no longer shy and I have the ability to speak my mind and not be afraid. Thanks to the GSEC internship I am an empowered individual and I want others to have the opportunity to be strong as well. Whenever people ask me about my internship I can say with all honesty and certainty that it was one of the best decisions of my life and most likely the highlight of my college career.

By Candy Pahua

Feminist Poem

Being a Feminist

Means completing my life’s list

I have had the best experience here

Better than your Friday beer

I fight for LGBTQ and Women’s rights

By attending events like Take Back the Night

I kiss for equality, and that’s no lie

When people don’t feel the same, I just say bye

I push for diversity and inclusion everyday

So if you have questions for me, come up and say:

“Adriana, I’d like to know what I can do”,

I’ll respond, “Thanks for asking, let me inform you”.

Get an internship with the Gender and Sexuality Equity Center

Then you will get an amazing mentor

You will learn all about marginalized groups

So that you can be more educated than others…whoops

Make a change and join the fun

Then we can all party under the sun!

By Adriana Curiel

Take Back the Night Poem

This is the poem I performed at Take Back the Night Spring 2013. I wrote it after attending my first Take Back the Night Fall 2012.

Her Voice


Tightness in my heart
Even tears can't break apart
the state I'm in

And even though I try
to let truth out, please let me cry
I just won't

You see, this body lost its worth
when it saw a world of hurt
There were no words and no consent
but still the pain came, in he went
And I was numb

Another night, a different face
Bodies thrash and minds erase
The morning comes
and empty settles in
Empty is what's within

Mother told me, Dear,
please don't walk this life with fear
But they'll take it all from you
and won't look back

The men still call her name
Still live in her through her shame
and the night, it never did feel the same

Now forty years are gone
and her Daughter tells her, Mom
It's not your fault

Let us Take Back the Night
Now it's time for us to fight
for what they stole

Her voice, it shook
but I know the strength it took
when she raised it up and struck those demons down

My hand upon her knee
felt the change of energy
and suddenly, it all became so clear

A Daughter and a Mother
found strength within each other
and stopped the blame, the hurt, the pain, the guilt, the lies

Never again will they apologize
Their bodies and their souls are learning to fly


By Sarena Kirk

I am an Activist Because

I am an activist because I have to give a voice to the people who aren’t able to use their own. I am an activist for every young girl and every woman out there who has ever been a victim of assault. Fighting against societal norms and putting an end to all forms of oppression is something I have a passion for. No one is free while others are oppressed and I will not fight for one group of oppressed individuals, but I will fight for all of them. I am an activist for the 16 year old girl in Steubenville who was raped and assaulted on multiple accounts in one night by members of a football team. I am an activist for every person who has ever felt like they aren’t enough. I want everyone to feel like they are enough and that their simple existence is a beautiful thing in itself. I want to put an end to slut-shaming, victim blaming, gay “jokes,” and any oppressive language that has been completely normalized by our patriarchal society. I am an activist because I cannot stand when someone tells me to “stop being so sensitive.” I am an activist because people still think it is “too late” to change our language. I am an activist for every person that has been called faggot, stupid, retard, slut, whore, skank, not good enough. I am an activist for every trans man or woman that has been murdered for being themselves. I am an activist for every person who is queer that has been put down because they don’t follow the “rules” society put into place. I am an activist because I am tired of being told what to do and how to do it. I am an activist to break down those barriers and to say those rules are complete crap. I am an activist because gender roles drive me insane. I am an activist for all the tears that have been cried that no one’s caught. I am an activist for every person who feels like they aren’t safe. I am activist for equity. I want everyone to be happy and to feel the joy that they deserve. I am an activist because I can’t just sit here and watch all the bad things keep happening. I am an activist because I have to do something to make this world a little bit better. I am an activist because I can’t stand ignorance and want to inform the uninformed. And most of all I am activist because I actually give a damn. 

by Jordan Walsh