First Women’s Forum builds community
Charnelle Mack
Public relations editorial intern
Avondale College of Higher Education
Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia
Staff members and students raised $250 during Avondale College of Higher Education’s first Women’s Forum, October 12, to support a victim of breast cancer.
More than 150 female staff members and students—and president Dr Ray Roennfeldt in a pink shirt—attended the forum, held in a Ladies Chapel bathed in pink light and decorated with bunches of pink balloons to represent Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Assistant women’s residence director Mere Neale organised the forum. Her goal: to build community. “We not only wanted to do something for students studying on campus, but also for those studying off campus and for staff members,” she says.
The forum featured Kara Dale, an off-campus ministry and theology student, Karlie Fraser, an on-campus arts and teaching student, and Gaylene Heise, an assistant in the Distance Education Resource Centre, who revealed what they would tell their younger selves. “It was just reassuring for them to get up there and say, ‘You’re going through a storm right now but [God] is going to pull you through it,’” says Diploma of General Studies student Stephanie Donaldson.
The number of women attending and the number of positive comments will see the forum return at least once a year if not once a semester. And that is important, says psychology major and residence assistant Regina Amuimuia. “Issues that relate to girls don’t necessarily relate to guys and vice versa. Biologically, emotionally and mentally, we’re different.”
Tags: Student Services