Pacific’s Center for Gender Equity is responsible for planning a large number of the seminars, public speaking and entertainment events that have visited the campus over the years including the “Brown Bag Lunch Series,” and celebrity sex and relationship columnist.
This is not CGE’s only task however. The Center is home to a very diverse course list for Gender and Sexuality Studies. A few examples of the courses available to students today are Gender and Sexuality in Victorian America, Literature and Human Concerns, Women in Art and Advanced Feminist Theory. Not to mention the list of community service projects that CGE has become involved with such as Adelante Mujeres, a program dedicated to the education of low-income Latina women in the area.
The long list of responsibilities is more than department leader, Martha Rampton can take on alone. But this is not the only reason why the center appoints two students as CGE Co-Chairs every year. According to one of this year’s Co-Chairs for CGE, Kayla Johnston, the program depends upon the “process of working as a team.”
Not only is Chris Palmer the roommate of Kayla Johnston, but he is also joining her as a fellow Co-Chair this year. The two student leaders are in charge of organizing and facilitating meetings with CGE, managing its student staff, overseeing the community projects and making the arrangements to host guest speakers on campus. As Johnston puts it, it is important that she and Palmer “make sure everything get done.”
Johnston first became interested in CGE as a freshman. She was introduced by a close friend who took part in many of the center’s events. She also remembers CGE’s presentation of the “Laramie Project,” being a major selling point in her involvement with the program. She found out that she had been nominated for her current position while studying abroad. Johnston had been studying with the program for a year and a half at the time.
When asked what the new title of Co-Chair has given back to she and Palmer, Johnston simply replied, “self-assurance that I can get stuff done.”
Johnston does admit that for her and Palmer, “time management is super hard.” However, she would definitely recommend getting involved to anyone who displays an interest in CGE because it guarantees you the skills of “basic leadership” and is “definitely rewarding.”
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