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"My memories: all the help and guidance I received from the women faculty, especially Dr. Alice Kelley ... choosing Anthropology as a major because of the high feeling of comfortableness in the department for racial diversity ... feelings of compassion and understanding from the women around me -- these were the most important things to me during my years at Penn." -- Angela Nissel, C'98 "One of my best memories of being a woman at Penn was when my friends, collegues and I became the first all-woman team to play touch football in the WEB DuBois House's annual intramural game, the DuBois Bowl. When the guys realized we were serious, they went into their 'machismo' mode. (My closest friends and I were called the Farrakan sisters by a group of insecure brothers, who thought of us as the antichrist, not because we were in the Nation of Islam but because we actually had our own opinions! Can you believe we dared to think?!) We knew they would not accept us yet we didn't care. None of us were athletes or even watched football. We didn't have a clue what a punt was and when we realized what it was, we didn't know we had to catch the ball! Their sexism affected us on the field as well. Some guys were so angered that we took over their turf that they took some of their frustrations out on us. We never complained unless they received a point for their sexist behavior, claiming it was part of the game. There were times when it got ugly (feminine words that bruised male egos). If we had penises, we would have received pats on the butt, pointers and invitations to hang out after the game. We walked away with jammed thumbs, injuries, bruises, and when it rained, we played in mud. The following year, we had a classmate, Al Hogan, W'96, coach us. He taught us Football 101. We practiced faithfully after dinner. People would come just to watch us lose. Through all of this we had no intentions of becoming the first women to play DuBois Bowl, or that we were 'man-hating fems' who wanted to show the guys we were better than them. We were just a group of young women who wanted to play ball and win!" -- Onyx O. Finney, C'99 "It was the first day of freshman year and I needed to get my student ID, so my dad (Leonard Shapiro, W'64) walked me to Hutchinson Gym to show me the way. Now, my dad may be Penn basketball's biggest fan; as I was growing up, he always shared his many fond memories of the Palestra with me, so after I got my ID card he took me into the gym. Although the room was silent, it somehow rang with the energy and cheers of Penn fans. I remember standing next to my dad, looking at the Ivy League and Big 5 banners, hearing that palpable silence -- and realizing that I wasn't just attending a university, I was joining a tradition and sharing something very special with my dad. My eyes welled up back then, and the memory of that moment still has the same effect today." -- Alexandra Shapiro, C'91, WG'97 "My special Penn memory is the Watermelon Social the first week in the quad -- I met my closest girlfriends that week, who remained my best friends and roommates for the next four years!" -- Mandee Heller, C'94, W'94 "My worst Pennsylvania memory was when I lost my virginity in the Quadrangle, October 31, 1990. My best Pennsylvania memory was learning how to make love safely, because after three tests and one year of celibacy, I am HIV-free! Also going to DRL to look at the planets; reading my work in Annenberg; running the bridge. There's nothing in the world like Penn." -- Jahmae Ramella Harris, C'94 "When I was a freshman, a group of four women (Carmen Maldonado, CAS'91, ED'92; Lorena Flores Pulido, '92; Ileana Garcia, '92; and myself) created the first Latina-based sorority at Penn called Sigma Lambda Upsilon/Senoritas Latinas Unidas Sorority (SLU). As undergraduates, it was quite a risk for us to create a sorority that focused on fostering education and leadership among Latinas and women of color, as there was no precedent and the idea didn't 'fit' into the existing sorority system. Four years later, when I was a senior, SLU garnered the Greek Penn Alumni Outstanding Leadership Award and numerous other accolades. Over the years, SLU has produced doctors, lawyers, professors, businesswomen, and community leaders. To this day, my most cherished (and there are many) memory of Penn is institutionalizing a support system for women (specifically Latinas who were for the most part first-generation college bound) that has stretched widely beyond our Philadelphia campus to Texas, California, Florida, New York, Illinois, and Latin America, where we are now continuing to pursue our professional and personal dreams." -- Mary Elizabeth (Liz) Cedillo, CAS'93 |
