Why they chose women’s studies

Kendra Ballingall

Five students of the Simone de Beauvoir Institute received scholarships for excellence in Women’s Studies at the college’s open house on Sept. 23.

Sarah Anderson calls herself a self-identified feminist. “I enjoy balancing activism and feminist theory,” she says, citing health issues and queer feminism as examples. She is pursuing a double major in Women’s Studies and Applied Human Sciences.

Katie Kotler first became interested in women’s studies while reading Naomi Wolf’s The Beauty Myth. “It was so relevant,” she explains. “It verbalized a lot of what I had been thinking.” In the Institute, Kotler finds a source of “good, strong women role models.”

After studying feminism at an alternative Toronto high school and Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, Esther Marie Simmonds MacAdam decided to continue with women’s studies.

“My courses came full circle,” she explains. “I like the way it incorporates history, cultural studies, especially here at the Institute. The courses here are very provocative.”

In her second year, Talia Kleinplatz is interested in “feminist generations and controversies.” She says women’s studies “allows you to go out and think critically in the world, to question in ways other thought processes don’t.”

Tifanie Valade is combining her Major in Women’s Studies with Communications and Public Affairs. Her goal is to work in either government or community organizations.

“I was working for a corporation when I decided I wanted to do something more meaningful, to help people,” she says. “I think mixing the two degrees prepares you for that.”