PROVO, Utah (December 8, 2018)—In a presentation and celebration of a semester of hard work, eight students in the capstone course for the global women’s studies minor gave presentations on projects they’ve been working on for the class. With the aid of a faculty mentor, each of these students chose a project they were passionate about relating to women’s studies. These projects, though tied together by a general topic, led these students on eight very different paths. While some students delved deep into research, others conducted personal interviews, and some even pursued their projects out of the country.
Setting out to help solve one problem, and discovering another, Libby Evans’ project took her to Africa, and is one that continues today. Evans worked with the School of Agriculture for Family Independence (SAFI) in rural Malawi. Evans’ project aimed to teach women in Malawi psychological resilience skills such as self-awareness, stress-management, self-compassion, and communication. The women Evans helped teach showed incredible growth, however Evans discovered a major problem hindering true psychological flourishing for these women—domestic abuse. While asking women about their main stressors, it was revealed that 39% of these women experienced mistreatment. With this new information, Evans plans to expand her project by returning to Malawi this summer to help SAFI teach families how to better communicate and how to break the cycle of domestic abuse. Though her project didn’t unfold exactly as planned, Evans has hope that “if we’re able to implement a policy that helps eradicate the problem of domestic abuse, then these families [SAFI students] will be able to teach [these psychological skills] to their neighbors… so that our impact will be not just to SAFI students, but to women and families all throughout Malawi.”
Though not all eight of the students flew to Africa for their projects, each included experiential learning as they pursued their passions. Abigail Clayton’s project also led her outside of the country, but this time to Denmark. While here, Clayton interviewed a diverse sampling of Danish women, with Clayton trying to discover what makes Denmark one of the consistently reported happiest countries in the world.
Alyson Adams and Genevieve Christensen both did extensive research for their projects, though the subjects of their research were very different. Adams chose to explore the priesthood ban on black men during the early church. Specifically, Adams focused on the narratives of black women, and the ways in which they protested the ban and advocated for access to the priesthood and to the temple. In contrast, Christensen studied the relationship between femininity and spirituality in Russian culture, and found parallels to ideas of women in the church.
Andrea Shay and Maren Monson both centered their projects on issues of women’s health and well-being. Shay studied sexual mindfulness and how it can improve women’s sexual health. Monson, on the other hand, focused her efforts on the resources and barriers for prenatal care for Hispanic immigrants. Monson calls for clinics as well as society to “look at the services that are provided and see where can we cater more to the needs of this population.”
Finally, Delirio Juarez and Kelsey Pennock relied on personal interviews and narratives to learn about their topics of interest. Juarez interviewed female students at BYU who are of an ethnic minority. As she shared their comments and experiences, Juarez was able to communicate some of the struggles and frustrations of these women.
Pennock was also able to help voice the concerns of a marginalized group. Pennock reached out to and interviewed mothers with mental illnesses. As a communications major, Pennock is preparing her findings as a news package where she will share the experiences of five mothers with five different mental illnesses. Her article will be published near the beginning of the upcoming year.
Regardless of what project they did or where they did it, these women’s studies students were able to help advance research and conversation in a field they’re passionate about, as well as to grow individually as they embraced learning hands-on.
Emma Ebert (Editing & Publishing, ‘21)