As I approach my final year of all women's education, I want to reflect for a minute. At the age of 13, I made the decision to leave my co-ed background for the previous 10 years and move on to a world I hadn't really understood yet: all-girls school.
I'd had boys in my classes, my sports, my choirs and my theatres for 10 years and suddenly, they were gone. I traded in my black plaid jumpers for red plaid kilts and that was the most startling change I had to make. I never really thought going to an all-girls high school would change me too much, until I realized I was one of six girls who chose that route from our 28 person class. That's when I realized how strange it was to be outnumbered by boys in my classes, to sing songs with more male vocals than females, to perform plays written by men for men. For once, women had the spotlight in all areas.
During the four years of high school, I did not, contrary to thought, turn into a man-hater or never speak to a boy. I had many guy friends at the all-boys institutions, which were more respected than their female counterparts. My choir did not, contrary to belief, struggle because of our lack of lower voices. Instead, we filled the auditorium with high sopranos and rich altos. My drama program did not, contrary to the other girl schools in the area, fill our casts with boys from other schools. Our own girls played the male roles, often so well the audience did not know.
I did, however, become a feminist. I learned the importance of the female voice in all fields. I learned about the inequalities women face everyday and the names of the women who work to change that. My classes focused on powerful women writers, such as Jane Austen, the Brontes, Mary Wollstonecraft, Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, Daphne du Maurier, Edith Hamilton and many more. I learned about female scientists who changed the world, such as Marie Curie, Florence Nightingale, Ada Lovelace, Jane Goodall, Margaret Cavendish, Sally Ride and so many others. I learned about women who are consistently left out of many lesson plans because a man is in their place. I learned how feminism has changed the world so that I can live and work the way I do thanks to the generations before me fighting for rights that were previously barred.
These reasons are why, shocking many of my 86 classmates in high school, I chose to attend an all-women's institution for college. The values are exemplified through our school motto: "Educating Women to Transform the World." My all-women's university has, for the past 121 years, educated women to go out there and make a difference. The all-women's experience is one I would not trade for the world.
As I finish my eight consecutive year of this educational experience, before I reenter the co-ed graduate schools of the world, I want to thank my teachers. The men and women who understand how important the education of women can be. I want to thank my family, for supporting me through a path many tried to discourage me from. I want to thank feminists of all ages for supporting women and making the advances that have allowed women educations, jobs and legal rights.
Finally, I want to thank Mercy High School and Notre Dame of Maryland University (The Sisters of Mercy and The School Sisters of Notre Dame) for supporting the education of women and the underprivileged in years past and in the future. You have changed my life and I will use that to change the world.
