Peace, Love, & a long story short

This is a longer version of what I posted on LinkedIn.

Yesterday was my last day at UIC!

32 years ago I arrived on this campus with the dream of being a marine biologist - which I did accomplish, just not for as long as I wanted. By my freshman spring semester my scrappy English instructor suggested that my feminist rants could be honed by becoming a Women's Studies minor (the only option we had back then). That class focused on writing research papers while reading horror fiction. We read and wrote about “Dracula,” “Frankenstein,” and “The Yellow Wallpaper.” My term paper was on the revival of wicca and third wave feminism. shrug. Still I scoffed at his suggestion as I was a serious science major. He still handed me a copy of “Ms” magazine with the words, “You should read this.” Sophomore year I continued to see my sense of social justice as separate from my science studies, especially as I started a NSF fellowship at the Field Museum. That was until my professor pulled me aside and showed me feminist science studies.

My life has never been the same.

The first time UIC paid me to do a job was my junior year as coordinator of the Biology Colloquium, a student-led career exploration course. Senior year I TA'd a women in science freshmen seminar. After graduation my women in science instructor hired me to work on women & scientific literacy and women's health projects. This set the groundwork for UIC's women in science & engineering program that I lead for 12 years. I squeezed in a few years advising biology majors too. WISE was recognized by the Obama Administration for our excellent peer mentoring program. After running into funding issues, I moved to directing our first Hispanic Serving Institution Grant and launching our Latinx in science program with the most brilliant and caring team.

Throughout my career I wove together my experiences as an undergraduate who published and presented research on fish locomotion, the racism and sexism of applying for graduate school, and feminist science studies. As someone who felt totally supported by my research mentor, but also never fully supported by the system. This resulted in my work being part teaching students how to navigate a system that was not built for them, working to change the system, and identifying champions for my students. I truly believe my time working on our Latinx in science program was the epitome of this vision.

More awards and success led me to being recruited to the Chancellor's office to work on Hispanic serving projects. Even more awards and success followed, but ultimately all rides come to an end. It is hard to walk away from a place that raised me in all the great and terrible ways academia does to a person. And to see everything I've worked for being attacked in this political climate is heartbreaking. I leave knowing that the people of UIC (even those who didn't support me) trained me to continue the fight in new venues.

Even in this expanded reflection I can’t truly sum up over 30 years at UIC. All the amazing people I have met, the projects that were not jobs, and the things I learned.

Onward.

Taylor Swift isn't the only one entering a new era. So as they say, watch this space for my Kelce Brothers-free announcement soon.