To celebrate Women’s History Month, Rho Kappa Social Studies Honors Society hosted a panel on March 23 from 6:00-7:30 p.m. in the cafeteria.

“We hosted our first panel in March of 2020 for Women’s History Month and for the 100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment which was ratified in August of 1920. We were unable to host a panel last year with the pandemic, so we are excited to host this again this year,” sponsor Roxanne Bristow said in an email.

Rho Kappa had invited many influential women who are in mostly male dominated fields to come share their experiences.
“We may still have some changes to our panelists, but we currently have confirmed Mary Kate Selling, who is the Executive Director of Clinical Data and Analytics at UChicago Medicine, and Trisha Daab, who is an author and marketing professional. We may also have Quinne Welter, who is the Outreach Director for Senator Melinda Bush. We may also confirm additional panelists in the next few days,” Bristow said in an email.

Many Rho Kappa members feel very strongly about the importance of having these strong, influential women come and speak to students, staff and anyone who wishes to attend.

“I think it’s really important for young girls to see firsthand these positive role models and see how the women around us are positively impacting our environment. I think it’s one thing to watch TV and see positive commercials and other forms of media promoting women in power, but it is deeply impactful to witness it first hand, so I think talking about these women’s experiences could be very inspirational to people who decide to come to the panel,” said senior Lillie Salas.

Members of Rho Kappa have spent a lot of time setting up the Women’s History Month panel, attending meetings and scheduling everything they need for the panel.

“I’ve attended almost all of the committee meetings because in Rho Kappa we each have a committee for different things, and as vice president of leadership, I should be attending all committees. So I’ve been there. I’ve been helping pick the people who we have, setting up communications, promotions, leading those meetings, well, helping lead those meetings. Being on those committee meetings and helping lead those meetings are probably the biggest things that I do,” said junior Varun Gullapalli.

Gullapalli feels that those who are underrepresented should be represented, and he believes that everyone can benefit from learning how to help others be heard.

“I do think that it’s important that minorities or misrepresented groups/marginalized groups are represented and are heard. Hearing the stories of some of the women that we’ve invited and also just people I’ve talked to, I know there are a lot of injustices that happen, and that’s really important to correct those, know how to handle those and know how to understand those. So even if you aren’t a woman, I think this panel can be beneficial to everyone,” Gullapalli said. Due to many women, young and old, having to face discrimination at one point or another, Salas thinks its very important that these women come and talk to help inspire others.

“I feel very passionately about the feminist movement and getting women out there and building their self-esteem and their confidence because I think that a lot of the women that we’re bringing in for the panels are in male dominated fields. It takes someone with a lot of confidence to put yourself out there, so when Rho Kappa announced that they were doing something for Women’s History Month, I really wanted to get involved just because I feel like every woman and every young girl has experienced some form of discrimination from their male peers, so that’s why it’s important,” Salas said.

If you are interested in learning more about Rho Kappa, contact Roxanne Bristow, the Rho Kappa sponsor.