Last Saturday, April 20 at 6:00 p.m. to Sunday, April 21 5:00 p.m., 23 students, one professor, and six facilitators, all women-identified, traveled to the Dickinson farm for the college’s first women’s retreat, named “The Whole Women’s Retreat (Finding the Superwoman in You!).”
The attendees slept in yurts, circular housing structures at the college farm, where they shared their life experiences and participated in workshops and discussions concerning relationships and pleasure. Other topics discussed were body images, vulnerability, and identity as a female both at Dickinson and in a global sense.
“[The event] was for any Dickinson College member; however, the focus was on building a community amongst the students,” said Jessica Libowitz ’15, event founder and co-coordinator with Heather Livingston ’13.
The event was sponsored by Wheel and Chain, the Women’s and Gender Studies Department, the Office of Diversity Initiatives, the College Farm and the Social Justice House, and was funded by Student Senate. Along with Libowitz and Livingston, five other women facilitated discussion: Director of Diversity Initiatives Paula Lima Jones, Special Assistant to the President Joyce Bylander, Assistant Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies Stephanie Gilmore, College Farm Director Jenn Halpin and YWCA in Carlisle liaison Melissa Rosenberger. An activity was also led by Priscilla Colon ’13 and Emily Hughes ’13.
“I was inspired last fall by the creation of the Men’s Retreat, and all of the great dialogue and change that it created, and asked myself, ‘why is there not a Women’s Retreat too?’ … [I] spent Winter Break developing a vision and outline, aided by my experiences at Leadershape,” explained Libowitz.
“[Libowitz] and I created a schedule for the 24-hour retreat and then we contacted the facilitators we believed would make the retreat a success,” said Livingston, a member of Wheel and Chain.
Bylander was happy with how the retreat went.
“I thought the retreat was wonderful. Women students have been working to make this a reality for a couple of years,” she said. “This was a great inaugural event. The farm was the perfect setting for ‘Whole Women’ to share space and food and support and ideas. I am looking forward to next year already.”
Livingston also reflected on the event.
“I believe that women need a place on campus to express who they are openly and freely,” she said. “I thought that by retreating away from campus participants would be able to see someone they pass everyday in class or in the caf in a completely new, refreshing, and loving way.”
