Empowered Beyond Campus: Lessons in Confidence and Self-Advocacy

“You know that stuff we talked about at Dana Hall? It’s true! It’s really true!”

A former student said this to me during a visit to campus after her first semester in college. She was eager to share a story from the fall and how it related to her experience as a student in a school for girls.

While taking a challenging class, she joined a study group alongside two male students. The group got to know one another, collaborated well, and she found that the preparation for assessments and reviewing material for the course was familiar to her days at Dana Hall.

At the end of one of their study sessions, one of her partners asked if she would bring snacks the next time they met. The group hadn’t had snacks before. Being a team player and someone who likes to bake, she agreed. The group enjoyed the snacks the next time they met.

She went on to tell me more.  

“But then, they asked me to take the group’s notes based on our study session AND bring snacks again the next time. And…well, that didn’t work for me.”

I asked her how she responded. She said she countered their request by proposing someone else bring snacks to the next session and suggested a rotation for who will take notes each time they met. And that’s what they did. The study group continued throughout the rest of the semester and she remains friends with both her partners.
 
The anecdote made me think about how our students at Dana Hall consider their approach to working with classmates. I also reflected on how the norms and expectations introduced at Dana Hall impact students in environments after graduation.

After years working in a school for girls and interacting with alums who reflect on their experiences here, I can attest that a Dana Hall education equips young women with the confidence, self-awareness, and conviction to resist instances of bias and to advocate for equal partnership.

What excited me most about this scenario was not our graduate’s recognition of how her male peers began defaulting to expectations of traditional female support roles for her, but more importantly, her choice to self-advocate without hesitation. Because she was accustomed to an environment where her voice and leadership were normalized, she felt confident to push back constructively and directly. Instead of withdrawing or simply going along with what was being asked of her without thought, she simply proposed the solution of a fair rotation system. 

I’m proud of the fact that choosing self-advocacy over reflexive compliance isn’t just taught and modeled at Dana Hall. It’s reflected in lived experience here. It’s inspiring to know that the values and collaborative norms established here translate directly from mission and practice to real-world outcomes, encouraging our graduates to confront the dynamics they will face in a co-ed environment with confidence and agency.