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Community & Equity

Spice Queens and Thought Leaders

The first Washington Program Experience following spring break offered students a dozen different options centered around the theme of Women’s History Month, with sessions all led in part or whole by women in a wide range of career fields and areas of expertise.
 
Because the path to most teenager hearts is through their stomachs, it was little surprise that two of the most heavily-attended sessions for the day celebrated two chefs, Bal Arneson, a.k.a. “The Spice Goddess” of Food Network, and Madeline Lanciani, the owner and founder of Duane Park Patisserie and Ring Ding Bar and a past champion of Chopped. Arneson — who also served as Flik’s guest chef for lunch — pulled in student volunteers for a demonstration on how to make samosas. She also shared a bit of her personal journey from India to being a celebrity chef and the struggles and obstacles she faced along the way. Lanciani spoke of how she overcame gender-based discrimination to become the first female chef at New York's Plaza Hotel and a wildly successful entrepreneur. She shared her fascinating life story as well as a variety of samples from her bakery, Duane Park Patisserie.

A student group traveled to the Sally Mann Exhibition at the National Gallery to view the retrospective, "Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings," representing an extraordinary body of work that merges with and tells of Mann's own life. Mann, a native of Lexington, Virginia, is a photographer who embraces the purist work and process of a large format medium, while embedding herself into themes of family, place, and truth, explained art teacher Frank Phillips. During this WPE, students engaged with the exhibition and then discussed the scope of her oeuvre with Episcopal's photography instructors Phillips and David Douglas.

“While this WPE is part of a Women's History Month Celebration, Sally Mann is not simply a great woman photographer (though she is a photographer who happens to be a woman), Sally Mann is a great, thought-provoking, and influential artist,” Phillips noted. “She is one of the most important artists working today. Period. Mann wrestles with identity, history, and the South (then and now) using a photographic process as old as the medium itself.”

The other off-campus experience of the day was to Off Road to meet with co-owner and founder Tali Wenger. Off Road is an independent fitness studio with two locations in D.C. Wenger talked about being an entrepreneur and starting her own business and the challenges of being an independent business competing with big chains.

Said faculty leader Stacie Galiger, “She emphasized the role of community with a small business and the struggles they face trying to be thoughtful in their expansion so that they are maximizing membership without wasting resources. One of the most impactful things she said was that she and a friend (her eventual business partner) decided to stop complaining that what they wanted didn't exist, and instead to just create it themselves. We were then treated to a class to get a real sense of what their customers experience!”

Diana Sierra, co-founder and CEO of BeGirl, spoke about her career in industrial design and her incredible passion for social impact. She shared her story of growing up in a rural area of Colombia, studying design at Universidad de los Andes, and then earning her master’s of science at Columbia University in New York. After landing an exciting career developing high end products for customers with significant means, Diana found herself in Uganda and interacting with young girls who were dropping out of school due to their lack of access to sanitary supplies to manage menstruation.

“From this experience, Diana went on to design the BeGirl products that have enabled more than 33,000 girls in South America, Africa, and even right here in the US to be able to feel proud to ‘beGirl,’” noted faculty leader Helen Woolworth. “Through her talk, Diana inspired students to consider careers that have meaningful positive impact, and she likely inspired at least a few of them to consider careers in industrial design!”

Andréa Butler spoke to a small group of students about the creation of her magazine, Sesi, which is geared toward a target audience of young black women. Butler shared her journey to where she and the magazine are now, giving details about her collegiate studies and first jobs in the working world. Her captivating speech included showing students several spreadsheets that keep her organized when it comes to deadlines for each quarterly issue and all the working minds that come together in the creation and execution of each issue.

“Students were challenged to come up with their own small market for a magazine or social media account, flipped through several issues of Sesi, and asked questions about Ms. Butler's work and background,” noted faculty leader Lauren Echko. “With an audience of both male and female students, black and white, Ms. Butler's conversation influenced students to follow their passions, take risks, and love what they do.”

Historian and archivist Anne Bolen offered students a glimpse into the fashion trends of the 20th Century, decade by decade. Using drawings, photographs, and patterns, Anne walked the group through the ever-changing "ideal" body shape and the fashions used to accentuate this shape.

“She connected changing trends to world events and ably argued how fashion trends have responded to historical and cultural events,” noted faculty leader Anna Collins. “Aside from being a fascinating fashion history lesson, Anne's presentation also had a personal touch. She encouraged each member of her audience to match their own body shape with the decade that most celebrated their shape, and take cues from the fashions of that era.”

Another group of students sat in for a live recording of the Bipodisan podcast. Organized and led by former White House speechwriter Mary Kate Cary, the four-person group discussed some of the current events swirling around D.C. politics. Cary is Senior Fellow for Presidential Studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center for Public Policy. Following their discussions, the group opened the floor to the student audience for questions. Stay tuned to the link above for the episode when it gets published in the coming days!

Equally captivating additional guests for the day included:
  • YWCA CEO Alejandra Castillo spoke to a large crowd in Pendleton, discussing the challenges of leading a nonprofit network of 213 associations serving 2.2. million women and girls around the country in 46 states and the District of Columbia;
  • Amy King and Neema Roshania Patel, founders and directors of The Lily, “a place for the curious minded and for those who want to be heard” published by The Washington Post. The two shared their experiences and insights in journalism and in the challenge of managing the daily flood of news;
  • Ashleigh Bryant Byrnes, communications director for Disabled American Veterans and a combat veteran of Afghanistan with a background in journalism with the Marines and the Pentagon;
  • And Jennifer Hamady, who made an encore visit to allow more students to participate in the special “Finding Your Voice” workshop aimed specifically at female students of color at Episcopal, a session that received tremendous positive feedback from participants when it was first conducted during the MLK Day Symposium.
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