{"id":92,"date":"2017-02-08T16:51:19","date_gmt":"2017-02-08T16:51:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/social.rollins.edu\/wpsites\/ship\/?p=92"},"modified":"2018-12-07T17:17:21","modified_gmt":"2018-12-07T17:17:21","slug":"jen-valero-feminist-camp-nyc-reflection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/ship\/2017\/02\/08\/jen-valero-feminist-camp-nyc-reflection\/","title":{"rendered":"Jen Valero: Feminist Camp NYC Reflection"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Penguin Random House<\/p><\/div>\n

Feminist Camp has changed me. You see, I entered into a problematic\u00a0head space each day: putting on my dress pants, button down, blazer, and name tag, I began to wonder whether my appeal to fit into the professional world was somehow inauthentic to who I am. I asked myself: am I white-washing my Colombian identity?<\/p>\n

When first generation persons of color attempt to step into worlds never entered by anyone they have ever known, an identity crisis ensues. I felt so sure\u00a0that I did not belong in those boardrooms with professional activists, but it was during these moments\u00a0that I was forced to face the feelings that have been increasingly on my mind as graduation day looms closer: What exactly am I going to do? Whose footsteps do I follow? How could I ever enter a professional world\u00a0when those spaces\u00a0were never meant for people\u00a0like me?\u2013that was the unlikely question that seemed to open a door to a version of myself that I had not yet discovered.<\/p>\n

Amy Richards\u2013the cofounder of Feminist Camp\u2013called me over\u00a0to tell me she arranged a meeting with a friend that worked at Random House. More than excitement came fear, surely I was unworthy of such a meeting, right?<\/p>\n

Entering the Random House building is an experience that is difficult for me to describe. Imagine you come\u00a0from a home where concerns of safety and the security of our next meal\u00a0far surpassed\u00a0concerns of education. We had no books at home, so the wonder that I felt the first time I entered a library was akin to the exhilaration I felt at Random House. At two different points in my life, I felt the same euphoria surrounded by literature.\u00a0I dreamed of a future in books, but I never believed I had the tools that would\u00a0get me there. I never believed I would meet someone that could help me.<\/p>\n

So there I sat across from the Assistant Director of Random House; she was sweet and welcoming. When she asked me about my interests and goals, the meek voice I expected to hear checked out\u00a0as I\u00a0spoke with an unwavering strength that I have never known my voice to have. I talked about\u00a0my experience and leadership roles in publishing with confidence and clarity. Now this may not seem particularly significant, but this air of competence is not something I believed I possessed. Despite my accomplishments, my mind has remained stuck in the past\u2013who I was and where i had come from and not how hard I have worked to get as far as I have come.<\/p>\n

This program has given me hope that I have never felt allowed to feel. I know now that if given the opportunity, I can prove to be a strong and capable woman. In all sincerity, this program has been the most rewarding experience I have had at Rollins. I am more prepared and confident in my future than I have ever been.<\/p>\n

[Post originally appeared at https:\/\/jenvalero.wordpress.com\/2017\/01\/30\/feminist-camp-reflection\/]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Feminist Camp has changed me. You see, I entered into a problematic\u00a0head space each day: putting on my dress pants, button down, blazer, and name tag, I began to wonder whether my appeal to fit into the professional world was … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-competitive-workshop","category-non-rollins-study-abroad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/ship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/ship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/ship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/ship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/ship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/ship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/ship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/ship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/ship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}