The Enduring Power of Women’s Colleges
In October, I had the chance to return to my alma mater, Cedar Crest College, to be inducted into the Hall of Fame alongside JoAnn Wilchek Basist, Ann Bieber, Virginia Mihalik, and Helen J. Streubert Scotch.
The five of us had a chance to share remarks with the crowd and each of these women reminded me why women’s colleges — and spaces where women come together — are as essential today as they’ve ever been.
According to the Women’s College Coalition, there were about 230 U.S. women’s colleges in 1960; today, there are roughly 30. Yet, their impact remains profound.
Research shows that graduates of women’s colleges are twice as likely to earn advanced degrees, more likely to hold leadership positions, and report higher levels of self-confidence and civic engagement than peers from coeducational institutions.
And even as women outpace men in college completion — 47% of women ages 25–34 hold a bachelor’s degree, compared with 37% of men — the need for intentional spaces that foster confidence, collaboration, and community remains critical.
Women’s colleges have always been more than institutions of learning; they are incubators of purpose, persistence, and possibility — values that continue to define what Cedar Crest represents.
I’ve seen those values firsthand and wanted to share a few of my remarks here to honor the people at Cedar Crest that helped shape those values in me:
… When I first arrived on campus in the ’90s as a first-generation college student, I brought my own voice, but Cedar Crest taught me the reach and responsibility of that voice.
It is here where I met Professors Jim Brancato and Isabel Molina-Guzman, both of whom pushed me to think critically about culture and representation: Jim’s first media-literacy course gave me the language to question the status quo, and Isabel sharpened how I read images and power.
Nancy Cleff, my song-contest adviser, helped coax my voice into being and then amplified it. Susan Cox, then director of alumnae affairs, welcomed me into the life of the college and made it immediately feel like home. Barbara Ann Shotwell, our class adviser, supported us and believed in us so deeply from day 1, that we never had any reason to doubt ourselves.
During my college years, I served as an RA in Moore, Butz, and Curtis Halls — where I earned the nickname “Liz-ra.” (s/o Class of 2003) Those late-night conversations in the hallways, about exams, life, family, finances, and the future were when I realized that working with students wasn’t just something I could do, but something I was called to do.
When I returned to Cedar Crest to teach, what I thought would be one class turned into almost two decades of teaching and learning alongside the most extraordinary students. They have been my greatest teachers — reminding me that believing in young voices changes everything; that allyship is not a label, but a practice; and that real advocacy begins when we listen deeply enough to be changed by what we hear.
My scholarship — examining how race and gender are represented in media — grew out of these experiences. As a working-class, first-generation Latina, I wanted to see myself reflected in the images around me & my students wanted for the same. Together, we learned that media literacy is more than analysis — it’s agency, it’s the ability to create the stories that shape our world.
And, just as my students shaped me, so did my colleagues. I was surrounded by people who modeled excellence and compassion every. single. day. Together, we built classrooms and programs that invited dialogue, challenged inequity, and nurtured confidence. Those colleagues (mentors, co-conspirators, & friends) made the work joyful and sustaining.
Today, I am holding close the memory of colleagues who mentored, encouraged, and treated me as an equal before I ever saw myself as theirs…Cate Cameron, Linda Bass, Bart Shaw, and Nelson Maniscalco…Whose grace, grit & generosity shaped not only my teaching, but my sense of what true collegiality can look like.
Others continue to guide me as well: Rhoda Raab Glazier ’59, my 10th & 11th high-school English teacher who showed me what it meant to teach with heart, and Judy Skinner ‘69, a proud Cedar Crest sister, who first introduced me to the Boys & Girls Club of Allentown — a place that continues to shape so much of my life’s work. Their guidance and generosity opened worlds that forever changed my path.
And, to my husband, Adam, thank you for your love, patience, & partnership. What you didn’t know back then is that when you marry a Cedar Crest woman, you gain an entire network of strong, spirited women who come along with her — a community that’s as loyal as it is loud 😉
I don’t see tonight as a culmination, but as a continuation…a conversation that keeps unfolding. One that began here and continues through every student I teach, every story I help tell, and every community I’m lucky enough to be part of.
So, my dear Cedar Crest, thank you…
Thank you for shaping who I was, who I am now, and who I’m still becoming. 💛
