Paulette Dilworth: of the Multicultural Center, was the moderator of the Brown Bag Series Panel Discussion. The program was held in honor of Auburn University’s Women’s History Month Celebration. Lindsey Davidson / ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR
As part of the Brown Bag Series Panel Discussion; the Multicultural Center, a division of the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs hosted a panel on Monday discussing “Women of Color in Academia.”
In honor of Auburn University’s Women’s History Month Celebration, three distinguished Auburn University employees took center stage as they discussed their personal, work and educational experiences.
The panel consisted of Constance Hendricks, professor in the school of nursing; Chippewa Tomas, assistant professor in the College of Education and Prathima Agrawal, professor and director in electrical and computer engineering.
Paulette Dilworth, assistant vice president for access and community initiatives, served as moderator.
Each woman was able to give her experiences on the main topic of the panel, mentoring, as well as the common themes of chemistry and values.
“Look for people you have good chemistry with,” Hendrix said. “They might not be the end all to be all, but mentoring is a give and take situation. I love football, so that is what I gave back to one of my mentors. She helped me learn how to conduct research, and I taught her football.”
Unlike Hendrix, people are not always able to form give and take relationships with their mentors.
“I have not experienced a mentor relationship where I have knowingly given back,” Thomas said. “I have only experienced the benefits side.”
Mentoring is not about trying to find the perfect person or trying to find someone with your same background, but taking “components from person’s that are beneficial to you and forming relationships,” Hendrix said.
“Mentor’s don’t have to be your friend, but they have accepted the fact to invest in you,” Hendrix said. “Sometimes you may have to find elements in people not of color because there aren’t many women of color in the workforce.”
To build strong, lasting mentoring programs, it takes a “willingness to keep the connection connected,” Thomas said.
The panel discussed two ways to keep that connection, formal and informal mentoring.
“In social networks, mentoring naturally happens; it can happen by happenstance such as in an informal way,” Thomas said. “Formal mentoring, on the other hand, has a structure; you meet at a certain time, and you have a goal and objective to the meeting, which can be very lucrative.”
Besides finding a mentor that a person connects with, one of the most important situations Thomas has faced as a challenge was “when the mentor didn’t value the same things I did.”
“Even in the challenging mentor relationships, you can learn something,” Thomas said. “I would have been forced not to see the forest and the trees if I had not embraced the challenge.”
“You need to find someone who at least values you and encourages you,” Hendrix said.
Once a person has found that person they must “be friendly, understand and discuss with their peers on how to be successful,” Agrawal said.
Women, especially women of color, have to “know the rules of their profession; if you don’t know the rules, how will you play the game?”
Agrawal said. “If I make a mistake, everyone will know because I am a woman.”
“Learning the rules and engaging the rules” led each panelist to discuss the importance of a four-tier priority list for their lives.
“I impress a humanistic approach to everything, which integrates self-care into the first three,” Thomas said. “All four of these are vital to mental, spiritual and physical health.”
As one of the audience members put it, mentoring is like “a dance, an elegant negotiation.”
“All women have superwoman syndrome, and I am still learning to say no because of my list of priorities, and my priorities today might be different from tomorrow,” Hendrix said. “If family comes first, you need to set those parameters with others.”
The problems women of color face come in all shapes and sizes. Many times women do not last in university settings as professors.
“Women don’t last long as professors in engineering because of the tenure,” Agrawal said. “By knowing your environment and doing the best in what you can do, that will solve your problems.”
Time is another issue, not only women of color face, but anyone searching for a mentor.
“If someone tells you they don’t have time, you need to move on,” Hendrix said. “Sometimes you have to learn how to sing the solo song and stay on tune.
To educate the younger generation of the challenges they will face when a student is an undergraduate or a “graduating graduate student, and the person values mentoring enough, they need to reach back to their younger classmates and offer support,” Hendrix said. “They must take responsibility for the new group.”
