The night was eventful as women from Baker University were nominated to receive recognition for all they had done.
Fifteen women, either faculty, staff or students, were nominated as Women of Strength Wednesday, March 29 at Espress Yourself. Coordinator of Women’s Programs Tracy Williams, was excited for the night to come and thought that it turned out better than planned.
Williams, who organized the event, said she thought of the idea because she wanted to recognize women who had accomplished a lot in their lifetime.
“I broadened it to talk just about women of strength,” Williams said, “which basically encompasses all women in our history, their strength from adversity, prejudice, sexism.”
Junior LaTasha Roberts, sophomore Ashley Schmidt, junior Jaclyn Kettler and senior Julia King were the four student women nominated. Roberts said she wasn’t expecting to get the nomination, but was honored to have it.
“I was definitely surprised,” Roberts said. “You never know when someone is paying attention to you, even when you think they aren’t looking.”
Schmidt said she was pleased to accept the award and had a fun time at the program.
“I was very honored,” Schmidt said. “I felt privileged to be associated with such a wonderful group of people on Baker’s campus because there are so many great people and to be one of them was a real honor.”
Anyone was allowed to nominate someone who they felt was a woman of strength, Williams said. She wanted to have Baker’s campus honor its own women of strength.
“I’m sure there are hundreds more and there’s no winner,” Williams said. “They’ll all be recognized. There was a plaque made in their honor.”
The program for recognizing the women took place at Espress Yourself. It started off with the Baker University Forensic Speech Choir, which included three of the Women of Strength nominees. They gave facts about women who played baseball to Annie Oakley and many others.
“I had not known what the choir was going to do,” Williams said. “I was blown away.”
Roberts participated in the speech choir. She said she really enjoyed herself at the program Wednesday night.
“It was neat to be able to see and hear what others had to say about the other nominees,” Roberts said. “To know that I was a part of those women and all that they have to offer to our campus.”
After that, there were three women who presented women in different ways. One sang and the other two talked about women in our history from books. Then the nominees were recognized and had their picture taken by the plaque with all the nominees’ names on it, which is going to be placed in Harter Union