Bentley University Women’s Center

We went for the first of three times to Waltham Crossings this past Sunday. (This semester, we are volunteering three times at this assisted living facility located in Waltham. If you are interested in going with us either of the other two times, one in each March and April, please look at the Events page for further information and contact us.) This time, members of our group were paired with members of the facility in a “Project Runway” style fashion contest and show. Many fun outfits were created, and the residents - as well as ourselves - had a terrific time in creating them! We met many new friends and are looking forward to going back soon.

We held our bi-annual crisis training on Sunday, January 24, 2010. This semester, we chose a different format for our crisis training, which we feel was a much better fit for our organization and goal of the activity, and thus both old and new office hour holders were required to attend. For those who are unaware, crisis training is required for any who hold Women’s Center office hours. This training enables us to be ready for a number of the major problems on campus and in the lives of young adults, including (among others) depression, sexual assault, eating disorders, and alcohol abuse. This allows for the center to be a resource on campus for anyone in need - we do not restrict ourselves to anyone or any type of condition. The training went very well today, and our office hours will be starting on Monday, January 25, 2010 (anyone can come by to say hello, hang out, or should they have a problem).

Thank you to everyone who came out to see us at the Activities Fair this past Friday, January 22, 2010. As always, the Spring Activities Fair was considerably more quiet than the Fall Activities Fair. However, we were able to speak to a number of prospective new members, adding many to our members list. Hopefully, we will be seeing many of you at our weekly meetings and events! Thank you to all who helped out at the fair and to those who visited the table!

We just wanted to extend a welcome back to all of our members, any prospective members, and the rest of the Bentley community as we enter our Spring 2010 semester! We are looking forward to a number of events this semester, including among others volunteering at Waltham Crossings (an assisted living facility) and Cradles to Crayons, our annual production of Vagina Monologues, and our annual Take Back the Night event. (Please see our Current Events page for more information on these, and other, events.) We will be holding our first general meeting during the activity period on Monday, January 25th at the Women’s Center in LaCava. All Bentley students are welcome to attend. Again, we welcome everyone back to campus, hope your first week went by beautifully, and are looking forward to this new semester!

Thank you to everyone who dressed bears for our part in the Salvation Army’s Project of Love! We collected the bears (previously distributed to those who had requested them), which are now dressed adorably in a variety of homemade and store bought outfits. We are going to drop the bears off in Boston at the Salvation Army, from where they will be given to children in need for Christmas. We had a great time participating in this project and hope that we contributed to bringing joy to some children during this holiday season!

Welcome to the new Women’s Center Elective Board for the 2010 year! We have had a terrific 2009 and look forward to continuing our success into 2010. With this group, it definitely looks promising. We would like to thank everyone who has helped us throughout this past year, particularly the seniors who are graduating and thus no longer on the elective board. We will miss you! As for all of us still on the eboard, we welcome the new members and think we have a great group with whom to continue for the next year.

Thank you to the Peer Educators, who came to our general meeting this week! They discussed stress and relaxation with us, as well as touching upon what the peer educator program is doing now. It was a very good program, where we discussed the causes and symptoms of stress, particularly chronic stress, and then went through some relaxation techniques. Thank you to the peer educators - we definitely all benefited from this relaxing meeting for which you joined us!

Thank you to the women from Deloitte who came to our general meeting October 13, 2009. Their presentation was very informative, regarding Deloitte’s WIN Women’s Initiative and other new initiatives which help to create a comfortable and flexible work culture. This was a different meeting for us, but one for which we would like to thank the presenters and many Bentley women now working at Deloitte for spending the time with us!