GSRC hosts postcard and photo event for Women’s History Month

March 6, 2024

Photography Manager Wade Duerkes (left) and Associate Director for Women and Gender Programs Sam Glaab-Lanigan sit at a table watching Janek Sunga, a graduate student majoring in political science, write on a postcard. The GSRC’s Women’s History Month photo series and postcard project was open to all NIU students and students were photographed with their postcards for social media. (Victoria Wakeford | Northern Star)

DeKALB – At the Holmes Student Center, a table was set up with markers, postcards, a photographer and one goal: to celebrate Women’s History Month.

From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday in the HSC, the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center hosted a photo series and post card event in celebration of Women’s History Month.

Women’s History Month, which happens every March, celebrates women and the accomplishments they have made throughout history, according to the National Women’s History Museum.

Wade Duerkes, photography manager for the Marketing and Communications Department, attended the event as the photographer for the GSRC’s social media.

“We’ve always been supportive of women’s history,” Duerkes said. “This campaign has been going on for a few years, and we’ve been supportive as long as I can remember. I don’t know if it was four or five years ago, but we’ve been supportive of those because Women’s History Month is very important to our faculty, staff and students, so we want to support that.”

At the photo series and postcard event there were two activities, according to Sam Glaab-Lanigan, the associate director for the GSRC.

The first was for students to fill out postcards to any member of the on-campus faculty or another student. The postcards could either be sent to the staff by Glaab-Lanigan, or they could give their cards to another student.

Postcards and markers sit on a table next to a paper reading “WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH IS…” and another with a QR code. NIU’s GSRC hosted a Women’s History Month photo series and postcard project from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday in Holmes Student Center’s hallway, Table 3. (Victoria Wakeford | Northern Star)

For the second activity, students were given a paper with the prompt: “WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTHS IS…” and were asked to fill out what they felt women’s history was to them. They then had the opportunity to have a picture taken with their response to be posted on the GSRC’s social media.

Janek Sunga, a graduate political science major, decided to do both the postcard and photo prompt.

“First of all, I’m filling out this postcard to my professor,” Sunga said, “I’m gonna wish her well because she’s going through a difficult time. So once I fill this out this, I’m going to give it to her.”

Sunga also participated in the photo prompt, he said he was probably going to write something saying that “women’s history is our history.”

The GSRC is hosting another photo series and postcard event from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. March 19 in the Holmes Student Center.

The GSRC will also have several panels happening either through their center or other people on campus in the future, including the International Women’s Day Panel at 11:30 a.m. March 20 in the Holmes Student Center.

“I think there’s still a lot of accomplishments that women are doing across history, sports, education,” Glabb-Lanigan said. “I think it’s important just to recognize the things folks are doing.”