DeKALB – The Division of International Affairs, the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center and the Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality collaborated to host a panel for Women’s History Month.

From 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Wednesday, four people gathered in HSC’s Capitol Room to discuss how they got to the place in their career they are now.

Linh Nguyen, inclusive teaching coordinator for the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning, Kanjana Thepboriruk, associate professor of World Languages and Cultures, and T.  Ajewole Duckett, associate director of the Center for Black Studies, spoke to a crowd of around 40 people.

Katy Jaekel, director of the Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality was the mediator of the event.

Duckett said being a queer woman haunted her for the first part of college when trying to stick with ministry until she switched to a more open-minded school. 

“One of the things was, well, you have a mistrial gift. You can be ordained to ministry or you can be gay,” Duckett said. “I chose to closet myself and then I go to grad school at San Francisco State which is the birthplace of black studies.”  

Thepboriruk said she looks for guidance from mentors because it can be hard to tell if there is specific workplace discrimination happening or not. 

“There’s a community for women of color in academia, and I get a lot of mentorship in that space,” Thepboriruk said. 

Nyguen said her experience as an educator is an important part of her identity. 

“One father, he had a daughter, and she didn’t have school that day so he wanted to see if he can bring her to my chemistry class,” Nguyen said. “I remember going ‘I’m a working mom too, bring her’ and I was teaching acids and bases, but I would intentionally chose the colorful video about how the ocean solidification.” 

Nguyen said experiences like this are how she knows she chose the right career.

“This little girl year later, she came back and visit me with her father and she draw a picture of me in front of the classroom with all the ocean animals swimming around,” Nguyen said.

The end of the panel had an open question and answer for the panelists to interact directly with the crowd.

One audience member asked how to cope with imposter syndrome and feeling like you do not belong in the workplace, as a woman and in general.

“Fake it til you make it, which is probably inappropriate advice to give to a student in hindsight,” Duckett said. “But it’s the realest thing because I wake up most days wondering, like, ‘when are you gonna find out that I am a fraud?’”

There were sandwiches, a fruit tray and water for guests to snack on while listening to the panel.

The event was a passport event for business students and honors students.

The GSRC is closing out Women’s History month at 10 a.m. on March 28 in the HSC’s Capitol Room with a roundtable event called Too Grown, but Ain’t Grown Enough.