The University of Idaho Women’s Center doesn’t have a lot of social events, mostly events that have specific objectives or are educational, said Heather Shea Gasser, director of the Women’s Center. It was time to balance work and play, she said.
Gasser said their new monthly event, Yarn and Yammer, is an opportunity to network across campus, to get together to talk and craft during a time without an agenda.
Many of the people who work in the Women’s Center take part in some sort of craft, she said.
“We are very busy and when crocheting, I think only of that one thing. It is nice to have that simplicity and something to show from all that work that is useful,” Gasser said. “It is satisfying to do your own work.”
There is an opportunity for all skill sets to come and learn with light refreshments included, she said.
“I am most excited about getting to know others who share a passion in the same things I do,” she said.
She said while working, it is easy to get frustrated on your own, but when you are with a group it is simple to get help with a certain stitch.
All genders, graduates or undergraduates, faculty and staff and community members are invited. Anyone with an easily portable art or craft, she said.
Dissertation Divas is another new event to the Women’s Center this year, but has been a part of UI in the past, said Colleen Kulesza graduate intern at the Women’s Center, but it had fallen away.
Kulesza said this event is specifically for graduate students because it is a very different environment for graduate students than it is for undergraduates. She said graduate students are struggling with self-motivation, loneliness, imposter syndrome or writing blocks.
Dissertation Divas will decide how their group is going to run when the members come together, Kulesza said.
She said the event’s main purpose is to give support to those graduate students who are writing and may need an extra kick in the butt when they are falling behind — cheerleaders for those who have written those 18 pages or just accountability. They will address issues women face during graduate school, share their struggles and successes and talk about what is going on.
The group will also review the process of writing, discuss looking for jobs, testing and being the minority with so many undergrads, she said.
“Being a grad student can be very isolated depending on how many other grad students are in your department,” she said.
Anybody is welcome at any time. It is not mandatory to make every meeting, people can just drop in, she said.
“You don’t have to be in any specific department, just anyone who is trying to go through writing as a grad student,” Kulesza said.
Emily Aizawa can be reached at [email protected]