Elizabethtown College is celebrating Women’s History Month with a series of events throughout the month of March.

The Office of Diversity, Equity and Belonging, Title IX, and Student Life, along with the Etown Centers for Community and Civic Engagement (CCCE) and Global Understanding and Peacemaking(CGUP), the School of Business, as well as the Office of Campus Recreation and Well-Being (RecWell) are hosting events that recognize and commemorate the vital role of women in American history.

International Women’s Day Celebration | Wednesday, March 1

With this year’s International Women’s Day (IWD) falling during Spring Break on March 8, we’re celebrating the occasion early with events across campus that recognize the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women.

– All Day | Bowers Center Lower Lounge – Stop by to view pictures and quotes of notable women that will be hung along the windows of the lower lounge.

– 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. – Bowers Center Lower Lounge – Write cards to inspirational women in your life! Participants can either have RecWell mail them for you or you can hand-deliver the cards yourself. If you write and deliver a card, you can get entered into a raffle to win a Hershey Spa gift card. While there, make sure to pick up a “girl power” inspirational sticker!

– 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. – BSC Second Floor – The theme for this year is #EmbraceEquity. The Etown campus community is invited to visit the BSC second floor to sign a pledge to embrace equity in our communities, our workplaces, schools, and colleges.

Participants will have the opportunity to pin their pledge on the wall, to be entered into basket raffles, and to get their picture taken with friends, classmates, teammates, colleagues, or one of our special guest campus women, including President Betty Rider.

Since the official color of IWD is purple, the campus community is encouraged to wear the color on March 1 and March 8 to help celebrate!

– 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. – BSC 200 Tower Conference Room – Join the #EtownKindnessProject, a student club that aims to spread kindness and positivity around campus, for a volunteer service project. Participants will create reusable sanitary products for women known as LuoPads, which will be donated through the local humanitarian organization Unto.

– 5 to 6 p.m. – Bowers Center Group Fitness Room – 2-for-1 Women’s Empowerment Zumba Toning and Pound Class – Celebrate the unstoppable strength of women as you work out to music from some of the top Music Divas! This event is open to the entire Etown campus community. Register for the event!

Menstrual Product Drive | Throughout March

For the month of March, the CCCE is partnering with the student club’s Young Democratic Socialist Association (YDSA), It’s on Us, as well as Etown Student Senate to collect donated menstrual products to benefit the Blue Jay Food Pantry. There will be bins in each academic and administrative building for donations as well as an Amazon Wishlist that can be used to donate items. Learn more.

Women in Business in Partnership with Women in STEM Networking and Panel Event | Susquehanna Room | Wednesday, March 15 at 5:30 p.m.

Etown’s Women in Business and Women in STEM clubs are collaborating on a networking and panel event that will bring several women leaders to campus to share their diverse and dynamic professional experiences within the event’s theme of “Pursuit of Equity.” Etown alumni will be on hand to network with students and the event will feature a catered dinner buffet. The event is free to students and costs $10 for Etown campus community members and alumni. Participants are encouraged to register by Wednesday, March 8. 

Voices of Women: A Musical Celebration of Poets and Composers to Honor Women’s History Month | Leffler Chapel and Performance Center | Thursday, March 16 at 7:30 p.m.

Join the Music department in conjunction with SCC Arts Song Festival for a recital featuring Loralee Songer, mezzo-soprano, along with songs by Amy Beach, Lucy Simon, Lori Laitman, Susan LaBarr, and others. This event is free and open to the public.

From Storytelling to Stagecraft: Creative Master Starleisha Gilchrist | Bowers Writers House | Monday, March 20 from 7 to 8 p.m.

Join us for an engaging conversation with storyteller and creative Starleisha Michelle Gingrich (she/her) as she takes us through the winding personal and professional paths that have led her to a current place of success and happiness. Gingrich launched the Disrupt Theatre Company with the mission of bringing plays by BIPOC playwrights to the Lancaster BIPOC community at affordable prices and at accessible locations. In 2021, Gingrich received the YWCA Lancaster’s Woman of Achievement Award for her work with the theatre company in the Lancaster community. Learn more. 

HerStory – a Musical Performance by Key Arts Productions | Gibble Auditorium | Tuesday, March 21 at 7 p.m.

Join us in Gibble Auditorium as Key Arts Production presents the engaging, dynamic musical performance, “HerStory.” An innovative, multimedia experience, “HerStory” blends thoughtful live narration, integrated video production, and captivating musical performance to honor women pioneers and celebrate their achievements.

An Evening Reading of World of Wonders with Aimee Nezhukumatathil | Gibble Auditorium | Thursday, March 23 from 7:30 to 9 p.m.

Etown’s Creative Writing Minor is pleased to welcome New York Times bestselling author Aimee Nezhukumatathil to Etown to speak with the campus community about poetry and essay writing, and the ways to infuse your work with wonder.

Nezhukumatathil is the author of a book of nature essays, “World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, & Other Astonishments,” which was named a finalist for the Kirkus Prize in non-fiction, and four award-winning poetry collections, most recently, Oceanic. Her writing has appeared in NYTimes Magazine, ESPN, and Best American Poetry. She is a professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Mississippi’s MFA program. This event, which is co-sponsored by the Bowers Writers House and the High Library, is free and open to the public.

From Service to Success: An Evening with Alysa Poindexter | Bowers Writers House | Monday, March 27 from 7 to 8 p.m.

Join us tonight as we welcome Elizabethtown College alumna Alysa Poindexter ‘12 to Bowers Writers House for an enlightening look at her service and career paths. A first-generation college graduate, journalist, producer, and award-winning college advancement professional with a decade of mentoring experience within communities of color, Alysa’s career background is a three-part kinetic journey that includes television news production, sales & marketing, and college advancement. She’s currently the assistant director of alumni engagement at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster. Learn more.

Women of Etown Panel: Making Time for What Matters | the KAV | Wednesday, March 29 from 5:30 to 8 p.m.

How do we make time for ourselves while juggling school, work, home life, and social obligations, all while navigating life’s curveballs? There will be an open discussion about this with five panelists from Elizabethtown College.

Elaine Rice Bachmann Seminar | Gibble Auditorium | Thursday, March 30 at 9:30 a.m.

Elaine Rice Bachmann, co-author of “Designing Camelot: The Kennedy White House Restoration and its Legacy,”  will be the featured guest speaker in the Honors Guided Research and Writing Western Cultural Heritage Core Seminar HON 201 Elizabethtown History: Campus and Community.  This is the Community-Based Learning course where students conduct National Historic Preservation Section 106 Reviews for the National Historic District of Marietta, Pennsylvania, and are launching a National Trust for Historic Preservation “This Place Matters” campaign for Marietta.

Ms. Bachman will speak to the class about the collaboration of Jacqueline Kennedy and Henry F. du Pont re: Fine Arts Committee on the restoration of the White House, the creation of the White House Historical Association, launching a national historic preservation movement, du Pont’s Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library, Jacqueline Kennedy’s leadership in the context of the beginning of the women’s liberation movement of the 1960s, Kennedy and du Pont’s legacies in contemporary historic preservation, the ethics of cultural heritage in the restoration of the White House and in contemporary historic preservation initiatives. This seminar is open to the campus community.