Interview with WGSS Program Coordinator
We recently got to virtually sit down with our very own Program Coordinator Niacka Carty and ask her some of the most pressing questions about her role and get to know who she is outside of WGSS. Read below for the full interview!
What are some of your responsibilities as Program Coordinator?
The one thing that I will miss this upcoming semester due to the university transitioning to hybrid mode is interacting with students. I really enjoy connecting with students, brainstorming with them, and even parents who, surprisingly enough, call to look into the program for their child(ren). This is truly a highlight of my work day and one of the reasons why I wanted to re-enter higher education. I wanted to get back to the ins and outs of what higher education and what high education administration looks like, as the U.S. is supposed to be this leading exemplar for higher education.
So, to finally answer your question, what I do, in a nutshell, as a Program Coordinator is I deal with the logistics and operations of running the WGSS program. This includes class scheduling, checking and double checking that we are offering courses that are required for our students, making sure we are scoping out courses in other departments that pertain to WGSS issues, brainstorming and hosting events with our Director to ensure we are remaining active for students. I particularly love working on the Alumni speaker series; this was well-attended and a needed event for students. It is a question that students often ask, and they have a right to do so, What can I do with this degree, How can I market it, etc.
I also deal with the social media strategy for WGSS, onsite office maintenance (making sure faculty are okay with their office spaces, etc.) I also manage the logistics of students and student record keeping so that we know the students we are servicing, hiring for student employment, processings of student awards, overseeing the program’s budget each fiscal year, and essentially all of the operational things that come with running a program without teaching the courses.
What does WGSS mean to you?
I think WGSS is an innovative way of speaking to topics of equality and equity. I think we have an edge of including gender studies, in particular, in our focus because I think a stigma we hear about women’s studies is that it is filled with female students who are being taught by female faculty to talk about, or even complain about, female issues. This is definitely what I was told when I was an undergraduate, whenever discussing my class schedule with friends. As an undergraduate student, I was studying “International Area Studies.” I remember wanting to take Women’s Studies courses because I knew the implications of gender development for overall human development. I learned so much about gender bias, gender roles, power structures, and social norms. I like that this program has taken upon itself to expand it’s view so that we can be more proactive. We cannot talk about gender roles without mentioning our (male) counterparts. I wish all programs were renamed in a similar way because there is also a role for our male counterparts to be involved in, in order to tackle gender and inequality issues.
What were some experiences in your past, personal or professional, that prepared you for your role at WGSS?
For the latter part of my career, I have been a lead or assistant lead to operational work so that was a smooth transition for me. I’ve worked extensively at NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development in the Academic Affairs Department. There, in sum, I worked on drafting standard reports to track progress of students in the Steinhardt School at the undergraduate and graduate level. I also worked on assessments for student evaluations. Later, I worked within the World Bank’s Private Sector Team as part of the External Relations Team, working on country briefs and logistics of the public-private partnership the Private Sector Team formulated with businesses and NGOs to address education issues in third world countries. With this job, I can appreciate that I already have the skill set of being detail-oriented, being attentive, being well-organized, that are necessary for this job. Even the face-to-face interaction, which I can’t say I have had throughout my career, but it’s something that I truly hold on to because it adds value to all of the desk work. Being well-organized, keeping abreast of policies that are changing in these times for the university and being able to translate that to students, is a really rewarding part of this job. I have been so used to desk work and just pushing papers and not being able to see the end result whereas here I am presenting and sharing all of the knowledge I gain from reading and drafting these reports. These are some of the things that have made it a smooth transition, but also having to re-learn what it means to be a student. From the questions that I receive from students, I have to remind myself when I was a student how I would have liked the information to be relayed to me. This is something I do not think any previous job could have prepared me for.
Students would love to get to know who you are beyond your role, so what three words would you use to describe yourself?
I like to think of myself as being service-driven, service-oriented, and service-minded. I currently serve as a Board Member for Prince George’s County in Maryland for a faith-based organization, where we spread the gospel with college students at UMD. Funny enough, one of my duties is to work on the newsletter — kind of like WGSS’ weekly digest. Right now, we are working on finding ways to continually keep our donors abreast on resources to understand the heart and cause of the Black Lives Matter Movement and ways to donate. Also, I am working on becoming more official with the community work I do helping students and young professionals with cover letters and resumes for scholarship opportunities and jobs. I really get a kick out of this because I love writing for applications and I help others with this all of the time.
I also have a hobby of just randomly organizing my closet or my apartment and that is sort of like a pastime for me. I am also a bookworm, and I love to read what is going on internationally and educational policies elsewhere. I subscribe to some journals that give me a quick glance of what is going on internationally. So, this is essentially what I do outside of WGSS.
What are some goals you have, for yourself and the program, for this upcoming semester?
My background is in human or international development and more specifically, the role of education in human development. I have six years of educational background with interdisciplinary approaches and so I get really excited with what this program wants to do with other departments to re-envision what this major means and what it can mean in the job market. I would love to see, and it is in the works, a collaboration with disciplines that we haven’t even thought of — those disciplines outside of the social sciences — biology, or chemistry, or psychology to really hear from other students who may have never even sat inside of a humanities classroom to see what this major means to them to make this so widespread. There is such a stigma surrounding women’s studies; I don’t think that people don’t care about these issues, but rather it’s just the misconception that all we do is sit around and talk about “women’s issues” and that’s not true. And even on the faculty level, I appreciate that this program has a long list of affiliated faculty who belong to other programs, and I would love to see that branch out beyond the humanities.
Something that is already happening with this program is that it’s so events-focused, we are always posting flyers around, which I can thank the student workers for. I remember a time a student approached me very excited to attend an event that they saw a flyer for, and that was such a great feeling. Events are a great time for students to connect, and not just WGSS majors/minors, but all students because we are discussing issues that really matter and are happening all around us. I think that is what college is supposed to be about, meeting with well-rounded groups of people to figure out how to best impact the world around us.
GWU Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies 