Isabella Ruchti is double-majoring in Gender & Women’s Studies and Conservation Biology.
Why did you choose GWS?
I started my time at UW Madison studying political science and environmental studies. Like many young people, I was filled with climate anxiety and pessimism about how I could exist in the world without making problems worse. My freshman year, I took the FIG on Reproductive Politics. These first few GWS classes gave me direction when examining structural inequalities. As I learn today, I still find threads showing that constructs of gender relate to everything. Looking through GWS lens has shaped the way I interact with the world and care for the beings within it. Being pushed to examine the way the world is structured allowed me to imagine a better future and recognize how I could be a part of building it.
I started my time at UW Madison studying political science and environmental studies. Like many young people, I was filled with climate anxiety and pessimism about how I could exist in the world without making problems worse. My freshman year, I took the FIG on Reproductive Politics. These first few GWS classes gave me direction when examining structural inequalities. As I learn today, I still find threads showing that constructs of gender relate to everything. Looking through GWS lens has shaped the way I interact with the world and care for the beings within it. Being pushed to examine the way the world is structured allowed me to imagine a better future and recognize how I could be a part of building it.
Has GWS changed your approach to your involvement (on or off campus) during college? If so, how?
My involvement in GWS on campus led me to my work at Sex Out Loud. Sex Out Loud is UW Madison’s peer-to-peer sexual health resource. At Sex Out Loud, I get to present on sex positive sex education topics and expand my knowledge on sexuality and gender. Both in my work at Sex Out Loud and other work on/off campus, I center the principles of care and collective action that I was taught through my GWS course work.
My involvement in GWS on campus led me to my work at Sex Out Loud. Sex Out Loud is UW Madison’s peer-to-peer sexual health resource. At Sex Out Loud, I get to present on sex positive sex education topics and expand my knowledge on sexuality and gender. Both in my work at Sex Out Loud and other work on/off campus, I center the principles of care and collective action that I was taught through my GWS course work.
How has GWS shaped your future plans?
Throughout college, I centered my career goals on addressing environmental injustice. A focus on the environment led me to a second major in Conservation Biology, and GWS has given me space to approach environmentalism from a social justice framework. I have learned a lot from the work of BIPOC feminist and my professors who follow an intersectional framework of feminism. This knowledge has shaped my plans for a career in ethnobotany and environmentalism.