GWS Student Spotlight – Maddie Beckmann

Maddie Beckmann is majoring in Gender & Women’s Studies and getting a certificate in Public Policy.

1. Why did you choose GWS?
   Before I knew that GWS was an option, I was pre-vet. I took chemistry and bio and was absolutely questioning if I should be pursuing my education. I took an elective (GWS 101), and it totally changed my perspective on many things in my day-to-day life. I started to question why I wasn’t taught this information in high school, things like the Triangle Shirt Waist Factory fire or how Christopher Columbus wasn’t the first person to discover America, rather the Native Americans who had already been here. This one class had sparked a flame in me that continued to grow and get hotter. I knew there was so much more for me to learn, which I wouldn’t be able to do in just 4 years so I made the jump from STEM to Humanities, and it has been one of the best decisions I have made in college so far. I am always learning and evolving, which is something I will forever be grateful for.
2. Has GWS changed your approach to your involvement (on or off campus) during college? If so, how?
   GWS has really opened my eyes to systematic operations and how society constantly works against certain demographics. I have tried my absolute best to challenge these values of our systems to make something as simple as going to the bathroom inclusive. I try my best to see opportunities in unconventional situations in order to expand my horizons and continue to learn. We are all human, we shouldn’t have people, places, and things to tell us that we don’t deserve the rights we are given.
3. How has GWS shaped your future plans?
   When I say that GWS has changed my outlook on life, it truly has. The faculty that has helped and continues to help me in my classes in these past couple years have been so encouraging and motivating and really helped me find my true passion. I believe that because I am a white woman, I already have a step up in some aspects of life (as sad as that makes me) and I want to use my voice for good. I have many thoughts and opinions about the current state of our country, one of which being the access to abortion. My struggle with this topic is that lawmakers and government officials want to strip us of this right, but don’t feel the need to integrate better sex education in our schools. Nevertheless, the sex education many children are getting is exclusive, brief, and vague. This lack of knowledge has led to more teen pregnancies, higher levels of STDs/STIs in younger people, and so many more life-long effects. Now this is just one goal of mine as a future policy maker. I could go on and on about the things that I want to achieve by the time I’m 65, but I’m sure many of you agree that education severely lacks the inclusivity it so crucially requires in a world where students have two moms or a student is neither male nor female or just simply a Black person. You probably won’t catch me in a classroom teaching a group of 6 to 18-year-olds because I simply don’t have the patience, but to live in a world where I have the opportunity to work with state governments to create the change that we need to see is what I believe to be my true calling.