Forum Celebrates Female Leaders

On March 7, the MHCC community put together an inspirational forum celebrating the female leaders around us, the International Women’s Day Event. The Transitions/Transiciones program and the college’s Office of Student Life and Civic Engagement, plus others, worked together to organize and present this eye-opening event. The women of the year are Linda Vigesaa, Roseann Rivera, Sarah Aimone, Rozina Lethe, Leslie Salazar Gudiel, and Rebecca Humphrey.

Photo by S. Cousins

Sarah Aimone, AVID coordinator and vice president of the Classified Employees Association (union) at Mt. Hood, was the keynote speaker when I stopped by between classes.

“I don’t believe someone can lead without seeing others for who they are,” Aimone said. “We want to be accepted for who we are – isn’t that a sign of love?”

She advised the faculty and staff in the Student Union audience to “meet students where they are, not where we think they should be.” The focus of her talk was on reminding all listening that “leadership is not for others, it’s for all of us. Every day you can make a choice to impact someone’s life.” Even someone who doesn’t think they are a leader can still play a valuable role in leadership, she noted: “Even leaders need cheerleaders.”

Aimone then led participants through an empowering exercise to connect with their own, individual leadership style, to explore leadership qualities each of them might like to shine in their own brand of leadership.

“Picture a leader who can help pull people up and help them achieve new things. You are the leader that we need,” she explained. “You have all the life experiences that you need. Yes, we have things to improve.

“Pick three qualities that you want to choose to embody to be an effective leader,” was her prompt to the audience.

What are the various qualities of an effective leader? Here is the list of terms I captured, but obviously it can be so much more! 

Love, Selflessness, Grace, Consistency, Open mindedness, Kindness, Silver tongue, Organized, Visionary, Empathy, Authentic, Bold, Strategic, Patient, Prepared, Productive, Intelligent, Brave, Outspoken, Driven, Inspiring, Considerate, Calm, Authenticity.

Aimone explained that once a prospective leader has identified the three qualities, they can put them together in a phrase such as “I am a ______, ______, and _____ leader.”

Alas, I had to leave for class before I was able to hear from the student leadership panel that was honored.

Overall, I left impressed with the care and effort that went into making the event excellent, and I think the organizers would do well to stage another one. This, despite the event’s billing as “International Women’s Day,” which initially sent my mind down a dark path.

The obvious question for me was “Why is there just one day dedicated to women? Women are half (or more) of the population of the world. Does this imply that the other 364 days are already celebrating the men?”

When I saw Mt. Hood’s session was focused on honoring the qualities of leadership women naturally embody – which may not always be seen as important for making groups thrive – I accepted the wisdom behind the occasion.