The service role I outline in this project is the student internship at the Harvard College Women’s Center.

The Women’s Center employs around 12 or so student interns to run the day-to-day operations of the center, as well as weekly event programming. There are three committees of interns-- Programming and Events, Gender Education, and Social Media and Communication.

Programming and Events plans and organizes Women’s Week, a week of programming at the end of February/ beginning of March which involves the collaboration of multiple student organizations, involving various events on current women’s and gender issues, often featuring professors as speakers.

The Programming and Events team also runs the Ann Radcliffe Trust grant process, by which recognized student organizations can receive funding for events or projects related to gender and social justice issues. The Gender Education team provides Gender 101 training to different student organizations, offices, and professionals in the Harvard community, on how to better understand gender beyond a binary of male and female. The Social Media and Communications team manages social media, hires and manages a 6-person team of freshman representatives, runs the new intern hiring/search process in the spring, and assists in publicity and design matters. As evident, the student interns learn a variety of real and valuable professional skills through this internship, and take on a great deal of responsibility. The interns work a minimum of 6 hours each week, and the interns serve largely as the liaisons between the Center and the student body at large.

The Women’s Center is a recognized office of the university, under the office of student life and the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, making it a wholly different experience from being a part of an on-campus organization.
 

The mission of the Harvard College Women’s Center is to promote gender equity by raising awareness of women’s and gender issues, developing women’s leadership, and celebrating women who challenge, motivate, and inspire.