Manning Women in Business, Society of Women Engineers Co-host Q&A with Jacquie Moloney
Image by Ed Brennen
11/19/2018
By Ed Brennen
Looking out at an audience of close to 50 female business and engineering students, Chancellor Jacquie Moloney had a question.
鈥淗ow many of you, when your professor asks a question in class, have sat there and thought, 鈥業 think I know the answer鈥�?鈥�
Hands shot up around the room at O鈥橪eary Library.
鈥淭ake a look around the room,鈥� Moloney continued. 鈥淎nd how many times have you kicked yourself afterward and said, 鈥業 knew that. Why didn鈥檛 I say something?鈥欌€�
Hands shot up again, this time accompanied by nodding heads.
Invited to speak about women鈥檚 empowerment at a Q&A event co-hosted by two student organizations, Manning Women in Business and the Society of Women Engineers, Moloney had struck a chord.
Image by Ed Brennen
鈥淎s women, our biggest challenge is overcoming a lack of self-confidence,鈥� said Moloney, whose university has been named one of the top 10 women-led businesses in Massachusetts for two years running. 鈥淔ind your voice and don鈥檛 be afraid to use it. When I started doing that, everything changed.鈥�
Kellsie Howard, a junior business administration major in the Manning School of Business and founder and president of Manning Women in Business, said the message resonated with nearly everyone in the room.
鈥淚t鈥檚 something I could relate to, and I think it was extremely relevant for anyone in the audience,鈥� said Howard, who invited Moloney to speak at the event after she received the Chancellor鈥檚 Award for Women鈥檚 Leadership and her club won the 2018 Excellence in Student Advocacy award last spring.
After collaborating with Society of Women Engineers president Katie An last spring on a panel discussion featuring iRobot, Howard reached out to her about co-hosting this semester鈥檚 event with the chancellor.
鈥淚t鈥檚 important to raise awareness about the women鈥檚 empowerment movement, especially for colleges that don鈥檛 have many females enrolled,鈥� Howard said. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 always great to grow your network and meet other students who care about the same causes as you.鈥�
Image by Ed Brennen
An, a junior chemical engineering major in the Francis College of Engineering, said interdisciplinary collaboration is important because 鈥渨e have different insights and different points of view on issues鈥� that can benefit one another.
Moloney, who chatted with students over apple cider and hors d'oeuvres before the talk, shared how she was the only one of eight girls in her family to attend college 鈥� and how higher education changed her life.
鈥淐ollege was everything. It was here that I found my voice,鈥� said Moloney, a Double River Hawk who earned a bachelor鈥檚 degree in sociology and a doctorate in education from UML (she got a master鈥檚 degree in social psychology from Goddard College).
Noting that 鈥渢he feminist movement was afoot鈥� when she started college in the mid-1970s, Moloney told students that she hopes they no longer face the barriers today that her generation encountered.
鈥淚t鈥檚 probably why I鈥檓 so passionate about making sure that women from all walks of life have access to college education.鈥�
