by Mirella Flores
For the past academic year, I had the opportunity to be the graduate assistant for the UMKC Women’s Center. I accepted the graduate assistantship at the Women’s Center because I wanted to grow in my feminist identity, which I did. 
Although I use a feminist lens on my research, it was a different experience planning and implementing events that promoted gender equity and other feminist issues. I particularly enjoyed working on body image-related events, such as the “I Am Enough!” Photo Campaign and Every Body Is Beautiful Week. Working on these events instilled in me an interest for working with clients that face disordered eating and eating disorders in my clinical work (I am a counseling psychology doctoral student). Working at the Women’s Center helped me grow as feminist and strengthen my incorporation of feminism into my academic and clinical work.
Another aspect I enjoyed about working at the Women’s Center was making flyers. I went to a high school for the arts and specialized in visual arts. However, I decided to pursue psychology instead. Thus, as an undergrad and now a grad student, I do not have much time (if any) to do anything that may be considered artsy. Making flyers for the Women’s Center events gave me an outlet for creativity. Despite with certain guidelines, it was refreshing to make decisions about composition, color schemes and like-things for the first time in a while.
My point here is to encourage you to get involved, at the Women’s Center or somewhere else. I accomplished one of my goals for wanting to work at the Women’s Center, but I also gained more than was I was anticipating. If you are like me, you may 
only be seeking opportunities that directly apply to your major or career path. Although those opportunities are great, I would encourage you to also seek out opportunities with organizations that work for issues you care about, even if they do not directly related to your career path. Branching out helped me grow in areas that relate to my studies and also helped me reconnect with an aspect of myself I don’t often nourish.