Being A Spelman Woman ♥

"Transformative College Literacy of Black Women Peer Counselors" by Robin Wisniewski is essay depicting the development of a peer counselor group from women in college.  In the essay Wisniewski describes the steps she took to create this group and the reasons why she created it.  She talked about the formation of the group, the application process and the results of her program.  While reaading this essay a particular quote stood out to me, “Because elite white men and their representatives control structures of knowledge validation, white male interests pervade the thematic of traditional scholarship. As a result, Black women’s experiences…have been routinely distorted in or excluded from traditional discourse.(291)” (pg.73).

This quote is from research in 1990 by Collins.  Wisniewski used this quote to justify her reasoning for creating a peer counseling group for Black women at her college.  She knew that the Black woman needed a little support to in order to succeed and that there is not much encouragement for them in higher education.  There are few institutions dedicated to the success of Black women, and I am proud to be enrolled at one.

Spelman College is the number one historically black institution of learning in America. Not only is Spelman an all black college, it is also an all women’s college. I consider it the center of all things black, female and literate and I am also proud to be a student at this esteemed college.
The beauty of Spelman College is that it caters to the education of the black woman unlike private white institutions (PWI) or other historically black institutions of learning. Before making my decision to attend Spelman I toured many college campuses; majority of them being PWI. I sat in on classes, ate in their cafeterias and talked with students about how they felt about their campus. As a black woman I did not feel connected to these schools. There were few students that looked like me and fewer who could relate to my struggle of being from the inner city.
What attracted me to Spelman the most was that everywhere I turned their was a black, female, educated face. Even though each face differed from the one next to her they each shared those same characteristics. I felt that Spelman was the perfect place for me to grow into a black woman; that this school was designed with me in mind. I feel that if there were more primary, intermediate, high schools and even colleges like Spelman that the literacy rate among black women would rise significantly.