María Saldana (she/ella) graduated cum laude from UF with a BA in Women’s Studies and a BS in Psychology in 2020 and earned an MA in Women’s Studies in 2022. She is a Program Associate at the National Equity Project and a columnist for award-winning American online magazine Them.
My graduate work at the Center has opened many doors for me and I feel privileged to have been able to acquire the skills and knowledge during my MA program that I now use throughout my life.
While at the Center I was able to curate my experience and intentionally bring in my community work and merge it with my academics. Being able to create an archive of oral histories with the help of the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program was one of the most memorable parts of my graduate experience and the skills I learned through that process have been indispensable as I transitioned to my current job.
I now work as a Program Associate with the National Equity Project (NEP), an organization whose mission is to transform the experiences, outcomes, and life options for children and families who have been historically underserved by institutions and systems. As an associate in the Center for Equity Leadership, I facilitate different equity workshops and courses on a national level.
Because of my education at the Center, I’m able to engage in meaningful discourse with my colleagues and with the clients and participants we at NEP meet daily. The knowledge that I gained in courses taught by Dr. Jillian Hernandez, Dr. Manoucheka Celeste, and other wonderful professors at the Center have been central in the ways I approach my work. Being able to draw from Black and Native feminist theories to shape future offerings at NEP has been incredibly rewarding.
Additionally, I write an advice column for the queer online magazine, Them, answering questions on varied topics, including queerness, relationships, and community. Much of the framing I have in these topics comes from courses like Latinx Sexualities, Global Women of Color, and the many texts I had access to while at the Center.
I cannot think of my time at the Center without thinking of the mentors I had. Dr. Hernandez’s mentorship has been a foundation for me to navigate my work spheres. To have the guidance from a woman of color, one who poured so much care during her role as my thesis chair, has set the tone for how I approach leadership in the spaces I’m in. Her reminder to write from an intuitive place has helped me as I imagine new ways to do editorial writing, and also how I approach hosting at NEP.
Of course, the MA program brought me to my wonderful cohort. My peers continue to remind me what it means to care for each other and honor the many knowledges we already hold.
My women’s studies education has touched every corner of my life. It was a
catalyst for the opportunities that I’ve come across and was such a time of growth and transformation. The relationships I made during the MA program, the knowledge and skills I gained, all contributed to where I find myself now. At the Center, I was able to explore how my own identities have impacted my life, continue to strengthen my relationships to my multiple communities, and radically imagine an abundant future.
This story appears in the Fall 2022 issue of the Gender, Sexualities, & Women’s Studies Newsletter. Read more from the issue.