On Friday evening in Frederick Douglass Hall, about 20 Howard women gathered to create personal vision boards – collages of words and images that represented their dreams and objectives for the year.
The night, facilitated by Black Women for Themselves and The Women’s Network on Jan. 26, was about sisterhood and supportiveness.
Black Women for Themselves is a female-centered “radical” women’s liberation collective, as described by the group’s Instagram. The group says they aim to break away from any expectations and detach themselves from “the patriarchy.”
The Women’s Network, according to their Instagram, is a national women-led networking organization dedicated to redefining ambition and connecting collegiate and recently graduated women to each other and leaders across the world.
Mia Bennett-Jones, a senior TV and film major from Plainfield, New Jersey, is one of the three co-founders of Black Women for Themselves.
“At the start of the new year and a new semester, I think it’s the perfect time to set some goals,” she said.
A Forbes survey concluded that the most popular 2024 goals for Americans are to improve fitness, finances and mental health. A 2020 survey conducted by research company Ipsos found that the demographics most likely to have a resolution for 2021 included younger adults aged 18 to 34 years old. The vision boards allowed Howard women to share their desire to improve and connect with other women.
Bennett-Jones is looking forward to completing her last semester at Howard and hosting more events, such as the guest speaker series featuring Black women in prominent positions.
“I feel like it’s super important to be intentional about your goals,” she said. “I think it’s good to take some time, not only to bond with your peers but to set some goals and be intentional about what you wanna get out of the school year.”
Nevaeh Parker, a sophomore African studies major from San Jose, California, discussed some of the personal motivations behind her vision board, which included staying in touch with her family more and taking care of herself.
“My personal and well-being [goals] are to make sure that I’m taking time to focus on me, and also a big thing for me is the relationships that I build,” she said. “I think it’s important to have this sense of womanhood and sisterhood with other girls. I think it’s important that we come together and that we’re supported and everything.”
Lauryn Shepard, a freshman math major from Washington, D.C., shared the same sentiments as Parker.
“Goal-setting is important because usually when you have goals, sometimes it’s hard to have accountability,” she said. “When you list out and have goals, you’re more likely to achieve them rather than just look over and say eventually you’ll get to them.”
Like Parker and Shepard, Nyasia Wright, a senior sports medicine major, emphasized the importance of staying focused on the goals she and others have, drawing from her experience in creating vision boards.
“It can get overwhelming, and to have a group like this where we’re working all together, it can inspire people,” she said. “I also believe that coming together like this- especially all these awesome and inspirational girls – just helps to digress from our day, from our week and stay focused academically, physically, mentally and emotionally.”
Copyedited by Jalyn Lovelady
