Meet the Pro's, A Westchester Community College Success

        The Pulitzer Center recently promoted the Meet the Pro's Event at Westchester Community College's Classroom Building on March 25, 2013 where students were able to listen to presentations by working journalists in the field who were able to go all over the world and interview many different kinds of people. The general theme was women's rights in both South Africa and Nepal where various cultural practices have scarily real consequences for women across the region.
         One of the speakers, Allison Shelly, went to Nepal where she documented the practice of Chaupati, which is the practice in that particular region of during a woman's menstrual cycle, the woman is forced to live outside the home, in makeshift shelters and animal huts. These structures are tiny living quarters by our terms. This is forced upon the woman because local belief/culture is that a woman is unclean during her cycle and needs to be separated from the rest of society. This belief is so strong that when a woman is going through her period, even her closest friends may shun her, forcing the woman to even take separate back trails through their village. Women are often killed by animals, among other things, while living in these shelters. Allison did a great job of capturing the terrible circumstances these women face while living in these shelters for sometimes weeks. Allison has also done work in Haiti during and after the earthquake disaster.
          Another of the speakers was Melissa Turley who had gone to South Africa to document the many, many terrible rapes that occur there every day. The cultural practice in many post-apartheid regions of South Africa is that homosexuality, especially in women, is not looked at as something natural. Because of the deep track this falsity holds in the local culture, many men feel they are doing almost their duty by raping these women because they believe that by doing so they will "fix" the woman into being straight. The culture doesn't recognize the psychological process that backs up the idea that sexuality, be it homo or hetero, is a natural process. Melissa really got involved in the community and went all over to try and really understand the plight these women face. This belief is so deeply engrained that even the women speak about these rapes in a very matter of fact way. Not all are fine with the status quo and women advocacy groups have begun to spring up across the country.
          Both women did an amazing job, and definitely acomplished what they set out to do. They also gave some good insight into how the students would be able to follow in their footsteps and possible help others around the globe. After the presentation, Prof. Luther gave his opinion as well as to how the students attending could go out into the world and further foward the field of journalism and accomplish great things themselves. Overall, the Meet the Pro's event was a great way for students and teachers alike to admire the hard work of some impressive young, and up and coming journalists.