Categories: News, Schenectady County

A contingent of Union College students joined an estimated 300,000 people who participated in the Women’s March on Washington on Saturday.

The trip was organized by a group of students who raised $5,000 to cover chartering a bus and other expenses, some of which was donated by the college itself. In total 45 students and 10 faculty members made the trip.

“It was incredible, so much more exciting than I had anticipated it to be,” said Union College sophomore Christie Dionisos, who helped organize the trip. “I think I didn’t understand the sheer number of people that were going to be there.”

The Women’s March on Washington was replicated in dozens of cities throughout the country and several international cities such as Paris, France and Sydney, Australia. The marches, scheduled for the day after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, were meant to affirm support for the rights of women and others who are marginalized.

Dionisos is part of the Womyn’s Union on campus and said she felt the need to travel to the march in Washington in order to have her voice heard in a different setting.

“Especially with Trump’s campaign and how he treated women and how he viewed them, I needed to go there to prove that women’s issues are not things to be set aside, they’re not minor issues, they’re things that need to be brought to the forefront in this country,” she said.

Dionisos said there are already plans in the works to share the students’ experience with the campus community.

“This election made people very disappointed but that just gives you a reason to come back and keep fighting, it definitely renewed a sense of activism in me and I don’t want to let this die,” she said.

Another student organizer, Gillian Singer, said she was on the verge of tears at times during the march when witnessing the outpouring of support and solidarity amongst that many people.

“There were so many people fighting for so many different things, but we were all there with the same intention, to make America a better place, to make America a kinder place,” she said.

Singer said she’s been learning about the women’s suffrage movement and the march on the White House in 1917, and marching Saturday in Washington, D.C., “I felt like I was in a history textbook, I literally felt like I was back in 1917.”

Singer said she was encouraged and invigorated by the march, and is coming back to Schenectady with a renewed sense that a people united can make a difference.

“I’m walking away from this with a smile on my face knowing that we can make a difference, there are enough people in this world that are fighting for the same thing,” said Singer. “Just knowing that we’re not alone, and bringing that back to campus and sharing that electricity with everyone on campus, it’s just an incredible opportunity.”

Andrea Foroughi, a professor at Union College who helped the students organize the trip, said in an email that during the election she was teaching a course on gender, sexuality and women’s studies as well as a course on the history of women’s rights in America.

“Both seemed so timely, given the candidates’ gender, the political issues at stake, and the tone of the election,” said Foroughi. “I’d been teaching about feminist activism, and so I felt inspired to put words into action.”

She added that participating in the march was overwhelming, humbling and inspiring.

“It was more moving than I had imagined to see streets and sidewalks for more than a mile, filled with people sharing common cause,” said Foroughi.

Foroughi said the march was marked by a sustained sense of solidarity that was evidenced by “spontaneous chants, genuine courtesy and conscientious interactions, even in tight quarters and after long waiting or delays.”

Foroughi said participating in the march gave her a renewed hope in the power of unity and diversity to bring about change.

“Unity in diversity is powerful, great things happen when we come together,” she said.