VOICES Retreat

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VOICES 2017

VOICES 2017 participants telling their stories and counter-narratives in small groups.

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VOICES 2016

VOICES 2016 Participants with Alumni Speaker, Sarah Audelo (’06)

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VOICES 2016 and Sarah Audelo

VOICES 2016 Participants with Alumni Speaker, Sarah Audelo (’06)

The annual VOICES retreat invites a diverse group of students from across campus to come together in meaningful dialogue and coalition-building around identity, spirituality, and social justice. Our retreat is focused on leadership, gender and social justice while creating space for participants to explore identity and intersections that impact their daily lives and work at Georgetown University. We are building community across difference.

The 2018 VOICES Retreat will take place at the Calcagnini Contemplative Center from Friday, November 30 to Saturday, December 1. The application will close November 1st. Please contact kr761@georgetown.edu with any questions about the retreat.

Learning Objectives

Students will leave the retreat with the following skills and knowledge:

  • A deeper understanding of faith and its role at the personal and community level (participation in justice movements)
  • Who am I and who am I not with relation to power and privilege
  • A stronger sense of self and identity
  • Ability to communicate with peers across difference on difficult topics  
  • Ability to articulate a personal womanist/feminist understanding of social justice
  • The skill of allyship and understanding of ways to enhance engagement with all communities
  • A personal understanding of wellness and the skills to advocate for your well-being 
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“The VOICES retreat offered an invaluable safe space for women of all identities. Going beyond the simple diversity of race, the retreat posed little barriers to entry for women of varying socioeconomic backgrounds who wouldn’t otherwise have access to the most foundational experience of a Jesuit education, a retreat. The Jesuits urge us to contemplate our identities and place in the world. Particularly as women in the 21st century, the era of intersectional feminism, it is important for us to have the opportunity and space to reflect on our evolving definition of what it means to be a woman. The bedrock of intersectional feminism is the recognition, understanding, and ultimate solidarity of varying definitions of femininity and womanhood. The VOICES retreat reiterated this point through building a community in diversity of women, as well as urged us to think about the ways we can be better women for others. Through storytelling exercises and hearing from female mentors, whether they be our peers, our mothers, or older women we admire from afar, the VOICES retreat create a physical space for intersectional feminism to take root. While I’m sad to say as a second semester senior this was my first retreat, I am overjoyed that I was able to share this paramount and intimate experience surrounded by such a group of people.”

– Courtney Maduike (SFS ’17)