Raise Your Voice at Five Years

April is Sexual Violence Awareness Month, and since 2022, Saint Mary’s College has hosted Raise Your Voice: A Sexual Violence Prevention Symposium (RYV). This campus initiative is aimed at raising awareness and education, reducing stigma, and preventing sexual violence through workshops, panel discussions, and guest speakers.

“We can’t fix a problem we don’t talk about,” said Liz Baumann, the College’s Title IX Coordinator. “Statistically, everyone knows someone who has been impacted by sexual violence. If you think you don’t, there’s a good chance someone is still healing and doesn’t feel safe enough to share their story yet. By creating a culture of anti-violence and consciously increasing awareness and access to resources, we can help survivors heal and prevent future violence.” 

Five years ago, Raise Your Voice began as a series of keynote speakers, panel discussions, student research presentations, activism, and art installations such as What Were You Wearing that spanned a week. As its grown and tightened its programming into a single day, the event has positioned the College as a leader in campus sexual violence prevention. Alumna Grace Maher ’21, has served as a student-research presenter, attendee, event planner, and this year, as a panelist on the Alumnae of the Past 25 Years panel. 

The single-day format has also allowed staff and students from local and regional universities to attend. “One week is a lot of time to commit to hearing these stories, engaging with this material, and not feeling a reprieve,” Maher said. “Knowing the content is already difficult and heavy, we wanted to make sure that the length of experience itself wasn't something that automatically dissuaded people from attending and engaging with the work.”

At the inaugural RYV symposium, Chanel Miller delivered the keynote address. An artist and writer, Miller told her story in her 2019 book Know My Name, reclaiming her power—and her name—after surviving a brutal assault in 2015. The Stanford University student athlete who was convicted of raping Miller while she was unconscious served only three months in jail.  

Having Miller speak was “a magical way to kick-off Raise Your Voice,” said Baumann. “It’s also impressive that for the last five years, we've highlighted student research and art each year. It’s so cool to see the work our students are doing here on campus.” The projects have included students from social work, gender and women’s studies, psychology, and art.

Maher presented her senior comprehensive project titled Uprooting Rape Culture in 21st Century America, at the inaugural RYV Symposium in 2022. “I looked at popular media and the scholarly argument behind rape culture, and how can we create an anti-violence culture of the same, if not greater stature,” she said. Maher cited the movie 2019 Bombshell, a fictionalized story based on the real-life experiences of three women Fox News anchors, who became the headlines themselves when they stood up to CEO Roger Ailes for alleged sexual harassment and retaliation, forcing his resignation. “It was supposed to be this huge, empowering  film, but there were a lot of problems with how these women were portrayed.”