Gottuso, Saskia. Perseverance Displayed by Women in Domestic Workers United, United Farm Workers and Soldiers in the Niger Delta. Histories and Movements of Gender and Sexuality, Winter, 2022.

A proper undergraduate degree wouldn’t be complete without the process of consistently improving one’s writing and communication skills. I chose this essay (with a very long title) in hopes that it would show evidence of that. Written in a women’s history class, I had to do a fair amount of reading/documentary-watching prior to translating it in my own words. Including a two hour movie about Dolores Huertas (that was very moving), as well as few chapters about women soldiers in Africa, and Domestic Workers United (DWU).

The latter may not sound like a lot of material to cover before one essay. However, when accumulation of readings over a quarter are considered, there’s a lot left to translate. I was required to write five of these papers, not including the final. One of the biggest things I’m currently working on is avoiding the repetition of words/phrases. In order to do this, a thesaurus is one’s best friend. Writing this in particular helped me learn how to use some fresh words effectively. I also submitted this article to the CROW for a chance to have it published. I was replied to with a message explaining the places where it needed edits. The members of the editorial board told me that if I make the revisions to it by the end of this month, it will be published in next year's edition.

In my annotated bibliography, I ended the caption for this one by mentioning how I took Dr. Shayne’s class. I brought her up because she made sure that we as students got a proper education about women. Meaning, not just historical lessons about white women. Many stories of strong, Blacl and brown women were told. In the end, completing this essay further proved to me that if one is passionate enough about a subject, it will show in their writing. I was most captivated by the curriculum leading up to it, and as a result, I received my best grade of the quarter for that class.