Scholars and Changemakers: The Vital Role of Graduate Students in Campus Women's Centers

On college campuses, Women’s Centers serve as a safe space for many marginalized students, faculty, and staff members across campus. These Centers are active spaces that serve a wide variety of individuals including graduate students who play multifaceted roles that are essential to the Center’s work. These students contribute significantly to the functioning of the Center while also gaining professional and personal development from their involvement. In this article, we reflect on our own experiences as two graduate students working within a campus-based Women’s Center while simultaneously integrating literature on the function of graduate students within these spaces. Employing a dual auto-ethnographic methodology, we engage in joint analysis and writing, arguing that graduate students are crucial members of Women’s Centers who benefit not only the students that utilize the Center, but also other staff, faculty, and the graduate students themselves.