The Maxine Platzer Lynn Women’s Center hosted “A Celebration of Legacy and Light” Thursday evening at the Graduate Hotel to honor its 21 graduating student interns and workers, as well as recipients of the 2024 Distinguished Alumna Award and the inaugural winner of the Spirit of 1974 Award. The event also celebrated the first women to graduate from a coed class at the University in the Class of 1974, with three female members of the class in attendance.
Celebrating its 37th year on Grounds this year, the Maxine Platzer Lynn Women’s Center focuses its work on social justice issues that affect students, faculty, staff and residents of Charlottesville. The Center offers a legal clinic, mentorship programs, student internships and counseling for University students, faculty and staff of all genders.
To open the event, the Center’s Director Chanel Craft Tanner welcomed attendees and noted that the gathering represented the legacy of the individuals who fought for gender equity and “the light” the community continues to create.
“For generations, people who believed in gender equity and justice had to imagine a future that didn't yet exist,” Tanner said. “They had to look beyond the horizon of what was possible in their own moment and trust that something better could be built.”
Leigh Ann Carver, the Center’s program director of communication and advancement, said that the event highlighted the significance of Women’s History Month by sharing the stories of women and their accomplishments that often go untold. Notably, the event celebrated the women in the Class of 1974 — a group of women who graduated from the College of Arts and Sciences in the University’s first coed class. Carver noted, however, that more than 30,000 women took classes at the University before 1970, demonstrating women’s resilience and determination to receive an education.
“The Women of the Class of 1974 were not the first women to attend [the University], but they hold a singular place in U.Va. history as the first class to graduate after the University fully opened its doors to undergraduate women. While women before them claimed their right to an education here, it was this class that normalized women’s presence at U.Va.,” Carver said.
Carver then awarded all of the women of the Class of 1974 with the Center's 2024 Distinguished Alumna Award, which celebrates their pioneering attitudes and actions that paved the way for thousands of female students at the University. The award — established in 1991 by the Center — honors alumni whose contributions in their career field reflect the spirit of service and excellence of a University education. Carver said this year’s award is the first to be awarded to a group rather than an individual, and that these women’s bold courage to enter classrooms and question tradition taught the University community to be a place where women belong.
The event also honored the inaugural recipient of the Spirit of 1974 Award, Simone Minor, Center intern and fourth-year College student. Class of 1974 alumna Ann Brown presented the award, which was created to recognize students who embody the same traits as this pioneering class of women. Brown said the award aims to represent the ways the grit and determination of the women of the Class of 1974 lives on in students today.
“The Spirit of 1974 Award recognizes an undergraduate student graduating from the College of Arts and Sciences who embodies those same values [as the Class of 1974],” Brown said. “It honors the student whose leadership is grounded in collaboration, resilience and an ethic of care, and whose time at U.Va. has sparked meaningful change that will also benefit future generations.”
Minor said in her acceptance speech that while the award represents the unprecedented accomplishments of women, it should also recognize the ongoing efforts of women to find success in education and in spaces with “limited resources” for women to succeed.
“I want to celebrate all the firsts, but we should not settle for the first being the last,” Minor said. “True change requires more than inclusion. However, in the meantime, the people within it can choose to leave the door open and the light on … for those who come after.”
The event also included a cording ceremony for graduating interns and employees for the Center, presented by Dr. Nsofwa Chanda, the Center’s assistant director for Engaged Scholarship. Chanda said that these students have shown immense care and impact with their work at the Center, and leave with a new breadth of skills after becoming a part of something special.
Many University community members gathered for the celebration, including Greylin Vallejos, facilitator at the Young Women Leaders Program at the Center and fourth-year Education student. Vallejos said the Center is a great environment for students working to create a better University community. Vallejos said she enjoyed hearing about the triumphs of the women in the Class of 1974 and what they have overcome.
“[The Center is] such a welcoming community of empowered women just working towards making the community a better place,” Vallejos said. “Getting to hear some of [the Class’s] stories and how they continue to break barriers … [was] definitely an unforgettable experience.”
The event also featured the student a cappella group Hoos in Treble, who opened the event with their rendition of “Over The Rainbow” by Judy Garland.
The Center’s next event, “Women's History Month Keynote: A Beginner's Guide to Worldmaking” will be held Wednesday at 6 p.m. at 1515.
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