Pirate Battalion and Campus Inclusion Celebrate Women in the Military  

Ghana Hylton presents Cadet Corcodilos with celebration shirt.

On Tuesday, March 28th Seton Hall University’s Pirate Battalion hosted a “Women in the Military” panel in collaboration with the Campus Inclusion team. The setting for this discussion was room 209 in the University Center where Ghana Hylton and her team set up an entire exhibit celebrating Women’s History Month that included photos and articles posted wall-to-wall testifying to the amazing accomplishments of women in the military and of women of the world.

Vaughn Calhoun, Ph.D., opened the event and welcomed special guests, Captain Fatima Aguilar from the New Jersey Army National Guard, Captain Veronica Bean from 10th Mountain Division located at Fort Drum, New York, and Lieutenant Mariella Tani also from the National Guard. The panel began the discussion with individual introductions and narratives about their own personal experiences as members of the Army, including their past duty stations, their advice to brothers and sisters in arms, and leadership lessons about how to make the Army a more inclusive place for every Soldier. 

LTC Scher, CPT Aguilar, CPT Bean, 2LT Tani, and Vaughn Calhoun, Ph.D.

A theme that was explored by the panel and by those cadets in the room who asked questions was what defines a successful military “culture”. Captain Veronica Bean and her husband, Captain McCoy Bean, spoke about culture being “what you celebrate and what you tolerate”, a sentiment that while simple, absolutely rang true with many of the cadets in the room. Each female cadet present was also able to introduce themselves to the panel and share their path to college and Army ROTC.  

Cadets Pooja Patel and Sarah Muñoz, both in the MSIII class, were asked about their experience attending the panel, and what it meant to them:

Women in Military Panel with ROTC Cadets.

“Representation of women in the Army shows that the organization that we belong to believes more in us and supports us alongside our male counterparts. Knowing that the Army has in recent years allowed women in combat arms positions shows how far we have come as a force. This allows fellow female soldiers to know that they are not alone, and that they are not obscure and different but rather, that they matter as well.” – Cadet Patel 

“Today’s panel was the perfect example of what National Women’s History Month is all about. Getting the chance to meet female leaders who have been in our shoes before and to hear their stories and how they’ve adapted and tackled issues in a male dominated force is extremely motivating and insightful. Today’s panel allowed us to reflect on all the progress women in the military have made thus far. I am now even more excited to see what else women will accomplish in the Army.” – Cadet Muñoz 

The panelists concluded by recounting for the audience a challenging time or experience that they have had to overcome and how it gave them confidence to lead and a desire to inspire a future generation of women Army officers. 

The unique stories proved to all in attendance that women succeed and struggle in many of the same ways that their men in uniform do as well and that the burden of leadership is not gender specific.  Furthermore, our team realized our responsibility to make sure everyone in our organization not only has a sense of representation, but most importantly a sense of worth and belonging.  It is our job as leaders to ensure we gain strength from our diversity and never allow what makes all of us unique and different distract us from our shared sense of purpose and mission focus. What we celebrate and what we tolerate as a force are the deciding factors between fostering a culture that is strong for all, or one that becomes stagnant and hostile.

Categories: Education