March is Women’s History Month, and the theme this year is “Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories.”
To celebrate the stories of women in the learning and development field and multiple education spaces, we reached out to internal and external partners and thought leaders to talk to them about their professional lives and the stories that have inspired them.
At ansrsource, we believe in the power of storytelling to educate, connect, and enrich people’s lives. We are grateful to the women who chose to share their stories with us. We hope you enjoy learning about the women we spoke with as much as we loved speaking with them.
Happy Women’s History Month!
Rosemary (Rose) Kreston, Retired College Administrator and Instructor
Q: What is your favorite part about working in higher education?
I’ve always been a reader and still like to read to get new ideas to think about. Working in higher ed was a natural for me as going to college is the time in my life I truly “grew up.” I was exposed to new ideas every quarter as I took a variety of courses, from Music Theory to Psychology, my eventual major. I am still a student pursuing (very slowly) now my Ph.D. in sociology. Now retired, I am still teaching “new” ideas to students online and keeping my knowledge fresh.
Q: Who are some women you look up to?
My family is full of strong women, and I may have picked up a few things from them along the way. The women I look up to now are those who have disabilities, like Judy Heumann, and who have made the most of their lives advocating for change in terms of how the experience of disability is perceived. Like these women, through my work with students with disabilities, I became a role model to those who had disabilities as well as for those who were non-disabled. Now, by teaching others about the experience of disability, I am hopefully contributing in my own way to changing how others see the disability experience.
Q: What was your favorite story growing up?
My parents fostered the love of reading for me. My father read Grimm fairytales and we had a major bookcase in our dining room. My mother always gave me books as presents. I enjoyed mysteries with young girls as the master sleuths. Now those sleuths are women, and I tend to prefer women authors. These books always made me “think” about the clues as well as the reasoning behind the “motives” of the perpetrators in the stories, adding to my interest in psychology.
Q: If you could pick one piece of currently available content to expose your community to, what would it be?
I would encourage others to start reading things by those who have disabilities, many sources of which come from the field of Disability Studies. This body of knowledge critiques how society views the disability experience and promotes the idea that disability is part of the human condition not unlike other diverse characteristics. It also recognizes the impact of Ableism that results in marginalization from discrimination, prejudice, and stereotyping. Reading first person accounts of living with a disability can give people insights into the disability experience, such as Being Heumann, by Judith Heumann.
About Rosemary Kreston
Rosemary (Rose) Kreston is happily retired from a 40-year career at Colorado State University as she still pursues her Ph.D. Rose has served as a Subject Matter Expert for two ansrsource GEM experiences, including Don’t Assume I Can’t Do That! Workplace Inclusion for People with Disabilities which is free this month in honor of Disability Awareness Month.
About ansrsource
ansrsource designs, develops, and delivers customized learning experiences with speed, scale, and sophistication. We provide learning consulting, design, and delivery services using our full-time team of hundreds of passionate global experts. We serve millions of learners using all major learning methodologies and technologies. Almost 20 years of experience working with the most compelling ideas in digital education has resulted in an unrivaled team, methodology, and process.
