She was going into debt for this education, and she wanted it to be good. For Townes, though, this wasn’t something she could just discount as a societal failing. Historically, the fields of STEM, an acronym referring generally to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, have had problems achieving equity and inclusion, with science and related disciplines everywhere traditionally favoring white men and excluding women and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). “I did not fit the mold at the time of what Bates saw as a scientist.” There were STEM classes where Townes did well, but she left Bates feeling that her faculty did not have solid grounding in “cultural inclusivity or sensitivity,” she says. Townes still emails and Zooms regularly with Palin. There was a pride piece in there.” She found helpers, teachers like Paula Schlax (“a godsend of a human”) and Karen Palin, who steered her toward a thesis focused on public health, working with the Community Clinical Services B Street Health Center in Lewiston. “I did not fit the mold at the time of what Bates saw as a scientist.” Akira Townes ’17 And so therefore, my brain was just like, maybe you don’t need it.” She says she has a processing disability but still she couldn’t shake this feeling that “this has zero contextual use in my life. Her lab work still made her feel confident - but her grades on tests reinforced the feeling that she wasn’t cutting it, and there would be material in the class that didn’t translate. Like, why was it so hard for some professors to tell her apart from the three or four other Black women in her classes, especially the ones she, at five-foot-10, was considerably taller than? She experienced the discomfort of microaggressions. Instead, there were biology classes at Bates where she felt like she was “always the dumb one.” In her heart, she knew that wasn’t true, but says there were students and faculty who made her feel that way. “I thought I was a scientist,” Townes says, speaking via Zoom from Baltimore, near where she grew up, remembering how ready she felt for Bates and a biology major in 2013. She was beyond comfortable in a lab setting. She’d even presented that work at a conference in Montreal. As a student at The Park School in Baltimore, a century-old private K–12 school, she’d done a lot of experiential learning, including three summers of permafrost fieldwork in the Canadian subarctic. Osaka lost in the first round of Wimbledon in 2019, and the tournament was canceled in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.Share on Email Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on LinkedInĪkira Townes ’17 came to Bates in fall 2013 with plans to go into public health, probably, she thought, as a nurse practitioner. She has not won a match at the All England Club since getting to the third round in 2018. Osaka did not play at Wimbledon a year ago as part of a mental health break she took after pulling out of the French Open before her second-round match. Bouchard is working her way back from surgery on her right shoulder. “I didn’t even make my decision yet, but I’m leaning more towards not playing, given the current circumstances.”Įugenie Bouchard, who was the runner-up at the All England Club in 2014, announced Friday on social media that she would not play at Wimbledon because there are no ranking points available. Whenever I think something is like an exhibition, I just can’t go at it 100%,” Osaka said then. I know this isn’t true, right? But my brain just like feels that way. “I’m not sure why, but I feel like if I play Wimbledon without points, it’s more like an exhibition. After that defeat, Osaka said she was leaning toward missing Wimbledon because the professional tennis tours aren't ranking points awarded - a response to the All England Club's decision to bar all players from Russia and Belarus over the war in Ukraine.
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