Western Kentucky University alumni in social work offer advice to young women

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) – Students, friends, and alumni gathered in the Western Kentucky University Alumni Center Monday, listening to notable WKU women detail their paths to success.

“I have the fortune of working in a field that is pretty much dominated by women. Although the people that we’re often appealing to, to make policy are men,” said Holly Hudnall, a Health Justice Advocate with Kentucky Voices for Health. “I think that one of the strengths that women have in this particular area is that we tend to be really relational creatures, we think about how relationships with people are built and how those relationships flourish.”

Among them was Kori Beck Bumgarner, an attorney for the Eighth Judicial Circuit, who shared the emotions she felt upon entering a male-dominated field.

“As far as filling any pressures entering my field, because women might not be as represented, I would just ignore it, right? If it’s something that you want to do, push forward and try it anyway. You will find your niche and other women to look up to when you get there.,” Bumgarner said.

Many points were stressed during the seminar, with Bumgarner and other speakers urging the young women of the audience to not fear failure and to embrace change.

“If you choose one field, it might not end up being the field that you go in. But if you’re interested in something you don’t ignore that, right?” Bumgarner said. “Try it out, talk to people who are doing it, talk to people who have done it, and just get out there and try it.”

Though Hudnall said she most hoped the women of the audience understood they didn’t have an expiration date.

“Just because you don’t get it done by the time you’re 24, just because your kids aren’t born by the time you’re 30, just because you’re not married by the time you’re 28. You don’t have to fit those things in any kind of timeline, except for what works for you,” Hudnall said.

When asked what advice Hudnall and Bumgarner had for young women about to leave college and nervous to enter the working world, both emphasized that confidence is key.

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