Marina Flowers (Pronouns: She/Her/Hers) was not always involved with student outreach. However, after transferring to CSUSM from community college, she has created and hosted her own featured events on campus.

Flowers is a third-year literature and writing major and women and gender sexuality studies minor who is actively involved with the Gender Equity Center (GEC) in the USU. Her responsibilities as a peer coordinator include creating events that are sponsored and hosted by the GEC.

Flowers tends to focus her events on ecofeminism, the political movement that combines both environmental and feminist ethics. Recently, Flowers held the Sustainable Menstruation event where people were able to discuss the stigmas regarding menstruation as well as how to live a more sustainable and cost-efficient life as a person who menstruates.

Flowers believes that the events that the GEC hosts are important because it is a form of “grassroots activism”, creating a change locally that will later spread to a bigger audience. The events create a discussion, get people involved and spark a dialogue between students, faculty and staff on campus.

Flowers said “the events the GEC hosts bring diverse educational topics to people who don’t have the privilege, resource or ability to discuss community outreach.” Flowers has already planned her events for next semester which are centered around Earth Week and Women’s Herstory.

For Earth Week she plans on collaborating with the other centers inside the USU to discuss environmental racism and how to live as a sustainable person of color. Flowers is also combatting the normative cis-gender side of Women’s Herstory by including parents with a trans experience on what it is like to pursue higher education. Marina Flowers is a powerhouse for not only the GEC but the entire campus by educating those around her.

To get involved at the GEC, feel free to speak to the peer coordinator at the front desk. Having an interest or focus on what you would like to see at the GEC can always help but most importantly, have an open mind.