Joelle Emerson
Joelle Emerson, a junior from Tucson, AZ, can attest to the fact that sometimes we never know our true ability until we are put to the test.
As director of Take Back the Night 2006, Joelle took on the huge task of organizing USC’s annual campaign against sexual abuse while coordinating more than 50 student volunteers over several months, participating in various campus activities and keeping up with the academic demands of a double major and a minor.
In the end: the event turned out to be one of the finest Take Back the Nights USC has known.
“Directing Take Back the Night was, without a doubt, the most rewarding thing I've ever done,” says Joelle. “It taught me that I can accomplish anything that I set out to do.”
It was “one of the best and most well-attended Take Back the Night programs I've ever seen,” adds women’s rights pioneer Diane Rosenfeld, the event’s keynote speaker.
The significance of the event was eye opening for Joelle, who is majoring in political science and sociology. “It became immediately clear how important this event is when more than a dozen people stood up to tell their stories,” she explains. “So many people who had previously felt ashamed or [guilty] for their assaults stood up and identified themselves as victims.
“Without the event, I don't know if these people would have ever had the space and support to speak out.”
Take Back the Night has served as a stepping-stone for Joelle, who is pursuing a minor in law and society. Executive board member of the Women’s Student Assembly (the group that puts on USC’s Take Back the Night), she was just named the organization’s next associate director.
“I can’t wait to come up with new and creative ways to bring women’s issues to the attention of students at USC,” she says.
A USC ambassador, Joelle was also recently elected president of the Blackstonians pre-law honor society. In addition, she is a member of the Association of Trustee and Presidential Scholars, the Phi Kappa Phi and Alpha Lambda Delta honors societies, and the Panhellenic sorority Kappa Alpha Theta.
Upon graduating in May 2007, Joelle plans to go to law school to study public interest law.
“I really love the support that I get from the members of the Trojan Family,” she says. “And I love knowing that wherever I go there will be other successful Trojans working around me!”