The Strength of a Foxcroft Girl

莱斯特在福克斯克罗夫特大学读大三时发现了她对建筑和设计的热爱. “It was like, wow, what is this? This is very interesting. 我们只是在谈论环境，该做什么，以及如何拯救它. 我在那堂课上度过了最美好的时光，它开阔了我对设计的眼界. It opened my eyes to creating spaces for people. 所以我在那个时候决定，我想去大学学习建筑.” 

After taking an eight-hour entrance exam, 莱斯特得知，她是从参加肯塔基大学建筑学院考试的400名学生中选出的80名学生之一. “(这)是一个变化……不是因为我从一所170名学生的学校转到了一所只有30名学生的学校,000; that didn't faze me. What fazed me was the day I got to that school. 我和其他80名被录取的学生一起坐在第一堂课上，其中有8名女性. Eight. Ten percent of the people they had let in were like me.”  

That was when she realized, ”... no matter what I do or how well I work, I'm always going to stand out, 他们可能会因为我是八个女孩中的一个而对我有偏见. Is that fair? No. But did I learn to deal with it? Yeah. 我希望像你这样的人将来能更容易地进入建筑学院.”

“我想说，上大学，意识到我们经常谈论的力量, the strength you gain as a Foxcroft girl, will carry with you wherever you go,” she continued. “你可能直到35年后才意识到这种力量是什么，或者它给了你什么, 但是那种力量——福克斯克罗夫特帮助我了解了我的声音，给了我说出自己声音的信心——让我坐在那个80人的班级里，被72个男人包围着，然后说‘我能做到’.’ I can do this just like anybody else. 有趣的是，在那80个人中，到年底，我想我们只剩下了55个人. 这就是有多少人一年都没能从建筑学院毕业. Only one girl left; the rest were guys.” 

After college, 莱斯特在接下来的20年里沿着她曲折的职业道路走下去, 从在一家设计住宅和礼拜建筑的小公司免费工作，到为Charlotte Russe设计零售空间, Gap Inc., and ultimately her current position with New Balance. 

她还谈到了她更多的个人经历，比如暂停她的事业来建立一个家庭——”... 这是我一生中最有意义的经历，也让我明白了抽出时间休息一下没什么大不了的. My career was still going to be there.——以及她在旧金山青年联盟(Junior League of San Francisco)的志愿者工作等. “If you take anything away from this, please take away that whatever you do, your time, your treasure, whatever you're willing to give back, means something. It means a lot.”

In closing, 她与学生们分享了以下智慧和建议, “福克斯克罗夫特是你未来生活的缩影. 你们中没有人会有相同的旅程或职业道路，也不应该有相同的经历. 记住，除了适合你的，没有正确的道路. You can take time off; it's okay to do that. It's okay to make your family your choice. Get a mentor. Find your tribe. Find those groups of people who hold you up, male or female; it doesn't matter. Be a mentor to someone. 让别人来找你麻烦，让福克斯克罗夫特的女孩来找你麻烦. Set the path and always give back.” In that vein, 她做的最后一件事是把两双新百伦鞋送给了两个随机抽取的非常兴奋的女孩!

伊丽莎白的演讲开启了一个充满激励学生的上午，由校友们主持，他们慷慨地抽出时间，在十几个分组讨论中分享了他们职业道路上的个人故事. These women, representing classes ranging from 1985 to 2016, hail from a variety of fields, including civil engineering, software engineering, fashion finance, news anchor and film producer, marketing, entrepreneur, DEI coordinator, author, travel content creator, and med spa owner. 
 
学生们参加了两个会议，毫无疑问，他们学到了很多关于离开福克斯克罗夫特后生活的可能性. 感谢抽出时间的杰出女性，也感谢组织这次活动的机构推进办公室.