    EXHIBIT
    WOMEN OF COLOR
PROFILES IN ACHIEVEMENT

EDIT THIS PER EXHIBIT ---In this exhibit you can explore the different phases of Solitude’s history. We begin during the period when this place was indigenous land, and go on to explore its history as a slave plantation in the nineteenth century.

ASIAN, INDIGENOUS, AND LATINX WOMEN ON CAMPUS

The journey that Black, Indigenous, and women of color (BIWOC) have taken over the past century hasn't been smooth sailing. The struggles that Black women have faced have been very different from other women of color from (but not limited to) the LatinX and the Southeast Asian communities. The exampes below are evidence that international students and lighter-skinned women of color were accepted into Tech's community earlier than Black women. 

Carmen Venegas, date unknown

Yvonne Rohran Tung, 1950

Carmen Venegas and Yvonne Rohran Tung paved the way for other women like them, challenging white supremacy at VPI through their successes as students. 

Carmen Venagas broke barriers as the first known woman of color to study at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, joining in 1935. 

She immediately immersed herself into the community at Virginia Tech, joining the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, where she was the only non-white, female member, as well as the Short Wave Club, where she had the opportunity to train students in basic radio operations. In 1937, Venegas helped the Short Wave Club create a high power, multi-frequency transmitter used in international communication. 

Carmen Venegas pictured in the Short Wave Club

Short Wave Club, 1937
  
 Carmen Venegas picture sitting (bottom left) 

Carmen Venegas pictured amongst the VT Chapter of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers

VT Chapter of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers 

Carmen Venegas pictured in front row, 2nd from the left

Venagas became a pilot and went on to own an airplane in Lynchburg. After her very successful career as a student, she aided the Army Air Corps during World War II. Later in her life, she married and moved to UCLA, where she studied art and music. She lived out her days as an engineer who expressed herself artistically through dance and song under the name Carmen Lesay. Venegas is also widely known as the first Latin American woman to earn an electrical engineering degree in the United States. 

Though there were Chinese men like Cadet Cato Lee that made a lasting impression on VPI, the first Asian woman was a woman by the name of Yvonne Rohran Tung. She was a resident of Hong Kong and graduated from Virginia Tech in 1950 with a degree in horticulture. She was described as outgoing and unafraid of immersing herself into student life. 

Yvonne Rohran Tung pictured with the Cosmopolitan Club

Cosmopolitan Club, 1950 

Yvonne Rohran Tung pictured in 2nd row, 2nd from the left

Click HERE to learn more about Cosmopolitan Club.

Tung was an active member in VPI's Cosmopolitan Club. Students from, or interested in, countries beyond the United States reestablished the group in 1947 and allowed men and women to join. Tung was pictured proudly smiling in the 1950 Bugle's group portraits of the Cosmopolitan Club, the Horticultural Club, and the Baptist Student Union.

Yvonne Rohran Tung with the Horticultural Club

Horticultural Club, 1950
 
Yvonne Rohran Tung pictured in 2nd row (from the front), 4th from the left

Helen Maynor Scheirbeck

UNC Wilson Libraries

Helen Maynor Scheirbeck (Ed.D., '80) was an American Indian activist, education researcher, Senate staffer, Smithsonian director, and maybe the first Native woman to receive her doctorate from Virginia Tech. 

She was born in Robeson County, North Carolina as a member of the Lumbee, the largest state-recognized tribe east of the Mississippi River. After graduating from Berea College, she worked for the National Counciil of American Indians, helped push the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 through Congress, and worked to implement War on Poverty and Head Start programs in Indian communities across the country. In the 1990s, she left the Head Start to direct public programming for the National Museum of the American Indian. Throughout her career, she worked towards "Indian control," in which Native people have full authority over educational resources in their pursuit of self-sufficiency.

Scheirbeck's research with VT's College of Education concerned equitable, long-term access to federal and other funding that had often varied between tribes. After graduating, she encouraged other Native people to pursue graduate degrees of their own at Tech. Her colleagues Richard Salmon and David Alexander remember her as a quiet and funny woman with a house full of family. In her own words, "I'm just a little old Indian woman who is working hard for Indian people." 

MORE OF THIS EXHIBIT

Chiquita Hudson, Marguerite Harper and Linda Adams, 1966 .jpg

INTRODUCTORY NOTE 
 FROM THE AUTHOR

BLACK WOMEN AS VPI STUDENTS

BLACK WOMEN AS FACULTY AND STAFF

EMBRACING BLACK BEAUTY

CONFRONTING RACISM AND MAKING COMMUNITY ON CAMPUS

OTHER EXHIBITS