A new group has recently emerged on Houghton’s campus, going by the name of Deborah’s Daughters. Described by Dani Johnson as an “emerging support group for women in leadership”, the group was created for female students on campus whose vision of their future involves being leaders, in a ministry capacity or otherwise. Johnson, an assistant in Career Services, and Dr. Sarah Derck, an assistant professor of Old Testament, along with sophomore student Carly Congilosi (’16), founded the group in November of last year, and currently serve as the group’s primary leaders.
The group grew out of discussions between Johnson, Derck, and other women in the Houghton community about the need for increased encouragement of young women “who want to either go into professional ministry or want to be leaders in some respect,” Johnson said. When explaining the inspiration behind the group, Derck cited Johnson’s “idea to network women on campus,” as “it can be a very isolating thing to feel a call as a woman.” The two recognized that, for female individuals, leadership is often complicated by traditions or views that limit women’s involvement in this capacity, and desired to create a safe, supportive environment where women can explore their potential in this area.
Things started out small, with Derck emailing a short list of female students, Congilosi included, about their interest in working to get the group off the ground. Congilosi stepped up to the challenge. When asked about her beliefs concerning women’s involvement in leadership and ministry, Congilosi replied that she’s “always believed that they should.” Said Congilosi, “I wanted to be involved in a group that supported that… the more I heard about [the group] and the more we started to develop the idea of what it was going to be, the more interested I became in it.”
From the time of its inception the group has increased in numbers to around 20 members, including Houghton College students of different years and women from the faculty, staff, and surrounding community. Meetings take place on a bi-weekly basis, rotating between different off-campus locations, and alternate between evenings of discussion, sharing, and prayer; and group activities or other events. Evenings often involve hearing from “women in our community who are serving as professional ministers in some capacity, or have a leadership role,” said Johnson; “women who have come from similar backgrounds…but have sort of pushed the envelope a little bit, and faced those struggles themselves.” Mentorship is also an important component, with mature women meeting with female students on a regular basis, to support and encourage them in their growth.
The group’s purpose, however, is binary in nature. In addition to small group sharing and mentorship, their intentions include an outward focus as well. One of the goals of the small-scale mentorship already in place is for the development of a program in which women students from Houghton act as mentors for younger women of middle or high school age, from Houghton Academy and the surrounding community. There has also been talk of future collaborations with other student groups in campus wide events focused on women’s empowerment. This future-forward vision involves men as well as women in dialogue about these issues. When talking about the group’s trajectory, Derck praised the “wholehearted support” of the group by the faculty in the biblical studies, religion, and philosophy departments and said that, when it comes time to have more public discussion about these issues, “I think there would be no hesitation in inviting male panel members into that.” She further emphasized that while the group concentrates its efforts on supporting female students in particular, the group’s collaboration with other organizations will involve both men and women in partnership together.
While Johnson, Derck, and Congilosi have headed the group thus far, the desire for it to eventually become student-led has been clear from the start. Said Johnson, “I’m trying to step back as much as I can and let it be a student-led group.” This sentiment was echoed by Derck, who reiterated that she and the other faculty and staff members involved in the group “see ourselves involved as advisors in the future in a consulting kind of way… we definitely don’t want to be in charge.” With that, the group is open to any and all female students who are interested in these topics. “This group is not just for women that are planning on going into an official ministry position,” said Congilosi. “It’s for any woman who is interested in [this] topic and also wants to lead in some capacity, or use their future vocation as a ministry.” Students interested in joining the group or learning more can contact Congilosi at carly.congilosi16@houghton.edu for further information.