Mission Statement
The purpose of Les Femmes de Substances is to foster a sense of community and leadership within the Black female population on Cornell’s campus. Through educational experiences and programs, Les Femmes strives to create women of substance, who will make every effort to give back and build up their surrounding communities.
The mission of Les Femmes de Substances is as follows:
- Les Femmes pledges to reach out to first year women, to aid them in their transition into the Cornell community.
- Les Femmes pledges to host events that pinpoint issues that women of African descent face within the Cornell community and beyond (i.e. Ebony Mixer, Desserts of the Diaspora, etc.)
- Les Femmes pledges to educate women on how they can attain leadership roles.
- Les Femmes pledges to take a critical look at the disunity on campus in the form of the Annual Black Women's Retreat.
- We will take a set number of women off campus, where they will participate in workshops and social events that teach essential skills that foster success in all future endeavors.
- Les Femmes pledges to give Black women on campus all of the tools necessary to become women of substance.
Highlights of Recent Activities
The 2012 Ebony Mixer -- The Ebony Mixer is a pivotal event directly aligned with the mission and purpose of LFDS. The Ebony Mixer combines networking and sisterhood in an amicable and productive atmosphere. It is an event especially designed for the benefit of incoming freshmen women and transfers to the Cornell community but all are openly encouraged to attend and participate. This is the perfect chance for upperclassmen women to give their advice and share their knowledge with the incoming freshmen very early in the fall semester. We aim to answer any and all questions that freshmen women may have in regards to succeeding at Cornell while maintaining their physical, emotional, and mental health. The latest Ebony Mixer was themed, Finding the Keys to Success: No Search Goes Unguided. We facilitated small-group rotational discussions on five topics: professional development, celebrating your individuality, time management, campus and academic resources, and personal self care in Ithaca.
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The 2013 Women of Substance Retreat – This year, the 2013 Women’s Retreat was themed, Your G.P.S. to Success: Goals, Preparation, and Strategy. From January 25th to January 27th, sixty-four women of color from Cornell University gathered in Syracuse, New York at the Comfort Inn and Suites for our women’s retreat. Our Keynote Speaker, Soffiyah Elijah ‘76 shared her story of success with us while challenging the women to take full advantage of the opportunities awarded to us. Cornell alumnae, Liz Ngonzi ’98, Sudhi Trye ‘06, Nwanyinma Nnodum ‘08, Ava Danville ‘09, Amanda Colon ‘08 and our keynote, Soffiyah Elijah ’76 shared their experiences and wealth of knowledge to help guide our participants on their pathways to success.
The featured workshops this year were:
- “Climbing the Corporate Ladder”, where Angela Lee, Human Resources Director of Welch Allyn, focused on climbing the ranks within a corporation as a woman of color.
- “Personal Finance”, where Vicki Brackens, Financial Services Representative for Metlife, taught the young ladies tips on how to manage their finances post college.
- And, “Virtual Branding”, where Liz Ngonzi, Entrepreneur-in-Resident at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration, spoke with the ladies about maintaining a professional personal brand on the internet as social networking continues to grow.
Last but not least, the women took part in a number of nightly bonding activities, study periods, an African dance class taught by a Syracuse University dance team, and opportunities for reflection and rest.
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The 2013 Men’s Appreciation Banquet – This year we chose the theme, An Evening with the Stars. We chose this theme because we wanted every student on campus to experience what it would be like to attend a high-class awards show. Our event mirrored ceremonies such as the Golden Globes or the Academy Awards, with pre-show video interviews, paparazzi photographs, short reels of female students highlighting nominated each man, and celebrities from different organizations on campus presenting the awards. By allowing other minority organizations to present the awards, we afforded them the opportunity to highlight their organization’s achievements. LFDS created six different categories to recognize different achievements of men on campus.
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The 2nd Annual Men of Substance Showcase – M.O.S.S. (Men of Substance Showcase) is an annual event that Les Femmes hosts in order to raise money for our annual women’s retreat. It is a pageant-style showcase that highlights males in the Cornell community. This year we hosted our event at G10 Biotech and had six wonderful contestants who competed: Brandon Dennis ‘16, Bashir Alhadi ‘13, Noel Alexander ‘16, Ryan Christopher Boles ‘14, Brandon Taylor ‘13, and Sebastian Laguerre ‘14. The contestants competed in rounds based an opening dance number, talent, swimsuit, formal wear, and a question-answer portion. A few of our notable talent performances were: Beat-boxing which was performed by Noel Alexander, a monologue performed by Brandon Taylor, and a skit performed by Ryan Christopher Boles. Congratulations to Brandon Taylor who won the title of 2013 Man of Substance! In total we raised over $600 for our retreat and were so grateful that so many people in the Cornell community showed up to support us.
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Bi-weekly Professional Rundown – To help bolster the success of our women of substance, we implemented the compilation of a bi-weekly e-newsletter sharing diverse career related resources, opportunities, and events.
Alumni can offer support to Les Femmes De Substance by donating time as speakers on alumni panels, giving donations toward our annual retreat, sharing professional opportunities to be sent across our e-mail distribution lists, co-coordinating events with our organization, and/or suggesting fundraising ideas to better execute our professional development events. If you are interested in getting involved with LFDS, please email us at lfds.cornell@gmail.com.
- Payment by Check - Send to: Cornell University, PO Box 223623, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15251-2623. For tax credit purposes, checks should be payable to Cornell University. On the memo line of the check, or on an enclosed letter, they should specify "Les Femmes de Substance, Fund # 426926".
- Payment by Credit Card - Go to: https://www.alumni.cornell.edu/secure/giving/online_giving.cfm. Choose “Student and Academic Services" from the first pull down menu, "Other" from the second pull down menu. Enter " Les Femmes de Substance, Fund # 426926 " in the "Other Designation or Special Instructions" box.
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