Students Honored With Women of Color at Penn Awards

Ph.D. candidate Shaquilla Harrigan (left) and College junior Nicole Harrington (right) are among the recipients of the 2022 Women of Color at Penn (WOCAP) Awards. WOCAP hosted its 35th annual award ceremony with a virtual celebration in March.

“For more than three decades, Women of Color at Penn has served to remind us of the remarkable work so many women of color perform across and really in every context of our daily lives,” said Interim President Wendell Pritchett, who delivered opening remarks. The award ceremony, he said, is “an important reminder because, while their efforts may sometimes go unremarked, they should never ever be unappreciated.”

Nicole Harrington, C’23, GR’24, grew up in Philadelphia. College “was a rough transition,” said the neuroscience major. “It felt like I was never doing enough, I was never proving myself and proving that I really belonged in this institution.”

Harrington is currently taking an Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) course through the Netter Center for Community Partnerships, which “has just absolutely transformed my college experience,” she said. Within the course, Harrington and her classmates are mentoring local high school students, discussing social injustice in Philadelphia, and proposing solutions. “Being of service physically and intellectually has helped me mitigate those feelings of inadequacy,” she said. “This class made the connection for me that learning and action go hand in hand.”

Shaquilla Harrigan, the graduate honoree from Winder, Georgia, is a Ph.D. candidate in sociology and was a 2019-20 Perry World House Graduate Associate. Harrigan, who serves as chair of the Graduate Sociology Society and volunteers with an organization for African and Caribbean immigrants and refugees, hopes to collaborate with others in the Penn community to work for justice. “It’s really an honor to do this at Penn and to be in Philadelphia, considering the legacy of W.E.B. DuBois and so many other Black activists in this area,” Harrigan said. “I hope to carry on their legacy.”

“Let us remember,” said Colleen Winn of the African American Resource Center, that “one book, one pen, one student, one teacher, one act of service can change the world.”

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