Graduate Profile: Cathy Millon
If Cathy Millon ’09 were a superhero, her power would be activism.
The Alma College alumna is an AmeriCorps*VISTA worker with the Girl Scouts of America in Colorado. She builds partnerships in the community, recruits volunteers and writes curricula for programs and events while interacting with young women.
“Our goal is to teach girls how to think, not what to think,” says Millon. “I love knowing I am helping to empower girls to fight against bullying, low self-esteem and unhealthy relationships.”
While at Alma, Millon was a sociology major and a double minor in psychology and women’s and gender studies. Though she was certain she would become a psychologist, a sociology course got her hooked on the field.
“I really delved into the studies of trends and attitudes and how that shaped behavior,” she says. “I knew I had seen inequalities in everyday life, but I didn’t know how it happened and why people let it happen.”
Prior to relocating to Colorado, Millon worked at a resource center, where she counseled victims of sexual assault. She used the skills she learned while living in the MacCurdy House, an experience she describes as “the best thing that could have ever happened to me.”
“It’s not enough to read about inequality from a textbook or feminist theory reader,” she says. “You need to go out and see it for yourself. Watching it happen is terrible, but you can learn to combat it.”
