If you’d like to include the Women’s Center in your end of year giving, please do so here. If your contribution is already on its way, thank you!

UVA has long been a magnet for civic-minded young people seeking opportunities to build their leadership skills. As a provider of a diverse array of engaged scholarship opportunities for UVA students, the Women’s Center is a bustling hub of hands-on learning and leadership in many of the areas that today’s budding social justice advocates see as most ripe for change in their world. Body image and gender-based violence top many young people’s lists of pressing social issues, as does the need for educational and economic opportunities for women worldwide. Our students also commit their time to filling the crucial need for strong role models for girls and boys. And they learn to leverage the opportunity that the proliferation of digital communication provides for far-reaching platforms to promote positive social change.

Our counselors are known for their extensive expertise supporting college students with concerns ranging from the stresses of young adulthood to traumatic events in their lives or within their families or communities. Whether students seek counseling to address anxiety or depression or to recover from an eating disorder or sexual assault, our counselors help clients gain a powerful sense of autonomy by identifying the change that is important to them and working to make that change happen.

At the Women’s Center, students apply knowledge gained in their coursework to their service on behalf of the Charlottesville community they call home during their UVA years. Our Legal Clinic interns host pro bono attorneys for evening sessions offered to women and men facing common legal issues in areas such as housing, employment, veterans’ benefits or family law. Our Young Women Leaders Program Big Sisters and Men’s Leadership Project Big Brothers are mentoring 67 middle school kids in the area this year. While the Little Siblings gain leadership skills that will help them succeed in high school and beyond, their peers and relatives also benefit from the examples that the Littles set for making healthy decisions at home and in their neighborhoods and schools.

Students look to UVA faculty and staff for help with more than just assignments. We help the University’s employees to meet students’ needs with confidence. Where students require more support than faculty can provide alone, faculty who connect students to our resources can teach with the assurance that their students are coming to the classroom ready to learn. Faculty and staff, in turn, play a vital role in creating a University community that is just and equitable for all.