Friday, March 28, the College of William and Mary’s chapter of The Women’s Network hosted its second annual High Tea and Hats event in collaboration with the Society of 1918 and the Center for Student Diversity. The event was an opportunity for non-male identifying students, faculty and alumni to mingle and network. The mood in the Alumni House was set with classical instrumentals, individualized tea cups at each seat and an elaborate buffet of high tea finger foods, such as cucumber sandwiches and a variety of biscuits.
TWN Vice President Rachel Oduntan ’25 originated the idea of a tea party as a networking event.
“Everybody dressed up nicely in their little Sunday best, wear a little fascinator, if they have one, and just come and mingle with students, faculty, alumni,” Oduntan said. “Because I think students may feel intimidated to just casually interact with faculty.”
TWN President Catherine Bare ’25 shared how the organization was able to build upon their relationship with the Society of 1918, a group committed to growing the leadership and philanthropy of the College’s women and an avenue for alumni engagement. The Society was able to help pay for the event through a grant dedicated to activities that engage alumni.
“They’re a very involved alumni women’s organization, so we knew they kind of already had that piece of wanting to give back to the William and Mary community and help students,” Bare said. “They were a really great choice for us to be able to grow our alumni connections and be able to provide that to students where there’s a lot of hoops sometimes to jump through.”
TWN’s mission is to create a supportive, non-competitive networking community. However, creating such a network can be difficult because approaching conversations with alumni and faculty is a daunting task for many students.
“You’ll have the odd student who’ll be comfortable just talking to anybody, but a lot of people are a bit shy and reserved, and made me feel like, when would be the appropriate time to actually engage with these members of our community,” Oduntan said. “So I thought this was a great way to just bring everyone together.”
To further inclusivity, the CSD joined this year’s event as a collaborator. This addition was particularly helpful in allowing the team to market to a wider audience and generate a larger attendance than the previous year.
Organizing an event with so many collaborators and moving parts made planning a year-long process. The team brainstormed ideas in the fall and ran the event in the spring to coincide with Women’s History Month.
Brainstorming included discussing the student performance section of the event, which celebrates non-male students’ contributions on campus. This year, acapella groups Passing Notes and Tribetones were able to perform after the opening speech as a prelude to the rest of the afternoon.
Tierra Key ’25 attended the event and performed her own poetry during last year’s event. Key shared how she felt empowered by the chance to share her art, and her appreciation for the event as a returning attendee.
“When I saw that it was coming up again in the emails and everything, I was like, I’m definitely going because it’s such a cute event,” Key said. “It’s so dainty and girly and I love that.”
With the circular seating arrangements and elegantly spread decor, the environment provided an atmosphere to encourage conversation starters and bring students, faculty and alumni together under the common experience of high tea. To further facilitate conversation, organizers laid out icebreaker activities such as bingo cards for attendees to learn about each other, both professionally and personally, in a low-stress environment.
Raffle tickets were also distributed for participants to enter to win self-care goodie bags and CSD swag bags.
Lela Davis ’26 spoke on her thoughts as a returning attendee and a casual member of TWN at the closing of the event.
“I’ve been following The Women’s Network for a while, so I was excited to join again,” Davis said. “It was lovely — great networking opportunities, everyone was very nice, delicious food.”
Approachability and accessibility were both key factors in making this event successful, and in the framework of TWN as a whole.
“We’re a very entry level organization that anyone can join: any academic major, any career interest,” Bare said. “We don’t have dues, and so we try to really remove all barriers to entry to the organization so that you can show up to one event, you can show up to five.”
Professional development is a strength that the College advertises heavily, boasting its strong alumni network and encouraging students to take advantage of the career-building opportunities on campus. TWN hopes to continue working to make that ideal a reality.
“We just want to be a resource to everyone on campus, no matter what field they’re in, to be able to develop professionally and build that community during their time here,” Bare said. “I think we recognize that some people just come in with a natural advantage, and some people come in a natural disadvantage for professional development. So, removing any of those barriers is super important to helping everyone get on the right footing to move on to succeed professionally however they want to.”
CORRECTION (04/02/2025): Article was updated by the Standards and Practices Editor to correct Rachel Odunton’s title of Vice President.
