AWARDS
Outsatnding Feminist Alumni H
adori Bukle and Rula Thabata quickly became superstars at the Women’s Resource Center. Director Patricia Boyett credits them with helping her build the center from a small office with two student interns in 2015 to a thriving center with 30-plus student staff members each semester that now runs like a company. Just one year after their graduation, they are already making significant impacts in their communities. Ms. Bukle and Ms. Thabata also became close friends and have continued that friendship even though they now live hundreds of miles away from each other. WRC Associate Director of Special Projects Delaney Harper, who worked closely with both Ms. Bukle and Ms. Thabata, was thrilled when they jointly won Outstanding Feminist Alum. As Ms. Harper noted: “Rula is a person whose presence is so powerful and so radiant that she challenges everyone in the room to be their best selves. Hadori’s guidance and mentorship to myself, along with many others at the center, has left me feeling like a more confident and prepared woman. She offers enough support to allow us to advocate for ourselves as she proudly watches us from the sidelines.”
rula Thabata
R
ula Thabata served as the Associate Director of Programming when she worked at the WRC. During her time at Loyola and beyond, Ms. Thabata has worked on policy and equitable changes for women and working people in Louisiana. She was a student representative on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee since her sophomore year. She then interned as a research assistant for the Institute for Equity and Equality in Education, and she advocated for equal opportunity as part of Students for Education Reform. She has interned with Emerge Louisiana, and the Louisiana Supreme Court’s Judicial Administrator’s Office. Ms. Thabata studied abroad in Ireland and was an Ignacio Volunteer in both the international program in South Africa and Urban Immersion program in New Orleans. For her efforts, she was awarded the 2017 Outstanding Sophomore Student Leader, 2018 Rev. Matteo Ricci, S.J. Diversity Award and 2019 Janet Mary Riley Award for the Advancement of Women's Issues. She was also one of two recipients of the Ignatian Award for Outstanding Senior, the highest honor a university grants to students.
After graduating from Loyola University New Orleans in May 2019, where she finished magna cum laude with a political science major and minors in Middle East Peace Studies and Sociology, she became a fellow in the public policy project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights She began working on national campaigns surrounding education, the Census, and racial justice. Upon returning to New Orleans, she worked on political campaigns for state representatives. As she is passionate about community and equitable care, Ms. Thabata accepted a position as an admission counselor at Tulane University where she focuses on diversity, equity and access. A brilliant student with a passion for civil rights law and public policy, she plans to attend law school in the near future. The WRC’s Associate Director of the Writing Team, Grace Riddick, considers Ms. Thabata deeply deserving of this award. As Ms. Riddick asserts, “Rula Thabata worked relentlessly for the betterment of the Loyola community as an undergraduate. Now an alum, Rula brings the same persistence and empathy to others in the New Orleans community. Rula is always there to help others and her feminist ideals have made, and continue to make, the world a better place. Rula has become a feminist inspiration to many, myself included, and she will certainly leave you with a fiery passion to make your mark on the world and help others in need.”
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