Student Woman of the Year: Jade Moorse

Jade Moorse, a third-year student at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, was recently named the Student Woman of the Year at a banquet there.

The Linda Larson Commission for Women awards banquet began in 2002.

Three award categories ­— Student, Faculty and Staff — were added in 2011. The banquet was held at the UMD Medical School campus.

The award is for UMD medical students only. “I had no idea I was going to win,” Moorse said.

“I didn't even know I was nominated for the award until I got an email.

Then I was just like 'Is this real?'”

Moorse is in two programs at UMD; The Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program, and the Public Health Education and Promotion in the Applied Human Services Department.

In winning the award, Moorse received an engraved plate that reads: 2018 Student Woman of the Year winner.

Moorse's mother Wendy Vierstraete, grandparents Linda Moorse and Mike Moorse, and her aunt Lisa were all in attendance for the awards ceremony.

The criteria for being nominated for the award is a student who shows outstanding contributions to the continuing of improvement of women's experiences at UMD specifically, as well as the community at large. Moorse has been involved in a myriad of programs while attending UMD.

She is involved in Women's Resource and Action Center (WRAC), Accountability Assistant-Minnesota Public Interest Research Group (MPIRG), Secretary of the State Board of Directors-MPIRG, Events Coordinator-Feminist Conscious United, Sexual Assault Advocate Program to Aid Victims of Sexual Assault (PAVSA), member-Student Advocates for Choice, member-Queer and Allied Student Union, and member-Feminist Action Collective.

Moorse also won two Arrowhead awards at a banquet on April 8 for being a leader of student organizations on the UMD campus.

She was recognized by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion's Multicultural Center Student Award for her work in MPIRG, an advocacy organization on campus and statewide where she is on the board of directors.

Moorse was also recognized by WRAC where she interns.

Moorse’s school year ends the first week of May and she has few jobs lined up in Duluth working at an assisted living facility, and as an orientation leader for the Office of Students in Transition at UMD.

“With the orientation leader, I will get to facilitate all of the new students coming in the fall,” she explained.

After that, Moorse is unsure what she will do upon graduating next year.

“I do know that I will go on to study for a Master's degree in Feminist Studies and a Master of Public Health,” she noted.

“I will likely go outside of Minneota because much of my work that I plan to do would be around advocacy of social and economic justice.”