By Briyah Paley

Freshman journalism major Christina Peaslee has a tattoo of a Chinese character on her lower stomach that means courage. She has her reasons. Peaslee is the first person in her family who is going to college and although the Wareham, Mass. native received a hefty scholarship to attend Northeastern, she is paying for the rest of it by herself.

“I busted my butt [in high school],” she said. “I maintained a 3.9 average and joined every club.”

Although she could have taken an easier route and chosen to go to a community college, Peaslee felt she deserved to go to a private school. When she was notified of the scholarship, she was relieved that she could afford to go.

“I wouldn’t go to a school where I would have too pay so much back,” she said.

In a story in the Chronicle of Higher Education on Dec. 5, it cites that women have outnumbered men in undergraduate institutions since before 1980, and their presence on campus continues to grow.

There are university programs that help women with their priorities so that they can earn a degree and still do all the other things women do,” said Institutions of Higher Learning spokeswoman Pam Smith in the article.

The U.S. Department of Education anticipates women will outnumber men by almost 30 percent in 2002. Such is not the case at Northeastern, but it is close. The full-time undergraduate enrollment at Northeastern is 14,144 – 7,144 men and 7,000 women. The alumni ratio isn’t nearly as close. Of the 148,621 alumni of NU, 95,417 are men and 53,204 are women.

“There is a nationwide trend for women to seek higher education in greater numbers,” said Smith.

“Standards today are higher for women, and I think that it’s up to every female to prove the old standards wrong,” says Peaslee. “Every woman should try to exceed the standards that are placed on them.”

Peaslee’s family is in the pet food distribution industry, and her

father works for the family business. He never had to attend college. Her parents met when her mother was in high school, and Peaslee was born shortly after her mother’s eighteenth birthday. Her mother wanted to go to an art school but she decided to open her own pet store instead.

Peaslee’s dream to go to a good private university began when she was very young.

“I always wanted to do something different. School was something I was good at,” she says.

Peaslee’s boyfriend, Ray Montminy, knew from the start that she was going to college.

“Nobody really wanted her to go except for me. This is the best thing ever for her and she’s going to get her one wish, to become a journalist,” he said. “I’m proud of her.”