Lee University to celebrate International Women’s Week
Photo by Sydney Pressley, IWW 2020
Lee University is celebrating the efforts and achievements made by women worldwide by hosting events to honor International Women’s Week.
International Women’s Day is a worldwide event traditionally held on the first Sunday of March. This year, it will fall on March 8. According to the official website of International Women’s Day, this day is meant to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.
The campaign theme for this year is “Choose to Challenge.”
“A challenged world is an alert world. Individually, we’re all responsible for our own thoughts and actions — all day, every day,” according to the International Women’s Day website. “We can all choose to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality. We can all choose to seek out and celebrate women’s achievements. Collectively, we can all help create an inclusive world.”
Lee University is reserving an entire week to celebrate the women who are working to shape a more equal future.
March 1-5 will be filled with multiple events including Latte in the Library hosted by the LEAP office, themed chapel services and a faculty and staff reception. However, the most highlighted event for International Women’s Week is the student poster session.
“The International Women’s Week student poster session allows students the opportunity to present topics they are passionate about and highlight both the struggles and accomplishments of women,” said Julie Burchfield, coordinator of the virtual student poster session.
Students, staff and faculty can view the posters online. Posters will be judged, and the winner will receive a cash prize. The poster session award ceremony will take place at 4 p.m. on March 11 via Zoom.
“It can be daunting, and it takes time, but the experience is worth it,” said Lincoln Beavers, a Lee alumnus and former participant.
An International Women’s Week subcommittee including Dr. ChoEun Lee, Burchfield and Mary Mathias-Dickerson planned the week’s events. They are organizing the celebration around Genesis 1:27.
“At Lee, this meaningful celebration is founded on Genesis 1:27-28 [which says], ‘God created man and woman in His own image; together both man and woman are blessed.’ COVID has brought us many challenges; however, it also provided us an opportunity to explore new adventures — virtual events,” said Dr. Lee, Chair of the IWW Subcommittee. “We are grateful and thrilled to continue our Annual International Women’s Week with our Lee community. We look forward to hearing our guest speakers’ stories and our students’ thoughts on difficulties and achievements women had, are having or would have.”
Dr. Lee said the subcommittee also looks forward to seeing what students discuss with their posters.
“It’s a time to celebrate the accomplishments of women and to take a look at things that still need to be addressed — issues that still need to be addressed across our nation and across the world,” said Burchfield.
For the link to the virtual student poster session, contact Julie Burchfield at julieburchfield@leeuniversity.edu.
