http://ozarkspub.vo.llnwd.net/o37/KSMU/audio/mp3/women-s-empowerment-festival-take-place-saturday-springfield_32675.mp3
An ideas festival aimed at empowering women and girls will take place on Saturday. KSMU’s Brittany Donnellan has details.
Saturday’s conference will run from 10 to 3 at Central High School. The event is free.
Valerie Quirk, a senior at Central, is coordinating the conference. Quirk says the festival will be a day focusing on equality and celebration with 20 different sessions catering to women and girls of all ages.
“We need to be talking about women’s issues and we need to be recognizing the successes of female leadership. Equality for women, I really think, means progress for all. For both men and women, for both boys and girls,” Quirk said.
Quirk said she was inspired to create the event after attending the Bezos Scholars Program at the Aspen Institute, which is a competitive leadership program.
Saturday’s festival is an outreach program of Girls4Good, which is an all-girls service organization that works on projects to empower girls and women in various communities around the world. Quirk also founded that organization.
Dr. Nancy O’Reilly is the keynote speaker at the event. She founded the women’s empowerment organization, Women Speak.
Ozarks Public Broadcasting is a sponsor for Saturday’s event as part of its “Women and Girls Lead” initiative. For more information, you can visit ksmu.org.
For KSMU News, I’m Brittany Donnellan.
LINKS:
Ozarks Public Television "Women & Girls Lead" Initiative Website