On March 27, 2018 the Center for International Programs held the International Women’s Forum event. This was a very special event as four International women students from SPC Clearwater Campus were the stars and speakers of this event. As always, the CIP accompanied the event with exquisite food, on this occasion sandwiches and fruit. This one-hour event was dedicated to discussing challenges facing women and gender imbalance around the world. Miss Angela Cole (International Student Representative) contextualized the issue and presented information about the status of women worldwide.

Did you know?

• Gender inequality is a major cause and effect of hunger and poverty: it is estimated that 60 percent of chronically hungry people are women and girls. (Source: WFP Gender Policy and Strategy.)
• Research indicates that when more income is put into the hands of women, child nutrition, health and education improves. In South and Central America, rural children are about 1.8 times more likely to be underweight than their urban counterparts. Other regions do not fare much better.

The first student to share her experience was Ms. Ronelia Bailey, who is currently doing her Associate in Arts and is planning to transfer for her Finance Bachelors. Ronelia talked about her home country Trinidad & Tobago, and she mainly talked about some wonderful women that were born in Trinidad & Tobago. Secondly, Miss Maria Novoa Pinzon shared her story as an international student from Colombia, she is also doing her Associate in Arts and she is transferring to be a psychologist. Maria shared her personal experience with gender imbalance in Colombia and in the United States, and finished with a motivational conclusion. Thirdly, Ms. Margherita Tibaldo is an international student from Italy. She is doing her Associate in Arts and is planning to transfer for her Fine Arts degree. Margherita spoke about some gender imbalance statistics in some countries compared to Italy. Then, she shared some Italian women of history and concluded with her experience regarding her admiration for the women in her family. Finally, Ms. Van Boi Le compared gender imbalance in the United States and Vietnam. She shared really interesting facts about Vietnam because Vietnam is one of the countries with greatest gender balance in the world. Miss Boi Le is in the EAP program at SPC and is planning to do her Associate in Arts and wants to study astronomy.

Thank you for all the students that participated in this forum. Thank you for the international student speakers and thank you to the Center for International Programs to give this space to share the importance of women in the world!