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WomenNC’s fourth Annual CSW Student Fellowship Dinner Forum proved to be an inspiring evening for the 180+ registered guests at NC State University Club. This event was an opportunity for local WomenNC supporters, including non-profits, business leaders, academicians, government officials, and students to witness the outcome of the WomenNC’s signature Student Fellows’ Research and examples of North Carolina “best practices” that they would share on the global stage.
The five 2013 Fellow’s presentations focused on the UN’s 57th CSW Priority Theme: “…status and programs to eliminate violence against women and girls”.
Each student gave us a unique perspective on different elements of violence against women and girls, comparing local, national and global status. Although these unfortunate topics are often difficult to grasp, it was motivating to sense the passion exuded by WomenNC Fellows and progress being made by several North Carolina programs. For complete research papers and presentations, see the CSW2013 Fellows webpage.
Deborah Holt Noel, producer and host at UNC-TV, honored us as our illustrious emcee. She spoke of the importance of becoming aware and engaged in community issues and underscored the significance young leadership development. Bobby Moody, set the tone of the evening, serenading us with his mellow saxophone and accompanied WNC Advisory Board Member, Slater Newman, PhD, as the audience joined in the hail to “Ratify CEDAW”.
Thanks to our event sponsors including UNWomen-NC Chapter, AAUW Raleigh, ForceConcepts, The News & Observer, NCWomen United, Ipas, Women Business Owners Network (Cary), and several individual supporters. In-kind donations were provided by Core Catering and printers DocuSource of NC and GraphicMaster.
We are most appreciative of many attendees who took the challenge to “make a difference” with their tax-deductible contributions to WomenNC’s Go the Distance Campaign to assist WomenNC in sponsoring NC university students for 2014 CSW Student Fellowship Awards. For details, regarding this year-long campaign, please see the Donation webpage.
An integral part of WomenNC’s Fellowship program, is when the students return to share their “Reflections of CSW” at regional university and community speaking forums. We look forward to their role as WNC Fellow Alumni, whether as post graduate mentors and speaker representatives, or undergraduates, encouraging colleagues to apply for future CSW Fellowships. Many WomenNC Alumni continue to be involved in our local leadership training and advocacy programs. We take an active role communicating with our cadre of Fellowship Alumni; there is no better spokesperson of our mission than our Student Fellows. This experience will affect these young adults for a years to come.
WomenNC will start recruiting for the 2014 Student Fellowship Program in August 2013.
