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Show ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT 5 provide new take on Life 101 RACHEL ROBERTSON STAFF REPORTER Presenter Dana Allison fields questions from students in the audience. Allison, a Canadian native and founder of Womens World Health Initiative, gives her speech on women inclusion on a global scale. PHOTO CREDIT Rachel Robertson Student Activities Commission held their first Taboo Talk of the school year the first week of September. Taboo Talk is a new title for the Life 101 lecture series that SAC puts on every year. for the With a new face-li- ft SAC decided to series, try and take its lecture event in a different direction this year. They have stepped out of the normal issues and taken on globalized problems in hopes to broaden awareness of other topics. The first selection was Dana Allison, the founder and executive director ofWomens World Health Initiative. WWHI is a non-proorganization focused on womens health and reducing maternal and infant mortality in Senegal. Allison is a proud Canadian, who graduated from the University of Chicago with degrees in political science and public policy. She also graduated from the medical program at the University of Utah. Her passion is to help empower vulnerable communities. Sarah Himing, junior market-in- g major and SAC member, was in charge of selecting a speaker. She had a goal in mind to expand the Taboo Talk series outside of the classical topics that were norfit mally covered. I wanted the change of Taboo Talks to change to a global outlook, Himing said. And this speaker worked out perfect Allison gave a presentation titled Unfinished Business: The , Case for Female Inclusion on a Global Level in Jewett Center of Performing Arts and Emma Ec-cl-es Jones Conservatory. The audience was comprised of students them all separately. Jarrell Whipple, senior, had a dify from the presentaferent tion than Williams. He challenged Atake-awa- llisons model. Nothing she proposed seemed possible without first educating these women that the male society they already outwork are their equals, not their superiors, Whipple said. Unfortunately, you cannot do that without uprooting their culture. A question arose from the audience, what can college students do about this? How would students be of assistance when they dont have the financial means to donate to a charity like WWHI? There is power in this room, Allison said. Gather a group of likemind-e-d people and do something about it So many great things can be done and Westminster community members. The presentation highlighted the idea of, why women? Why invest in the worlds women? Allison shared, according to the World Health Report of 2005, only 16 percent of women can control their body in third world locations. Allison proceeded with the fact that one woman still dies nearly every minute of every day from treatable or preventable complications related to pregnancy in these areas like Senegal. This is a human rights issue, Allison said. The present day philanthropic model isnt work- - through technology cheaply. n Allison went on to give an example in of a The presentation made an group of students at Stanford who collectively created a successful busiargument based on a two-ste- p process to fix the current philan- ness plan of philanthropy and brought thropic problem. The first part it to life with the help of an established of her plan was that there cannot non-proorganization. be any sustainability if there is no Himing, who made the speaker selection for SAC, was pleased with profit in the outcome. The second prong consisted of the entire night. My takeaway is that a where the development money I was proved that the students who are in this position will try and make a should be donated and distributed. Allison described this step as change for the better, Himing said. I horizontal integration and called thought it was great Students and the Westminster for consolidation and efficiency. She did a good job explaincommunity can catch the next Taboo ing how the different sectors are Talk in November on drugs and all in relation to each other, said Hannah Williams, junior economics major. And how we cant save fit |