Friday, November 30, 2007

thinkBIG in the Stanford Daily

The Stanford Daily has written an article about thinkBIG in today's edition of the Daily:

Students thinkBIG for event: Group plans conference on women’s health
November 30, 2007
By Patrick K. Fitzgerald

In the fall of 2005, a group of students emerged from Human Biology Prof. Anne Firth Murray’s sophomore seminar on international women’s health and human rights stunned by what they had learned. The students had considered themselves reasonably well-informed about the issues but were “blown away” by how dire the circumstances are for some women worldwide and how little attention has been drawn to the issues.

Then they decided to do something.

Two years later, their efforts are being realized in a “BIG” way. Registration kicked off this week for the thinkBIG conference on international women’s heath and human rights, which is set to be the largest student-run conference in Stanford history and will take place Feb. 1-3.

Its organizers do not intend for the conference to preach to the choir. They are targeting students regardless of gender or academic background in an effort to raise awareness about the issues facing women in the developing world and inspire a generation to take action.

“We want to get everybody involved, from the doctor to the diplomat to the check-writers of tomorrow,” said conference chair Lee Trope ‘08.

The conference will focus on four primary issues: Education, HIV/AIDS among women, reproductive health and violence against women. Each issue will have a keynote speaker and two panelists, boasting a who’s who of activists in the field, including Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland, and Stephen Lewis, former UN Special Envoy for AIDS in Africa.

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