This past Friday, November 30th, TEDWomen, TedX Club, and the Gender Equality club partnered for a day-long event taking place in the ICI. Students had a chance to stop by and listen to various women speak about their powerful experiences.

Type One recently had a chance to interview Ariella Bernick, who is a member of the Gender Equality Club. She said, “I got involved with the gender equality club because it is a fundamental club that not only teaches life lessons but current events that people our age should be aware of daily. I honestly always felt passionate about the principle of equality and fairness for all genders, and joined the club as soon as I could.”

As gender equality presents pressing issues, Bernick stressed the importance of raising awareness and openly talking about gender equality. “I think it is important to raise awareness about gender equality because we need more people in this world to stand up for what they believe in and truly feel included in society no matter what gender they are.  The phrase “feminism” in our club is defined as equal rights between all genders. We want people to know that we strive to educate about the importance of empowering women because there is clear evidence of gender inequality in this world, and we strive to fix this by spreading knowledge on the subject to other people.”

Ariella is a part of both the Gender Equality Club and the TedX Club. On Friday, she monitored a couple of the discussions that took place throughout the day. She said, “I hope people get a better perspective on the topics that will be discussed at the TedX because, in our modern society, these issues have a bad reputation for no reason at all.  I think Ted Women will be an amazing experience for the student body and truly will have the opportunity to learn new information and appreciate women as a whole.”

Bernick has enjoyed her involvement in the club and encouraged others to join. “I really enjoyed discussing current events in the club because you get a large variety of perspectives and facts that you did not know about a topic. This is not only interesting but safe, because it is in a great environment.” She also states that joining the Gender Equality Club is beneficial “because it’s interesting and empowering to hear everything that’s going on in the world. It is mind-blowing that we can influence people‘s thoughts on gender equality just by discussion, definitely a club worth going to.”