International Women’s Day seminar, an event held by Girl Up, in years past has been a full-day event centered around women coming to share their experiences and stories. This year however, club leaders are having to rethink the event due to rule changes.

The event has taken place for the last four years, bringing speakers to New Trier. The all day event would have speakers scheduled every period to share their life stories, and teachers could bring their classes to each seminar.

The recent rule changes made it so Girl Up’s seminar can no longer run as it did before. The administration has always had a rule that clubs could not hold all-day events, as “full days are reserved for district-wide initiatives,” said Student Activities Coordinator Stacy Kolack. 

In years past Girl Up was allowed to bypass the rules, but this year, for consistency’s sake, they are no longer allowed to. According to Kolack, if one club is allowed to have a full-day event, then all clubs could argue they should be allowed one, and there is not enough time in the calendar to allow every club to hold a full-day event.

The new plans will be less focused on speakers, and more about bringing light to issues facing women around the world. Like previous International Women’s Day events, the club is still expecting to host speakers. Instead of having all speakers come on one day, they are planning to host three women over three club meetings to come after school and talk about their life experiences and careers. 

Senior Grace Ryan, a co-head of Girl Up, said the club members are disappointed with the new rules, but are excited to find a new way to hold the event. 

“It’s sad that we’re missing that, but I think what we’re doing instead is also good,” Ryan said. “There’s more engagement opportunities for the club members, because we’re going to be doing research on many different women, and [members] are gonna be able to focus on a topic they’re passionate about.”

The club is designing posters with pictures and information of important women including Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Rosalind Franklin, and Marsha P. Johnson. Posters will also be made with information about issues many women face, such as the pay gap, women in STEM, rights of women of color, and more.

Girl Up is an international organization, created by the United Nations (UN), with a mission to create a generation of women who push for gender equality and social change. Founded in 2010, it was made to help UN agencies that work for adolescent girls. Today, Girl Up has over 5,600 clubs in 130 countries.