A sense of awe and gratefulness floods over the Little Theater during advisory in honor of International Women’s Day, while three women spoke of their experiences. All eyes are drawn to the three women as they share their stories.

Bringing women of different backgrounds, ethnicities and each with a unique mind of their own, speakers shared stories of their hardships as women. From economic struggle to social inequality, the audience was captivated. These speakers included Paola Paez, from Costa Rica; Maria Fernanda Rivero Perez, from Bolivia; and Sneha Gullapalli, from India. Along with the help of Mary Stamey, who is from Kansas, as a mediator.

Topics were brought up through questions that the panel members discussed.

“There were a couple charged questions, I would say, about abortion or wage gap,” junior Ella Bahr said. “You could tell everyone had an opinion but no one was being hostile. Everyone listened to each person’s perspective and internalized it.”

One of the “charged” topics discussed was immigration. Gullapalli talked about her family’s concern with her safety and that she’s scared to go back to India over break. Gullapalli believes that being able to move freely between each country should be allowed.

“Immigration is a fundamental right,” Gullapalli said.

Being able to hear the panel allowed students to realize that topics that they hear about in the American culture aren’t just predominate in our culture.

“There are issues everywhere and it kind of gives us a perspective that America isn’t the only place that has these issues,” junior Riley Taylor said. “Also, me being a white female American, my issues are not going to be as bad as theirs so it kind of opened my eyes a bit.”

Sitting through the panel it became obvious to those who attended that being an American, we take things for granted.

“That we take a lot of things for granted here,” junior Riley Taylor said, “like where they’re from they don’t have maybe the best education systems or family dynamics and here it’s a lot better than what they have and they really appreciate that and I feel like we don’t as much as we should.”

Students who attend the panel left feeling empowered.

“I think just believing that I can do what I want and that I can do anything and like my gender shouldn’t have anything to do with it and just that I can be a strong independent woman,” Taylor said.