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This plenary was extremely different from the other ones; very spiritual, I liked that! I enjoyed the way the speaker was telling the stories. She gave so many useful insights regarding leadership as well; the most remarkable tip that I heard is that we should be generous with our time and advice; we should listen to other people stories attentively and reflect on them.  

When I went to see the movie, I wasn’t expecting to find this huge number of students. The sight of such a number of people who are ready to say NO to sexual assault has made my day. Throughout the movie I felt nothing but fear and anger. However, I kept reminding myself that although evil is out there, good people are out there too; they are ready to listen and provide support. My heart was broken multiple times this day but the strength of the women in the movie just put the pieces back together; Those heroines are symbols of hope and perseverance. I want to deeply thank them for opening my eyes tonight and for saving me.  

I enjoyed Ms.Wendy’s speech so much. It was useful to listen to the experience of a hardworking woman who is also a mum, also a very funny person. The most significant part to me was when she said that we should start early in order to achieve our big dreams in time.  

Last week, I got to know more about terms such as gender identity, gender expression, race, ethnicity, and others. Actually, it was the first time for me to know about “gender ID” specifically. There is a whole spectrum of different genders that ranges between male and female which makes sense. Society categorizes everybody in two categories only, either male or female, and starts to define some expectations from individuals based on those two specific categories.  I think I can relate to this somehow because every now and then I decide to buy clothes of “girly” colors instead of my favorite brown, blue, and black colors just because I want to meet some society’s expectations. 

This speech was informative because it’s the first time for me to hear about this problem. I’ve never thought such things happen in US in 2015, women being denied the right to do whatever they want with their bodies, being harassed and cursed because they want to do abortion. It was good and relieving to know that there are women out there, like Lauren, dedicating their time, energy, and personal safety just to make things right.