On September 24, members of Central’s Girls Learn International Club attended the Ambrose Women for Social Justice Conference at St. Ambrose University. This year’s theme was War, Peace, Gender, and Justice. The conference had three sessions with several lectures and roundtable discussions each. According to the conference’s webpage, the goal of the conference was “to give participants the opportunity to use gender as a lens to discuss issues of war and peace and to give them the tools to seek justice locally and globally.” The goals of the conference include providing attendees with ways to seek justice in their community and world.

Senior Monifah Potan said “My favorite part of the conference was the speaker at the end. I liked her because she said that when you don’t judge people, you learn a lot more about them. You learn to be more open, understanding, and compassionate.”

This year’s keynote speaker was Liberian activist Leymah Gbowee, a 2011 Nobel Peace prize laureate. She is also the recipient of the Gruber Prize for Women’s Rights and the Community of Christ International Peace Award. She has written a memoir called “Mighty Be Our Powers” and is one of the subjects of the documentary “Pray the Devil Back to Hell.” Gbowee was the leader of a nonviolent peace movement by women that helped to end the Liberian Civil War. Both Muslim and Christian women banded together to pressure the government to take steps to restore peace.