The relentless hassle of leaving the warm confines of bed and scrambling to make it to class on time is part of every University student’s life. Finding the motivation to take notes and study for tests can be daunting at times, but students often take for granted these academic nuisances.
Across the globe, young people — especially girls — would love to be presented with the educational opportunities that are the norm for Americans. Student organization Feminists in Action and community organization Girl Warrior are teaming up to raise awareness for the inequality of girls’ education around the world.
FIA and GW will host a screening Friday evening of filmmaker Richard Robbins’ recent documentary “Girl Rising” in correlation with International Day of the Girl. Courtney Brandabur, founder of Girl Warrior and psychology junior, said International Day of the Girl is a day of recognition and awareness for the plight that many young women face.
“Day of the Girl is a day that’s dedicated to recognizing girls’ awesomeness basically, and it’s especially for recognizing the issue of global education for girls,” Brandabur said. “Currently, out of the 130 million children not in school, 70 percent of those are girls. That’s for a lot of different reasons — whether it’s because they live in a society that doesn’t value them as men or they are simply kept out of school entirely because their parents don’t think it’s a good financial decision to invest in them.”
She went on to cite that impoverished countries are the ones that benefit the most from educating girls.
She said the organizations Girl Rising and 10×10 are attempting to raise awareness of this issue globally by promoting screenings of “Girl Rising” around the world to educate the public as well as garner government attention.
Brandabur said governments play a pivotal role in granting equal educational opportunities. Governments that offer voucher programs for children statistically achieve higher female enrollment in schools.
The film “Girl Rising” tells the stories of nine girls from different countries and their experiences trying to receive an education. Brandabur said one story in particular has stuck with her.
“There’s one segment about — I believe she’s a coalminers’ daughter and she’s in Peru — and she talks about how she’s really motivated by her dad’s belief in her to become, I believe in her story, she’s trying to become an engineer. And she works near a brothel … it’s super fascinating to see that she recognizes that if she doesn’t invest in her education, she might end up next door,” Brandabur explained.
To prepare for the event, Brandabur and FIA have been actively campaigning on campus to raise awareness as well as asking students to write down why education is important for girls. Brandabur has been snapping photographs of the participants and their answers to make a collage to unveil at the film screening. She said she encourages students to attend the “Girl Rising” screening because it can help open eyes to how privileged students can be when it comes education, which isn’t a basic human right in many countries. Awareness of an issue can lead to the solution, Brandabur said.
The “Girl Rising” screening will take place in the Dodson Auditorium at 7 p.m. Friday. The event is free and open to the public.
“There’s one segment about, I believe she’s a coalminers’ daughter and she’s in Peru, and she talks about how she’s really motivated by her dad’s belief in her to become, I believe in her story, she’s trying to become an engineer. And she works near a brothel…it’s super fascinating to see that she recognizes that if she doesn’t invest in her education, she might end up next door.”

Gallery • 4 Photos

Charles Champagne

LSU phsycology junior Courtney Brandabur takes a picture of Ashley Engemann Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2013 for her opinoin on feminsism for her upcoming documentary on The Day of the Girl.