By Nicole Weinstein

The founder of Circle of Sisterhood, a foundation that advocates for girls’ education, spoke about the importance of educating women around the world at the Stamp Student Union on Sept. 27.

Founder Ginny Carroll presented to a group of about 200 sorority women in the Grand Ballroom to raise awareness for her foundation.

Carroll explained how the foundation fights to remove barriers for women and that it works with over 260 sororities across the nation to provide opportunities for young girls to get an education.

“I was inspired to create this foundation after I saw the video “The Girl Effect” and read the novel “Half the Sky,” Carroll said. “The video and novel showed me how girls all around the world were still being suppressed of getting an education and how that affects them. I want to raise awareness about the brutal truth affecting girls and women worldwide.”

Carroll said the foundation works to raise money and awareness to build schools, buy books, hire teachers, fund scholarships and supply school uniforms, desks and electricity in over 22 countries.

There are currently 66 million girls in the world out of school today, which makes them more likely to live in poverty or get sold into sex trafficking, where they can contract HIV and become addicted to drugs, Carroll said.

Katie Karayianis, a sophomore psychology and neuroscience major said, “The biggest takeaway I learned from the presentation was that women are currently still being oppressed and are not able to get an education. It is crazy to think this is still a prevalent issue going on today, and it is our responsibility to help women get an education.”

The Circle of Sisterhood foundation works with other organizations such as Girl Forward and Love146, which work to save girls from unwanted circumstances and give them an education, Carroll added.

“I would be interested in being an ambassador through the university in the future to raise awareness about this foundation,” said sophomore engineering major, Amanda Loubnan. “It’s a really important issue for us to understand that women and girls in other countries do not have the same educational rights that we are fortunate enough to have.”