Characterizing herself as an empowered female athlete, Sack said she did not realize the extent of discrimination female athletes faced outside the United States until she traveled to Nicaragua with Soccer Without Borders, a nonprofit organization that aims to promote social change.
"Women do just about everything [in Nicaragua]," she said. "Except play soccer."
Sack decided to create both indoor and outdoor spaces for girls to play the sport. Her work in the organization has enabled women to participate in historically male soccer leagues, meet the Nicaraguan national team and receive free clothes, school supplies and equipment.
Sack offered advice to students seeking to pursue service work.
"When I graduated from Dartmouth, there was this sense that you needed to sprint out the door, and go change the world," Sack said. "Relieve yourself of this notion, and use this institution to orient and inform your steps."
Sanders discussed her experience living in India and working with Voice 4 Girls, which aims to build confidence in young girls through summer camps that help improve English skills and promote gender empowerment.
She spoke of her battle to overcome gender and racial boundaries. After her uncle told her she would be unemployable as a women and gender studies major, Sanders was inspired to prove herself, and said that coming to the College was instrumental in developing as a feminist and thinker.
"My time at Dartmouth gave me the language to put into words what had been stirring up inside of me for years," she said.
Voice 4 Girls, founded by Averil Spencer '10 and two Emory University graduates in spring 2011, has grown significantly in just two years.
During the first summer camp, Voice 4 Girls partnered with 10 schools and worked with over 430 girls. By last May, over 1,000 girls from 33 schools were participating in the program.
Founding the organization allowed Sanders to become more innovative, and she addressed common issues social justice institutions face, particularly sustainability.
Sanders said she became more innovative through the process of founding the organization and addressed common issues that social justice institutions face, particularly sustainability.
"There is a space for crazies like us who want to make a career out of social justice," she said.
After surviving assault and an abduction attempt while working in Kyrgyzstan, Stoltz created the nonprofit REQ.1 and the for-profit Ploome in Philadelphia to promote creative healing and intelligent fitness in action. REQ.1 is a program for trauma survivors that meets three times a week for pilates, writing and discussion.
Participants decorate "victory kicks," used athletic shoes worn during class, to celebrate creativity and the beauty of healing.
Ellen Choi '15 went to the event to see Stoltz, "an exemplary alumna of the College."
Women and gender studies department chair Annabel Martin said that the panelists were chosen based on their connection to the department and their international social justice experience.
The panel was moderated by Dickey Center for International Understanding student programs office Amy Newcomb, and was part of the gender research institute's spring lecture series, "Seeds of Change: Gender, Scholarship and Social Justice."
