By JORIE MEIL – Students from Indiana and Marion Center high schools, along with members of the community, attended the annual ATHENA luncheon. Friday, February 9 marked this year’s ATHENA luncheon. This year’s luncheon was a Women in Leadership forum.
IHS ATHENA members as well as girls from other leadership clubs in the school attended the luncheon at Rustic Lodge.
ATHENA is a female leadership club that has chapters all over the country. ATHENA empowers girls to do good for others. The clubs are based on a leadership model composed of eight distinct tributes: Living authentically, learning constantly, advocating fiercely, acting courageously, fostering collaboration, building relationships, giving back and celebrating. ATHENA organization members use these as bases for their activities and projects.
At the luncheon, attendees had the opportunity to meet women in leadership positions throughout the community. The tables were arranged so that participants were paired up with women who had similar career interests. There were tables for business, medical fields, education, politics and government, and many more.
Club co-president Jannah Farag commented, “This year’s luncheon was an important event for women in our community. During the luncheon we discussed topics like women in leadership positions.”
The winners of this year’s ATHENA awards were invited as speakers. This year’s speakers were Ms. Haley Pazder and Dr. Laura Helmrich-Rhodes. They both spoke about finding career passions and how to take the first steps towards those respective careers. Co-president Allie Coker said, “I thought that this year’s speakers were very inspirational and very kind while organizing.”
The IHS ATHENA Club organized and hosted the luncheon for the first time this year. The annual event was previously hosted by the junior high ATHENA club. The high school club adviser Mrs. Malinda Oesterling organized the event along with club members and officers.
Sophomore PR chair Alyssa McLaine stated, “The ATHENA luncheon this year went extremely well. The two speakers gave excellent advice to the students that they could apply to their future, and all the attendees seemed to enjoy themselves.”
This year’s ATHENA leadership forum luncheon was a great success thanks to the dedicated girls and women who worked to put the event together. The luncheon gave the high school girls a great way to make connections and meet established leaders in their communities.
[Photo by Heather Cable]
Photo Caption: “ATHENA officers planned and attended the ATHENA luncheon. From left to right Allie Coker, Jannah Farag, Arianna Goodyear, Jorie Meil, Alyssa McLaine, Liz Evanick, Mrs. Malinda Oesterling.”
