The week of March 17-21st, Hinsdale South participated in an International Women’s Day spirit week filled with activities, dress-up days, and fun! There was also an accompanying “Her Drive” to go along with the week. The Amnesty International club hosted this event, as they celebrate Women’s History Month every year. Throughout the week, each day had a different dress-up theme, like “Wear Pink for Pink Tax Awareness” or “Iconic Women Shirt Day.” They also made a post-it wall at lunch with highlighted students’ favorite women in their lives! Amnesty’s Her Drive was dedicated to helping the homeless population at South as well as women’s shelters with donations from the school body. Although the Her Drive outcome “wasn’t as high as we were hoping for, we were just glad we were able to spread the love for women,” said Genesis Ayala, a member of the Amnesty Club. Overall, Amnesty Club brought the South together to celebrate Women’s History Month!
Another way Hornets got to celebrate Women’s History Month this March was SHE Day, on March 19th. SHE Day is an event run by Ms. Truman, a counselor, and her counseling group Bee Fly. It is an all-female event, run by women and for women. SHE Day is all about empowering our female students and giving them the tools to flourish as young women. The event began with a round of introductions from the women panelists bought for the event. These women were from anywhere near the Chicagoland area, but many of them were in women empowerment spaces or social work. Others were successful in their careers as well as women from the community and Hinsdale South Alumni. It segwayed through an icebreaker activity into the first main session, which was a panel discussion. It came from the different men Ms. Truman interviewed about different questions relating to dating and relationships. She asked questions about relationships with older men who were teachers and young male high school students in class. The participating girls were asked to raise green flags or red flags, depending on how they felt. After each video was done, the panelists commented on what was said and prompted discussion with the high school students.
After the main session, girls got to go through three workshops. These workshops were led by panelists, as well as Ms. Tritch and Ms. Rounce. There was a healthy relationships workshop, a self-defense one led by Ms. Tritch and Ms. Rounce where they taught basic techniques from their self-defense, a yoga workshop taught by one of the panelists to let girls be able to take a break from the day and tune into their inner selves.
After everyone had gone to workshops, there was a break for lunch, and it led into the last main session called, ‘What I Wish Someone Told Me,” in which Ms. Truman read out different topics, and panelists gave the younger girls insight while they asked questions. The event is something made to be experienced and hard to describe, however, Ms. Truman describes the event as “life-changing”. Lana, a girl who participated in this event said the event “makes you feel a sense of community”. There were a lot of emotions felt during this day, but seemed to benefit many of the participants and gave lots of insight.
South did a lot to celebrate women! And we will again! Check back in March of 2026 to see the events happening then!
