Educators for Today

Whether heading initiatives for literacy at the basic adult education level or serving as the heads of universities and colleges, the following profiles initiate the long roll of educators and students to be honored by Woman Up, America! 

Mev Miller, Ed.D.

Mev Miller saw a need, acquired the degree and skills, and now devotes her life to fulfilling the vision and values of the organization WE LEARN, which she founded in 2003. Included in those declarations: “We believe that women’s literacy and basic education are key sites for social change and building inclusive movements.”

Read more about Dr. Miller and the organization she founded: Women Expanding Literacy Education Action Resource Network (WE LEARN)

Jill Ker Conway, Ph.D.

Despite her Australian birth, Dr. Conway’s matchless legacy comes as an American scholar, university administrator, historian and author. Her impact on women’s education during her decade as the president of Smith College inaugurated her subsequent writings which brought her acclaim as the foremost writer on American feminist history.

Read more on Dr. Conway’s life, work and authored books.

Courageous Girls Refuse to Abandon Their Education:

The young women in Afghanistan who risk their lives to go to school embody to an incomparable degree the meaning of “Woman Up!”

Even after horrific attacks and ongoing death threats, many students, their families and teachers throughout Afghanistan vow to remain undeterred by the extremists seeking to halt female education.

According to an article in The Washington Post in January 2009, the Afghanistan government and American-led coalitions have focused on the building of new schools and the assurance that children – especially girls – could attend. However, in certain areas of the country, the schools have become a prime target of the surging Taliban, and posters warn families: “Don’t Let Your Daughters Go to School.” http://www.newser.com/story/47856/unbowed-by-attack-afghan-girls-return-to-school.html

Last November at the Mirwais School for Girls near Kandahar, the warnings became reality when the school was attacked by men who sprayed teachers and girls with acid. The school closed for a few weeks, but the girls and families begged to reopen, town officials promised increased protection, and by January the Mirwais school was so full that classes spilled over to tents donated by UNICEF. The girls, some 1,300 in all, continue to come despite continued threats, many of them walking more than two miles from their mud-brick houses in the hills, according to The Washington Post. The most badly injured in the November attack was 17-year-old Shamsia, who expressed her defiance: “The people who did this to me don’t want women to be educated. They want us to be stupid things.”

The attacks have been renewed with mystery gas attacks at three schools that have sent more than 200 students to hospitals. Officials say that the newest attacks have had some impact on school attendance, but that “the appetite for an education” is strong. The quest is represented by 11-year-old Tahira, who said she planned to go back to school when she felt better, but that now it would fill her with fear. "I'm going to be scared when I go back to school. What if we die?" the fifth-grader said.

http://in.reuters.com/article/email/idINSP43483520090520

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/12/afghan-girls-apparent-poi_n_201975.html