Megan Myers, assistant professor of Spanish and affiliate faculty in the U.S. Latinx Studies program at Iowa State will be heading the discussion for this Friday’s Margaret Sloss Women’s Center’s Feminist Friday.

Her discussion is titled “The Mariposa Foundation and the Girl Effect.”

The Mariposa DR Foundation Center for Girls is an international organization whose goal is to empower females across the world and end generational poverty, particularly for women and young girls.

The Girl Effect is described by the Mariposa Foundation website as “the missing and transformative force needed to change the future of humanity.”

“I’m talking about the foundation itself, but more than anything essentially this model, this ‘Girl Effect,'” Myers said. “It’s essentially based on the idea that by educating an adolescent girl, you can stop poverty before it begins.” 

By speaking on this topic, Myers will be opening a discussion for this idea of the Girl Effect as a “modern-day social movement.”

“There are some things that are connected to the Mariposa Foundation that people don’t realize about the historical context of the Dominican Republic, […] for example the International Day of Violence Against Women, on Nov. 25,” Myers said.

The International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, designated as such by the United Nations, was chosen to honor the three Mirabal sisters who were assassinated in the Dominican Republic in 1960 under the Trujillo dictatorship.

“I thought that I would talk about my own personal experience working with this really neat organization, […] this innovative non-profit that has this girl-centered program design, which I think is really unique.”

Myers has graduate degrees in Spanish and Hispanic Literature, and her background focuses heavily on Latinx studies, particularly in the Dominican Republic. She is also the co-founder of Border of Lights, which brings people to the border of the Dominican Republic and Haiti to commemorate those lost during the 1937 Haitian Massacre.

Myers’ Feminist Friday discussion will be held at 1 p.m. in the Margaret Sloss Women’s Center.