Life > April 3, 2008

By Ellen Hart | Staff writer

On April 10, Kappa Delta Sorority will be hosting the annual Stand Up! Stand Out! event at Wait Chapel from 8-9:30 p.m. Stand Up! Stand Out!, according to its chairperson and organizer Jenny Kneezel, is a forum geared toward the empowerment of young women at the university.

“It’s kind of a chance for the women of Wake Forest to hear about how they can develop as leaders and how to achieve the best that they can in the career world,” she said.

The target audience in Stand Up! Stand Out! is primarily young women, but organizers hope that young men at the university will be able to glean something from it as well.

“I just hope that it will instill a sense of confidence in young women’s abilities to achieve success in the future and give them an opportunity just to see a really fantastic woman who has done a lot,” Kneezel said. The guest speaker for this year’s Stand Up! Stand Out! event is Stephanie A. Streeter. Streeter is the former chairwoman, president and chief executive officer of Banta Corporation, a prominent global marketing organization that focuses on printing and supply chain management.

Her accomplishments have earned her renown in her field. Streeter graduated in 1979 from Stanford University with a bachelor’s degree in political science.

At Stanford, she excelled on the women’s varsity basketball team for four years, and she was elected captain her junior and senior year.

Streeter will also be the independent director on the United States Olympic Committee until 2010.

This is not the first time Kappa Delta has hosted Stand Up! Stand Out!

“It’s an important aspect of Kappa Delta to promote a certain aspect of self confidence and leadership among its members and other women,” Kneezel said. “We just really value strong leaders and women who can succeed in the professional world.”

Stand Up! Stand Out! is a national event hosted by many sororities countrywide and provides a forum for young people, primarily women, to discuss the negative effects of peer pressure and social attitudes towards their future. This may include, according to the organization’s website, “alcohol abuse, hazing, low self-esteem, sexual promiscuity, pressure to overachieve.”

“When Kappa Delta joined with Zeta Tau Alpha to create Stand Up! Stand Out!, we hoped that it would become a women’s movement, a nationwide opportunity for college women to become empowered and stand up against negative peer pressure,” Melanie Schild, executive director of Kappa Delta Sorority said.

“Now with 24 national sororities banding together, with a combined collegiate membership of over a quarter of a million women, the campus culture can be changed.”

Stand Up! Stand Out! aspires to create optimism and confidence among the university’s entire community, and also to offer solutions to combat the things that work against success.

“I hope that people are inspired to become their best and look for opportunities that are unique,” Kneezel said.