Last Saturday, the Stanford chapter of alpha Kappa Delta Phi hosted “Encounters,” their fourth annual conference focusing on women’s empowerment issues.

Attended by sorority members from Stanford and surrounding colleges, this year’s conference sought to go beyond the sorority’s Asian-American focus and broached issues that transcend race, such as body image and women’s rights.

“In previous years, the conference was explicitly targeting issues affecting Asian American women, but this year we have broadened the focus to all women, while still making sure to address the unique position of women of color and Asian-American women” said junior Paloma Rosenbaum, vice president of service for aKDPhi.

The event began with a keynote speech by Dr. Malini Alles, who described her ascent from a repressive childhood environment in Australia to becoming a highly successful psychologist and entrepreneur in the United States.

“Today, women are not free around the world,” Alles said. “We are not free in India or Indiana. We are not free in Mexico or New Mexico. We are not free in Uganda and even in Utah.”

She continued, “The kind of freedom that I’m talking about is great and small, it is large and it is petty, it is about doing the housework, being a wife, a mother, and a professional, about balancing society’s expectations of you and you yourself. It’s about negotiating a good deal at a car dealership.”

Alles is the founder of Stree, an organization that provides health care for poor women throughout the world. In her speech, she called the audience to action, urging them to pursue their dreams with confidence in themselves.

“As women, you are the future, you are the voice of this millennium,” she said. “You have the opportunity and the power to change the role of women globally — don’t ever, ever forget that. You can and will make history, but you need to believe in yourself. You need to want it as much as men want it.”

She added, “Never endure sexism — challenge it. And never be afraid to ask for what you want and what you need.”

Sophomore Cathy Nguyen found the speech inspiring.

“It was empowering to be a minority woman and [recognize] the difference you can make,” Nguyen said.

Alles was followed by a performance by Aya de León, a spoken word artist who has taught at Stanford through the Institute for Diversity in the Arts.

De León called for empowerment and equality of women, particularly in the male- dominated field of hip-hop and for women to fight negative body images.

“One of the first ways that we get taken off our path [as women] is we get bombarded with messages about our bodies and that we should be worried about it constantly,” she said.

De León cited some of her poetry, which read, “A sick society turns women’s bodies into, eww, problems to be solved, but anorexia ain’t sexier, and bulimia ain’t dreamier, so next time you’re counting calories, don’t forget to count the thousands of years that women’s suitors thought that cellulite was, mmm, quite alright, and were ready to embrace abundance.”

After the opening speakers, there was a first round of workshops that touched on topics pertinent to women and Asian Americans.

“Some issues we want to cover are women’s safety, body image, connecting with cultural heritage, Asian Americans in the media, the double identity inherent in being a woman of color, creating positive friendships between women and the role of women in religion,” Rosenbaum said.

These workshops included a writing workshop headed by de León that addressed body image and another entitled, “Finding Strength in the Past: discovering your heritage,” which was lead by Sau-ling Wong of UC-Berkeley.

“[It] gave me some new perspectives on being Asian American” said sophomore Iesan Tsai of the heritage workshop. “There are some popular misconceptions that she cleared up for us . . . One thing I was really impressed by is that she talked about how there are some things that you might think are very annoying about your culture . . . A lot of it doesn’t have to do with race but with socioeconomic status.”

Counterpoint, Alliance Streetdance, Stanford Steppers and Stanford WuShu performed during the lunch break between workshops.

The afternoon featured a second round of workshops, followed by several panel discussions addressing current themes. These included “Asian Americans in the Media” and “Women of Color as a Double Minority.” The closing ceremony included a performance by the a cappella group Talisman.