 I'm now going to introduce the president of the Women's Law Society at Roger Williams University School of Law, Andrea Stalin, and she will announce the winners of our RBG essay and artwork contest. Andrea grew up in Boulder, Colorado and graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder. Currently, Andrea serves as the justice for all development editor of the Roger Williams University Law Review and serves as the president for the Women's Law Society. Additionally, she's a student board member of the Rylan Women's Bar Association. Throughout her three years of law school, Andrea has held several internship and externship positions, including with Chief Judge John McConnell of the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island, the Honorable Justice Long of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, Rhode Island Legal Services, the Committee for Public Counsel Services, and Moses and Ryan. She has not been busy at all. Andrea will graduate in May and has accepted a judicial clerkship with the trial court in Rhode Island. So thank you. Good evening and thank you, Jodi. It's my pleasure to introduce the winners of the RBG K-12 essay contest. These students submitted artwork or essays illustrating how Ruth Bader Ginsburg has inspired them. We'll start off with the high school winner, Avery Blase, who's in ninth grade at Mount St. Charles Academy. Avery, would you like to come up to the podium and read your essay? I stand on the starting line at the track at New Balance in Boston. Overwhelmed, a freshman girl running up against 12 varsity boys, preparing to run as hard as I can. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the notorious RBG, probably felt a similar feeling to the one that I feel in this moment. A young woman paired against those who are mentally my equals but physically superior. It's overwhelming, maximally infuriating. She must have felt the nervous pressure weighing down on her chest, chasing impossible standards, but determined for an equal chance as any other man had. How could a young Jewish teenager growing up in a closed-minded 1940s society with twisted idealistic and unrealistic expectations on what it meant to be a woman? She grew through education, using it as a weapon in a male-dominated profession, becoming the well-renowned justice that we know in Charlotte today. She was able to rise above the scrutiny of a young woman abandoning the idea of a nuclear family for Harvard Law in later Columbia, where she graduated first in her class. She became a top student in her 1954 Cornell class. All the success, without the support of her older sister and mother, whom she lost before graduating in high school. Attorney Bader Ginsburg challenged the letter of law, winning five major Supreme Court sex discrimination cases when she was the project litigator for ACLU. She impacted the world that I live in. She allowed marginalized people to be spoken for and was an advocate for equal rights. She impacted the rights I had even before sitting on the Supreme Court. She allowed, she knew how it felt, to be looked down and expected less of, all because of the fact she had ovaries. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Columbia graduate, one of America's most renowned feminists was once a 14-year-old girl. All this because she had the same will to chase the same chances that were afforded to men. RBG once said, when I'm sometimes asked when there will be enough women on the Supreme Court bench, I say, when there are nine. People are shocked, but there'd be nine men and nobody would ever have raised a question about that. She was once me. To me, RBG is a goal. She is an inspiration and a hero who paved the way for the next generation of Americans. No matter the gender or race, everyone shares a responsibility to protect the Constitution, all of the rights reflected in it. My feet lift off the track and I begin. Failure was not an option for her, so it will never be an option for me either. Thank you. Thank you, Avery. Next, our middle school winner is Reese Slorenko, a sixth grader from Segway Institute for Learning. Reese, would you like to come up and read your essay? Why don't you sit right here? Five things you care about, but do it in a way that will need others to join you. That's the famous quote of a woman named Joe Griffin at Ginsburg, who was the first Jewish woman and the second woman to serve on the US Supreme Court. Born March 15th in 1933, she led the fight against gender discrimination and successfully argued six cases before the US Supreme Court. Reese Bidding Ginsburg was a passionate woman who fought for equality and justice and is remembered for her past-breaking opinions on major issues such as women's rights, voting rights, and health care. She believed that all people should have equal rights, but her work to achieve equal rights for women was the focus of her career. In the 1979 case, she challenged the notion that girls were less fit to serve on the court. Reese Bidding Ginsburg explained to 2009, women belong in all places where decisions are being made, including juries. It shouldn't be that women are the exception. She also championed these five laws to support gender equality, the Equal Play Act, Title IX, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, the Alien Medical Leave Act, and the Really Led Better Care Pay Act. This inspired me because soon at my school, I would be a sixth grade community leader, and the bravery Reese Bidding Ginsburg had as a leader is like an example of what I have to achieve as well. Community leaders are students who are selected to be the voice of the students and speak for the students and what they all as a collective believe in. Reese Bidding Ginsburg has shown me what you need to be able to do in order to be successful in the role as a leader. Another way to choose an inspiration is the fact that even though she was sick with colon cancer, she kept working as a Supreme Court. Reese Bidding Ginsburg had her first experience with cancer in 1999 when the doctors discovered colon cancer at an early stage by accident because of an unrelated abdominal injury. Ten years later, when she was undergoing regular screenings, doctors discovered pancreatic cancer and removed part of her pancreas and spleen. This is inspiring because although she was sick, she never stopped fighting for what she believed in and what she felt was better for the world. It tells me that even if something bad is going on in my life, I should still be true to my role as a community leader. In conclusion, Reese Bidding Ginsburg has inspired me and the entire world with her bravery and perseverance. Although she's not with us anymore, she'll always be remembered for her accomplishments to make the world a better place. Reese Bidding Ginsburg is such an inspiration on people who will take over roles as types of leaders, including me taking up the most community leaders. To me, she's a symbol of hope and perseverance and it's just inspiring me to keep pushing on. Thank you, Reese. And last but not least, winner, Misogyn Vipa Caron, a fifth grader from Woodridge Elementary School. Do you like to come up? Equality for all people. Ruth Bidding Ginsburg inspired me because she fought to change old laws that treated men and women unfairly. Real change, introducing change happens one step at a time. Women belong all places where digestion are being made. It shouldn't be that women are the expectation. Thank you all for your submissions to the RBG essay contest. We truly love looking over all the submissions each year. And I want to thank the Women's Law Society for all they did not only to support the RBG contest in the voting, but also to support this event. So thank you. I'm going to pass it back over to Jodi to close out our evening. Congratulations to our winner. That was lovely. Thank you so much for all the school children who participated. I really enjoyed hearing your essays and seeing the drawing. That's so wonderful. I would just like to quickly acknowledge the hard work of a few people who made this event possible, including Chelsea Horne, of which nothing would be possible without her here at the law school. The members of our wheel steering committee and of course our generous sponsors, and of course, Professor Sack and Director Hidalgo. Thank you so much for joining us tonight. We have a reception just outside immediately following right here in the atrium, so please join us for some food and for drinking. Thank you all so much for coming.