Last February 6-7, 2006, the 6^th Young Women’s Leaders’ Congress sponsored by the Consortium of Women’s Colleges (CWC) member schools was held at Miriam College.  This year’s theme was entitled, “Democracy in Everyday Life” with the Honorable Riza Hontiveros, Congress Representative of the AKBAYAN partylist and a Scholastican, Ms. Luz Martinez, Program Associate of the Women and Gender Institute and Ms. Jeannie Manipon, a professor from the International Studies Department of Miriam College as guests.

An open forum was conducted to entertain queries of the students.  This was followed by the introduction of the Student Only Space (SOS) concept facilitated by the advocacy center Babaeng Aktibong Indibidwal (BAî).  The delegates were randomly clustered and a student facilitator was assigned for each group.  The results of the group discussions were shared during session. 

On the second day of the congress, three workshops on peace and conflict were facilitated by the Centre for Peace Education (CPE): “Conflict Resolution” by Jamie Uy, “Challenging Prejudice” by Dr. Loreta Castro and “Creative Non-Violence” by Dr. Jasmine Nario-Galace.

Mr. Carlo Garcia, together with the Institutional Network for Social Action (INSA) team, taught and encouraged the delegates to ponder on and recite repeatedly the mantra “Happiness deep within and all around me is what I’ll get when I share and serve.” 
Mr. Castro discussed “Service-Learning” and encouraged each group to explore and share their ideas about the topic.  Afterwards, representatives from the member schools presented a showcase of their respective service-based programs.  The day culminated with the distribution of certificates. n