【時報訊】以豐富聖路易多元文化，透過網站生動記錄聖路易各項族裔文化風采之網際網站「文化網遊」CultureSurfer.com創辦人Naomi Silver，三月十日接受聖路易國際婦女日午餐會頒獎，表揚她為聖路易多元文化社區所作之貢獻。對聖路易華裔社團Naomi Silver並不陌生。許多人都認識她，也看到她在不同場合中錄影訪問，。聖路易時報網站(Scanews.com)自2007年起即與「文化網遊」建立策略結盟，共同將聖路易地區中華文化風采推上國際網路，佳評如潮，Naomi Silver女士之得獎，實至名歸。
聖路易國際婦女日午餐會由聖路易婦女團體崇她社、聖路易世界貿易中心及多家婦女廠商等聯合贊助，頒獎典禮於三月十日在Chez Leon餐廳午餐會時舉行，共有三位婦女得獎，分別為Jennifer Ozimkiewicz，Dr. Cheryl Bielema及Naomi Siver。表揚她們在國際貿易、文化藝術和教育上之成就。經由婦女在個人和專業領域上之努力，促進社區繁榮、豐富文化風采，提昇生活品質，這就是國際婦女日之宗旨。
「國際婦女日」最早於1900年代開始，最初由澳洲、丹麥、德國和瑞士等國在1911年3月19日舉行，有超過100萬之婦女及男士參加活動，提倡婦女工作權、投票權、公職權，並力抗歧視。1911年3月25日紐約市大火災，140餘位職業婦女喪生，其中大多是義大利和猶太裔移民，這個慘劇使得美國開始注意勞工立法和工作環境，因而加入國際婦女日行列。聯合國則頒訂1975年為“國際婦女年”，時至今日，美國更頒訂每年三月為「婦女歷史月」慶祝婦女在各項領域中之成就。
今年得獎的三位女士，Jennifer Ozimkiewicz是孟山都公司全美第二大「DEKALB」玉米種子行銷主任，Dr.Cheryl Bielema是聖路易崇她社社長，服務密大、伊大教育界多年，成績斐然。
Naomi Silver是土生土長的聖路易人，她熱愛多元文化，積極融入族裔族群，曾擔任多位政治人士競選顧問，為族裔爭取權益。三年前創辦「文化網遊」CultureSurfer.com網站，將聖路易少數族裔各項文化表演活動，以生動的錄音錄影方式搬上國際網路舞臺。
「文化網遊」網站以聖路易多元族裔為經，以各族裔活動為緯，編織出一個豐富多元文化風采之網站，Naomi Silver制作訪問錄影帶，編輯剪接送上網路，讓全世界都能欣賞聖路易多元族裔文化風采。她的網站內容包括巴塞尼亞、拉丁裔、亞裔、非裔等族裔網頁，錄影帶內容有藝術、文化、電影、舞臺劇、音樂、文學、時尚、舞蹈、運動和政治等。目前有270支錄影帶在她的網站播放，每月點擊率超過4000人次，其中15%上網人士來自美國以外地區。
「文化網遊」網站上有關華裔之訪問錄影帶有裘小龍專訪，現代中文學校舞蹈，太極武術，童音歌唱，中秋晚會等節目，聖路易時報網站Scanews.com與「文化網游」建有策略聯盟，由時報網站即可登上「文化網遊」，欣賞華裔社區各項活動之立體報道，內容精彩生動、回味無窮。
Honorees presented at the International Women's Day Luncheon
Sponsors: Chez Leon Restaurant, Coastal Check In, L'Oreal USA, Parktown Imports, Sisley-Paris Cosmetics, Utopia Salon & Spa, World Trade Center, and Zonta Club of St. Louis
By Hazel A. TamanoMarch 10, 2008
Professional women gathered together on Saturday, March 8, 2008 to honor three women for their leadership at the International Women's Day Luncheon hosted at Chez Leon Restaurant in St. Louis. These women represented their leadership in the areas of international business, arts/culture, and education. Through advocacy, mentorship, and education women in various leadership positions continue to be an important aspect towards improving the livelihoods of women in their personal and professional lives.
HonoreesJennifer Ozimkiewicz works at Monsanto as the Brand Business Director for DEKALB corn, the second largest corn brand in the U.S. Jennifer has been with Monsanto since 1995, holding a variety of commercial management positions. Most recently, she returned from Europe where she was the Area General Business Lead for the Mediterranean region based in Madrid, Spain. Prior to this assignment, she worked in Lyon, France as the Seed and Trait Strategy and Licensing Director for Europe-Africa. She has also been a Corporate Strategy Lead, working with Monsanto's Executive Team on enterprise strategy and acquisitions. Her other commercial positions within the company have included marketing management, account management and product management. Prior to joining Monsanto, she was a Marketing Director for a small environmental services firm. Jennifer has a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Madison-Wisconsin and an M.A. and M.B.A. from Washington University. Jennifer currently resides in St. Louis with her husband and four year old son.
Dr. Cheryl Bielema, President, has been a member of Zonta International and the Zonta Club of St. Louis since 2003. She has served as Vice President, Program Chair, Yellow Rose Awards Program Co-Chair, and Area Meeting Chair. She teaches part-time in the College of Education Transition to Teaching Program at UMSL, which provides an accelerated certification for K-12 teachers in Missouri and internationally.
She works as Instructional Designer in the Center for Teaching and Learning, consulting with faculty in the integration of technology, student-centered instruction, and evaluation. She coordinates workshops in collaboration with several campus units, including Information Technology Services and Continuing Education. She assesses training programs, faculty technology use and technology-enhanced learning experiences, including a longitudinal study of blended courses using Blackboard, an online course management system.
Previously, she worked at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in Information Technology, College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, as well as in the University of Illinois Extension program. Her teaching experience is in Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Technology. Her Ph.D. in Human Resource Development and a Master's degree in Adult and Continuing Education are both from the University of Illinois.
Naomi Silver, a native of St. Louis, is the creator of CultureSurfer.com. Her years of experience as a political consultant brought her together with various ethnic communities in the St. Louis area. Her appreciation and love of the diversity of cultures in her hometown, in addition to her experiences through extensive travel, encouraged her to share her experiences with others via the internet.
CultureSurfer.com is a multi-sensory medium that encourages the understanding of our global community through video. Naomi maintains a hands-on approach to managing her site, doing everything including production, interviewing, filming, editing, and day to day site maintenance. CultureSurfer.com highlights ethnic communities and art forms. Visitors can view videos that showcase diverse cultures (Bosnian, Latin, Asian, African, and African-American) and cover a broad range of topics (Art, Cinema & Theater, Music, Literature, Fashion, Dance, Sports, and Politics). There are currently over 270 videos on the site and over 4,000 visitors per month, 15% of whom log online from outside of the United States.
About IWDInternational Women's Day has been observed since in the early 1900's, a time of great expansion and turbulence in the industrialized world that saw booming population growth and the rise of radical ideologies. Women's oppression and inequality spurred women to become more vocal and active in the campaign for change. In 1908, 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights. In accordance with a declaration by the Socialist Party of America, the first National Woman's Day (NWD) was observed across the United States on February 28, 1909. Women continued to celebrate NWD on the last Sunday of February until 1913. In 1910 at a Socialist International meeting in Copenhagen, an International Women's Day of no fixed date was proposed to honor the women's rights movement and to assist in achieving universal suffrage for women. Over 100 women from 17 countries unanimously agreed on the proposal. Three of these women later became the first women elected to serve on the Finnish parliament.
Following the Copenhagen decision, International Women's Day (IWD) was honored the first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland on March 19, 1911. More than one million women and men attended IWD rallies campaigning for women's rights to work, vote, be trained, hold public office and end discrimination. However, less than a week later on March 25, 1911 the tragic 'Triangle Fire' in New York City took the lives of more than 140 working women, most of them Italian and Jewish immigrants. This disastrous event drew significant attention to working conditions and labor legislation in the United States that became a focus of subsequent International Women's Day events.
On the eve of World War I campaigning for peace, Russian women observed their first International Women's Day on the last Sunday in February 1913. In 1914 rallies were held across Europe to campaign against the war and to express women's solidarity. In 1917 on the last Sunday of February, Russian women began a strike for "bread and peace" in response to the death over 2 million Russian soldiers in war. Four days later the Czar was forced to abdicate and the provisional Government granted women the right to vote.
From 1918 to 1999 for decades, IWD has grown in strength annually. For many years the United Nations has held an annual IWD conference to coordinate international efforts for women's rights and participation in social, political and economic processes. 1975 was designated as 'International Women's Year' by the United Nations. Today, organizations and governments around the world continue to observe IWD annually on March 8th, and is a recognized official holiday all throughout the world. The United States has even designated the whole month of March as 'Women's History Month'. Great improvements have been made, and annually thousands of events are held throughout the world from political rallies, business conferences, government activities, theatre performances, and networking events to inspire women and to celebrate their achievements.
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