Each spring, each Panhellenic chapter shows up ready to compete for first place in a Panhellenic-wide dance competition known as the Sisterhood Showcase. However, this event goes far beyond simply a dance competition. In one night, Tennessee Panhellenic makes a lasting impact worldwide, raising money for Panhellenic’s national philanthropy, Circle of Sisterhood.

Circle of Sisterhood is an organization dedicated to removing educational barriers for women around the world, giving women and girls facing poverty and oppression the opportunity to attend school and receive an education. Their main mechanism for achieving this is financial resources, providing these communities with everything from donating school supplies to funding school builds to make education accessible for young girls and women who otherwise may not have had the opportunity.

Gender-based educational inequality is not an isolated issue. Seventy percent of out-of-school youth are girls, and women make up two-thirds of illiterate adults. It is estimated that 15 million girls will never enter a classroom.

For young girls, these statistics have grave consequences. Child marriage, human trafficking and gender-based violence are just a few of the oppressions that undereducated women are more likely to face. It becomes a cycle: When young girls become victims of child marriage and human trafficking, they are prevented from receiving an education, and without education, women are more vulnerable to becoming victims of those same institutions that keep women away from education to begin with.

Circle of Sisterhood is dedicated to ending that cycle.

But a mission like this can’t be done alone — it’s a collective effort requiring time, money and commitment. That’s where our community at the University of Tennessee comes in, where our own Panhellenic Council has been Circle of Sisterhood’s top donor since their partnership began in 2013, bringing the Volunteer spirit to Circle of Sisterhood’s mission.

Tennessee Panhellenic has made a variety of contributions to advancing Circle of Sisterhood’s efforts. They help provide funding for scholarships, teachers, service treks, grants and many other necessities for providing communities with adequate education. One of the major ways they accomplish this is through their annual spring philanthropy event, Sisterhood Showcase, an event that raised $85,000 for Circle of Sisterhood in 2025 alone.

Through their partnership with Circle of Sisterhood, Tennessee Panhellenic raised enough funds over the past four years to build a school in Senegal, and, this May, Tennessee Panhellenic women will be traveling to Senegal to help lay the foundation for another school build — a school with over half a student population of girls.

So while Sisterhood Showcase may seem like it’s a night for girls to come out and have fun while engaging in some friendly competition — and don’t get me wrong, it still is — it is also so much more than that. It’s an event where all of the women in our Panhellenic community can come together for a shared purpose: breaking down these educational barriers that affect so many women and girls around the world. Because as long as any woman is facing inequality, all women are facing inequality.

All of us at the University of Tennessee share one thing: the privilege of receiving an education. While it may not always feel like it, only an extremely small percentage of the world shares that same privilege. Globally, less than 7% of people have some sort of college degree. The percentage shrinks even more when only considering women.

But a degree goes far beyond just being a piece of paper. It is a pathway towards a life that is truly your own. Education gives women the autonomy to control their own destiny, not letting their future be dictated by the socioeconomic position they were born into.

Through the Circle of Sisterhood’s contributions, women are handed the reins to take charge of their future.

Flannery Lemmonds is a sophomore at UT this year studying advertising. She can be reached at [email protected].

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