International Women’s Day is celebrated every year on March 8 as a day to remember the fight for women’s rights.

Some Eastern students also see it as a day to celebrate the inspirational women in their lives.

Sharelle Fletcher, a freshman health communication major, said she does not wait for International Women’s Day to celebrate women.

“I celebrate it every day,” Fletcher said. “Us women can be in power 365 days of the year.”

She said the woman who has had the biggest impact on her is her mother.

“Your mother always has to be the first one,” Fletcher said. “I look up to my mother a lot.”

Fletcher said she also looks up to some women she follows on Instagram.

“I know they highly advocate for black women and embracing our natural beauty, such as hair and no makeup,” Fletcher said. “I really find that to be very inspirational.”

Ashlyn Price, a sophomore management major, said each year on International Women’s Day she is reminded of all the accomplishments women have made.

“I mean we weren’t allowed really to work, and we can work now, and we can do a whole lot of other things like actually leave the house instead of just clean and stuff,” Price said. “I mean there’s obviously room for improvement other places and here still, but we are farther than where we have been.”

Price said she understands women are given more rights and freedom in America than women in other countries, but she wishes there was more equality, too.

“There’s still some men that believe women can’t do everything they can, which obviously is not true,” Price said. “We can do anything we set our minds to.”

Price spent a majority of the day with her Delta Delta Delta sisters, who she said she looks up to.

“They are all so strong,” Price said. “I mean we can put our minds through anything; it just shows how strong all of us are.”

In addition to her sorority sisters, Price said her mother is her biggest role model.

Celeste DiBuono, a freshman special education major, said the day reminds her of her belief that women run the world.

DiBuono said her mother and her older sister are two women she looks up to the most.

“They are just strong women, like seriously just good role models,” DiBuono said. “My mom raised me the way I am and showed me the ways of life. My sister … basically just gave me the rundown of how to get through college and everything, and also showed me the way of life.”

Outside of her family, DiBuono said she found a friend group from Campus Outreach that she also looks up to.

“They should me a really positive outlook on life and definitely changed my ways of seeing life and how to get through college,” DiBuono said.

Lexi Claerhout, a sophomore special education major, said she was celebrating International Women’s Day by spending time with her sisters in Alpha Gamma Delta.

“They have a huge impact on my life and they’re great people to always have my back and just help me through life,” Claerhout said. “I know that in the end they’ll still be there and they’re great women to look up to in many different aspects; they all have their own thing.”

Like Price, Fletcher and DiBuono, Claerhout said her mother and stepmother are her biggest inspiration.

She said all of the women in her family are admirable because she comes from a military family and has seen how the women in her family are affected when their husbands and children are deployed.

“Seeing that impact and seeing how strong they stay for everyone else has definitely motivated me because I know I have to stay strong through everything,” Claerhout said.

Another woman Claerhout said she was inspired by was a neurologist she had who moved out of state.

“I looked up to her a lot,” Claerhout said. “She definitely had a huge impact on my life; she helped inspire me with where I want to go in my career.”

Hannah Shillo can be reached at 581-2812 or hlshillo@eiu.edu.