A collaboration between student organizations Empowerment, Men Serving Others, Campus Ministry and several individuals will bring Marquette its first InPowerInPeace week. The week of   programing is designed to uplift those seeking personal empowerment as well as encourage discussion and meditation around campus.

This is the first collaborative event week being put on between multiple student organizations, said Elizabeth Owen, a freshmen in the College of Arts & Sciences and an event spokesperson. She said group members from the participating organizations will work together to lead discussions as well facilitate programming.

“That’s one of the things that makes this event so unique,” Owen said.

InPowerInPeace week will encourage students to reflect on and pursue personal empowerment. Each day of the event will have a focus on one empowerment topic: individual, social, economic and spiritual.

The event, which will take place next week, will begin on Monday with informational tabling in the Alumni Memorial Union, which will continue throughout the week.  A Simple Dinner followed by a round table discussion about empowerment issues will take place on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Henke Lounge. Wednesday will feature a showing of the documentary “Awakening: Empowering Women through Microloans” in Cudahy Hall at 8:30 p.m., and the chapels in Straz, Schroeder and Mashuda will host an evening of meditation and prayer on Thursday starting at 9 p.m.

InPowerInPeace week began as an idea for a one-day spiritual program to take place in Straz Tower’s chapel. Further discussion and interest led the founders to expand InPowerInPeace week to a campus-wide week of programming.

InPowerInPeace week also focuses on building a sense of community and camaraderie among Marquette students by encouraging discussion and reflection.

“It is also important that individuals maintain a community perspective.  We have to realize that, though our individual daily struggles are personal and unique, they are all part of the universal struggle for human empowerment,” said Aaron Owen, a junior in the College of Health Sciences and a co-founder of the event. “Marquette students will benefit from the renewed realization that they are not alone in their struggle, and that their struggle for personal empowerment is valid.”

Elizabeth Owen, who has helped promote InPowerInPeace week, said she hopes the event will inspire students who participate.

“Once people come to these events and become active participants in these conversations, they’re going to realize how relevant this is to their own lives,” she said. “I can’t see any individual not taking something away from this week.

“Empowerment is something that touches everyone,” she added. “It’s something that is necessary to every individual — men and women alike.”