St. John’s continued its celebration of Women’s History Month with a female empowering lecture titled For Women Only, featuring motivational speaker Brent Scarpo on March 27 in the Little Theater.

According to Scarpo, who has experience as an educator, producer, writer, director and casting director, the goal of the presentation was to “tell each woman how great they are from a man’s perspective.”

He added that his reasons for spearheading this event are becauase of his admiration and respect for women, which stems from his mother who raised a family of three by herself after his father abandoned them.

“In 1967, [my father] said he was going on an errand,” Scarpo explained. “We are still looking for him.”
The presentation was based on six life-lessons and philosophies he learned from his mother: invite personal growth each day; take care of yourself so you can take care of others; love care and respect yourself daily; do everything with passion; create harmony; and leave a legacy.
Many of the analogies and philosophies Scarpo presented during his speech happened to be based on stories about his life experiences.

He explained that women, especially his mother, spend so much time taking care of others that they never take the time to care for themselves.

“If you don’t take care of yourself you will be of no help to others,” said the motivational speaker.

He also discussed how many students, male and female alike, suffer emotionally because they cannot find a balance between the different aspects of their lives.

“Anyone who says they have a perfectly balance life is a liar,” said
Scarpo, “Life is about achieving harmony.”

To close his speech, he asked everyone to think about what they would like written on their tombstones and what they would not want written on their tombstones.

Scarpo said the purpose was to help audience members see what they want to achieve in life and how they want to be remembered.

Although the event was geared towards women, male audience members seemed to also enjoy Scarpo’s presentation and perspective.

Student David Schulman felt the speaker offered practical aspects that men could learn from.

“The ideas he put forth are useful because they empower women and give advice to guys on how to appreciate women more,” said the philosophy major.

“[Scarpo] did a really great job connecting with both male and female audience members.”