“An Evening with Nicholas Kristof,” hosted by The Overlake School Monday evening, served as a forum on global issues facing women in light of Kristof’s recent book, “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.”

“The central moral challenge for this generation will be gender inequity around the globe,” Kristof said.

Kristof, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, started working at the New York Times in 1984, traveling the world as a correspondent, writing op-ed pieces and later becoming associate managing editor. He and his wife, fellow Times journalist, Sheryl WuDunn, have written three books together, including “Half the Sky.”

During his lecture, Kristof spoke of personal stories included in the book and focused on the importance of empowering women across the globe. He said it was not only a moral issue, but also a practical one.

Kristof, who attended the Global Washington’s first annual “Blueprint for Action” conference at the Microsoft Conference Center earlier that day, said that involving women in the formal economy is the most cost-effective method to end global poverty and that the female population is the greatest unexploited resource. Giving women more economic power, Kristof said, would lead to more productive financial decisions in poor households that now put a significant percentage of their income toward extraneous things like tobacco and alcohol rather than education.

While researching “Half the Sky,” Kristof traveled to Cambodia where his interpreter led him by chance to The Overlake School in Pailin. He included this experience in his book, forming a connection with The Overlake School in Redmond.

The Overlake School in Pailin formed when Dr. Francisco Grijalva, head of the school, heard about a non-profit organization called American Assistance for Cambodia, which builds rural schools. He challenged his students to raise the $15,500 needed to build a school. They did so successfully and the five-classroom Overlake School in Pailin opened in 2003.

The school in Pailin serves more than 300 students in kindergarten through sixth grade. A select group of students from The Overlake School in Redmond visit the school in Pailin every other year as a part of their Global Service Program.

Mark Manuel, director of diversity at Overlake, said the students teach English, arts and crafts, music and dance, while also completing a project. One group created a small computer lab and another built a playground. Proceeds of Monday night’s event will go toward further expansion of the Pailin school.

Maris DiPietro, a senior at Overlake, went on the 2008 trip and plans to go back this April.

She said that viewing the level of poverty in Cambodia was an eye-opening experience for her and peers.

“It’s shocking just to see the pictures, but nothing can prepare you until you are there,” DiPietro said.

Before Kristof’s speech Monday night, the school hosted a Global Service Fair. Organizations that aim to help women and children achieve health, education, safety and economic stability — all goals in line with Kristof’s “Half the Sky,” — set up booths to educate attendees.

Dana Tseng, a representative from CARE, said the event was important for the entire community to be a part of. One of the women featured in “Half the Sky” is a CARE project participant in their village savings-and-loan program in Burundi.

“The Seattle community wants to be informed,” she said. “They want to be able to make a difference.”

Kate Berry, an Overlake grad and sophomore at Amherst College, said she hopes Overlake students will continue to take advantage of their privileged position.

“I think [students] need to remember that you don’t have to volunteer abroad to make a difference. Anything you do can help,” she said.

Berry’s message was in line with Kristof’s, who commented on the public’s opinion of service work, noting that many question its legitimacy and genuineness and feel that a lot of aid gets wasted.

Kristof said these concerns are valid, but The Overlake School shows that things really are working even though there is room for improvement. He said he is a believer in making incremental differences, an approach that Overlake students have mastered.

“They are a generation of doers,” Manuel said of his students. “They are action oriented and we are giving them the tools to do it.”

Claire Burns is a student in the University of Washington Department of Communication News Laboratory.