Her Campus to bring awareness

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Graphic by Joshua Awolade
Graphic by Joshua Awolade

Women on Wilfrid Laurier Universityโ€™s campus are getting a new outlet to make their voices heard.
Her Campus, a new club at Laurier, is an international publication thatโ€™s catered towards college women with content created by women.

Her Campus presidents Chelsea Birtch and Andreia McLean started a new chapter this year after discovering that Laurier wasnโ€™t connected to the organization.

โ€œLaurierโ€™s female population is so involved already that having a media source that caters generally towards them just seemed like a really good fit for this campus,โ€ said McLean.

Birtch heard about Her Campus online through a friend, whose school had their own chapter. She researched the organization and started the Laurier chapter with McLean.

According to the website, Her Campus is a magazine and online publication started in 2009 by Stephanie Kaplan, Windsor Hanger and Annie Wang, three Harvard University undergraduates.

Since then, Her Campus has acquired over 4,000 contributors and is โ€œthe number one global community for college women.โ€

Each campus connected to Her Campus has their own chapter catered towards its particular school with college women creating the content.

โ€œItโ€™s a really cool network of women creating this content thatโ€™s relevant towards women,โ€ said McLean.

Her Campus also has a lot of international connections and opportunities, such as conferences, networking and support for college women.

According to McLean, while the publication is catered towards the female demographic, the club isnโ€™t exclusive to females.

โ€œAnybody can read it,โ€ she continued. โ€œBut we have male writers, we can have male editors, we definitely have a male promo team already, but itโ€™s not just a girls club.โ€

Danielle McKay, a third-year English and communications studies student at Laurier, is a writer for the publication.

โ€œI found out about Her Campus through a friend on Facebook. I thought it would be a great opportunity to get involved within Laurier with the opportunity for international exposure,โ€ she explained.

According to Birtch, she and McLean hope to make Her Campus established and ensure it stays relevant once they graduate.

โ€œThis is something we want to continue at Laurier, we donโ€™t want it to be a one- or two-year thing,โ€ she said. โ€œSo we want to build a strong enough team that they can continue to carry it on and make it even better than what weโ€™re trying to make it right now.โ€

McLean explained she wants to make Her Campus available to future Laurier students who could be interested in contributing.

According to McLean, the club is looking to collaborate with other clubs and organizations on Laurierโ€™s campus. The idea is to provide events that create awareness about what Her Campus is and what theyโ€™re doing that tie in to the writing.

โ€œWe might feature other clubs, introduce other clubs, talk about the collaborations and then the event as well,โ€ Birtch said. โ€œWeโ€™re looking right now at Special Constable [Service} to do an event about self defense thatโ€™s generally [aimed] towards women โ€“ not exclusively to women โ€“ but generally catered to that demographic.โ€

They also want to create awareness for the โ€œlesser-knownโ€ things happening on campus, such as Laurierโ€™s sorority Alpha Phi, which raised $11,000 last year for womenโ€™s heart health in one night. They hope to cover their events and help โ€œpromote them and their successesโ€ with the publication.

โ€œItโ€™s bringing awareness to them as well as to us at the same time,โ€ Birtch said.

โ€œAnybody can read it,โ€ she continued. โ€œBut we have male writers, we can have male editors, we definitely have a male promo team already, but itโ€™s not just a girls club.โ€

Danielle McKay, a third-year English and communications studies student at Laurier, is a writer for the publication.

โ€œI found out about Her Campus through a friend on Facebook. I thought it would be a great opportunity to get involved within Laurier with the opportunity for international exposure,โ€ she explained.

According to Birtch, she and McLean hope to make Her Campus established and ensure it stays relevant once they graduate.

โ€œThis is something we want to continue at Laurier; we donโ€™t want it to be a one-or two-year thing,โ€ she said.

โ€œSo we want to build a strong enough team that they can continue to carry it on and make it even better than what weโ€™re trying to make it right now.โ€

McLean explained she wants to make Her Campus available to future Laurier students who might be interested in contributing.

According to McLean, the club is looking to collaborate with other clubs and organizations on Laurierโ€™s campus. The idea is to provide events that create awareness about what Her Campus is and what theyโ€™re doing that ties in to the writing.

โ€œWe might feature other clubs, introduce other clubs, talk about the collaborations and then the event as well,โ€ Birtch said. โ€œWeโ€™re looking right now at Special Constable [Service] to do an event about self-defence thatโ€™s generally [aimed] towards women โ€” not exclusively to women โ€” but generally catered to that demographic.โ€

They also want to create awareness for the โ€œlesser-knownโ€ things happening on campus, such as Laurierโ€™s sorority Alpha Phi, which raised $11,000 last year for womenโ€™s heart health in one night. They hope to cover their events and help โ€œpromote them and their successesโ€ with the publication.

โ€œItโ€™s bringing awareness to them as well as to us at the same time,โ€ Birtch said.


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