Women on Wilfrid Laurier University’s campus are getting a new outlet to make their voices heard.
Her Campus, a new club at Laurier, is an international publication that’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 wasn’t connected to the organization.
“Laurier’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,” 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 “the number one global community for college women.”
Each campus connected to Her Campus has their own chapter catered towards its particular school with college women creating the content.
“It’s a really cool network of women creating this content that’s relevant towards women,” 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 isn’t exclusive to females.
“Anybody can read it,” she continued. “But we have male writers, we can have male editors, we definitely have a male promo team already, but it’s not just a girls club.”
Danielle McKay, a third-year English and communications studies student at Laurier, is a writer for the publication.
“I 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,” she explained.
According to Birtch, she and McLean hope to make Her Campus established and ensure it stays relevant once they graduate.
“This is something we want to continue at Laurier, we don’t want it to be a one- or two-year thing,” she said. “So we want to build a strong enough team that they can continue to carry it on and make it even better than what we’re trying to make it right now.”
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 Laurier’s campus. The idea is to provide events that create awareness about what Her Campus is and what they’re doing that tie in to the writing.
“We might feature other clubs, introduce other clubs, talk about the collaborations and then the event as well,” Birtch said. “We’re looking right now at Special Constable [Service} to do an event about self defense that’s generally [aimed] towards women – not exclusively to women – but generally catered to that demographic.”
They also want to create awareness for the “lesser-known” things happening on campus, such as Laurier’s sorority Alpha Phi, which raised $11,000 last year for women’s heart health in one night. They hope to cover their events and help “promote them and their successes” with the publication.
“It’s bringing awareness to them as well as to us at the same time,” Birtch said.
“Anybody can read it,” she continued. “But we have male writers, we can have male editors, we definitely have a male promo team already, but it’s not just a girls club.”
Danielle McKay, a third-year English and communications studies student at Laurier, is a writer for the publication.
“I 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,” she explained.
According to Birtch, she and McLean hope to make Her Campus established and ensure it stays relevant once they graduate.
“This is something we want to continue at Laurier; we don’t want it to be a one-or two-year thing,” she said.
“So we want to build a strong enough team that they can continue to carry it on and make it even better than what we’re trying to make it right now.”
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 Laurier’s campus. The idea is to provide events that create awareness about what Her Campus is and what they’re doing that ties in to the writing.
“We might feature other clubs, introduce other clubs, talk about the collaborations and then the event as well,” Birtch said. “We’re looking right now at Special Constable [Service] to do an event about self-defence that’s generally [aimed] towards women — not exclusively to women — but generally catered to that demographic.”
They also want to create awareness for the “lesser-known” things happening on campus, such as Laurier’s sorority Alpha Phi, which raised $11,000 last year for women’s heart health in one night. They hope to cover their events and help “promote them and their successes” with the publication.
“It’s bringing awareness to them as well as to us at the same time,” Birtch said.
