Name: Sam Rollins
Year: 2018
Hometown: Mendham, New Jersey
Major: Civil Engineering
Involvement: Campus Ambassador for GW CHAARG
CHAARG, Changing Health Attitudes + Actions to Recreate Girls, is a national movement across college campuses. CHAARG aims to ignite a passion for fitness and health among young women.
This week, Her Campus sat down with GW’s Campus Ambassador for CHAARG, Sam Rollins to learn more about the GW chapter and Sam’s commitment to fitness!
Can you tell me more about CHAARG and how you found out about the organization?
CHAARG is a national organization and it’s at 25 different colleges and universities across the country. My best friend applied to be an ambassador at Boston College during our senior year in high school. She went through a long interview process and I was alongside her for the entire ride. I was interested in becoming an ambassador myself, but I was unsure about my college plans and GWU. When I did come to GWU I knew I wanted to do something. I love Greek life but I feel there should be something else for girls that is more focused on community building. I applied to be a CHAARG ambassador at GWU in March and in May I found out I was accepted!
What do girls get as a member of CHAARG?
We have main events once a week. We partner with local fitness studios and either they come to us or we go to them. Usually about 70 girls come to each weekly event. On top of the main events we have small groups, so each of the executive board members takes a group of 15-20 girls that they meet with regularly. They can work out, or just grab coffee – this is more of an intimate environment because we want the girls to get to know each other. On top of small groups and main events, we also have some social events planned. I would also love to look into participating in philanthropy events as an organization!
Do girls need to have a certain fitness level to join CHAARG?
We have girls who haven’t ever worked out before and just have the interest. We plan a variety of workouts around that, so some of the events that we have had are Soul Cycle, belly dancing and hip hop classes, and Cross Fit. Cross Fit was really cool! There’s definitely a range in fitness levels but that’s our goal. No one should feel uncomfortable as a CHAARG member!
What advice do you have for girls that are interested in fitness but don’t know where to begin?
That was me last year! If you go to the gym with a group of friends that you’re comfortable with, then you don’t feel like you’re alone going into the weight room. You have someone there to back you up so you don’t feel uncomfortable. That’s what is so great about CHAARG – we’re building a support system for girls.
What was the biggest challenge you faced starting a CHAARG chapter at GW?
Getting the word out at first was really hard. People didn’t understand what CHAARG was or what it stood for. I struggled with getting the message out to a lot of people in an effective way.
What are you most proud of thus far?
A lot of fitness studios we’ve contacted love the meaning of CHAARG and want to help out with events and participate. Also, I honestly didn’t think we were going to hit 100 registered members but as of now we hit 107! It wasn’t easy but looking back we did the right things. Over the summer I really focused on social media – we have over 600 likes on our Facebook page and we have about one new sign up each day!
How can girls who are interested join CHAARG?
CHAARG has a $45 fee per semester – this gets members access to all of our weekly events and classes. Girls can pay this fee and sign up for the GWU chapter on the website: http://shop.chaarg.com/collections/chaarg-memberships/products/gwu-chaarg