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On April 19, I went to the College of William & Mary for the third year in a row for the Her Campus Mid-Atlantic Intercollegiette Conference! Hosted at William & Mary by Her Campus WM and Her Campus Virginia Commonwealth University, the conference is an annual tradition that I am proud to be a part of.
This year, the theme of the conference was “Plan it Forward”, based on the partnership that Her Campus and Merck have formed over the past few years. Plan it Forward is all about empowering young women to make (and stick to!) concrete plans to help them achieve their goals.
When Stephanie, Annie and I came up with the idea for Her Campus, one of the first things we did was to make a plan to launch the website and grow it to what it is today. That planning step is absolutely essential and is something that not enough men and women focus on!
As a speaker at the conference, my keynote speech focused on setting goals and making a plan to achieve them. I shared information on the tools that we created in partnership with Merck to help young women like you make a plan, whether you’re planning for graduation or wanting to start your own company!
One of my favorite tools we used (and one that I sincerely hope that you’ll all take advantage of!) is our #PledgeTo campaign. With #PledgeTo, we encourage young women to make a pledge to accomplish their goals and to publicly post that pledge on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram! This way, you’ve made your commitment public and will have your family and friends cheering you along! Here are some of my favorites from the conference:
I believe that you can accomplish so much if you put your mind to it and come up with a plan!
At the conference, I got real and talked to the attendees about preventing unplanned pregnancy. Part of your plan should include how to prevent an unplanned pregnancy if wanting to start a family is not in your immediate future. It is SO important to think about how an unplanned pregnancy could potentially alter your ability to achieve your goals on time. There’s also information about this super important issue on the Plan it Forward page as well. Now that I’m “old” and married, I’ve been thinking about starting a family and when and where that fits into my plan!
So even if you weren’t able to attend the conference last weekend, I urge you to take my advice and #PledgeTo Plan it Forward so that you can determine, plan for and achieve your goals!
