This week marks the one-year anniversary of Her Campus Clarion launching! It’s hard to believe our chapter started a year ago. I remember seeing a post in the Clarion University Class of 2018 group on Facebook recruiting members to join and I was interested in seeing what Her Campus was all about. I did a Google search and read about the company and thought it was really cool that colleges from all over the country. and even in other countries, had chapters that wrote for Her Campus.
I have always loved writing. I started out writing short stories when I was kid and then started to write long stories when I became a teenager and even got in writing poetry. I was on the newspaper staff in high school, which didn’t end up being a great experience since my partner and I’s work was never published in it and we didn’t receive credit for the other things we did for the paper. I submitted two of my poems to the literary magazine in high school as well and once again, I did not receive credit for my own work. Another girl’s name was with my poem and I was furious.
After those bad experience in high school with writing groups, I was pretty bummed. I didn’t participate in any other writing groups until Her Campus. I took a chance sending an email out asking if I could join. I wasn’t sure if I would be allowed to since I’m a completely online student who lives five hours away from campus, but I ended up being accepted and became Her Campus Clarion’s only online member.
It’s been a great experience and turned into something I am really proud of. I even got the words “Writer Her Campus” engraved on my class ring. I love being a part of an organization that is all about girls and writing. It’s empowering to have a group of all girls who write their own pieces every week and have our work published online for everyone to see. It’s an amazing feeling to see my articles published every week and to see my name there with them, giving me credit for my work.
A particularly wonderful experience was getting to write an article announcing my post-graduation plans to apply to the Police Academy and pursue my life-long dream of becoming a police officer. I sent it out to all my family and friends to read and was very happy to receive the support and kind words I did. My 2-year college even got ahold of my article and shared it on their Facebook page along with my graduation photo. I feel like that was my most successful article and it’s something I am very proud of.
Another great experience I had with Her Campus was attending Her Conference in New York. I took a bus down to the city and met up with two other girls from my chapter and we shared a hotel room and went to the conference together. Girls from all over the country and other countries were there, along with successful business women, writers and actresses who did workshops and presentations for us. We received tons of free stuff from amazing companies whose values align with Her Campus and got to munch on some yummy snacks like Kind Bars and Skinny Pop Popcorn that were all over the place. It was an amazing and empowering weekend I got to spend with two lovely girls from my chapter (shout-out to Courtney and Cailyn) and many other talented girls from many different places.
I may not be a traditional member who is on campus and gets to attend meetings and activities, but I am a proud member of Her Campus who loves the experience I have had with this group the past year and look forward to finishing up my last semester at Clarion with Her Campus!