Meet our new Campus Correspondents! After Laura and Anna stepped down last spring we have two new amazing Campus Correspondents creating great content and keeping everything running smoothly.
Introduce each other!
Lyra: Pinja is an English major and she’s starting her pedagogical studies for teachers this year, so it’s going to be a busy autumn for both of us. I first met Pinja in a course we were both taking and then through my joining HC Helsinki, and I’ve never met anyone as motivated and inspired as she is – I can guarantee that this is going to be an awesome year for our chapter!
Pinja: Lyra is also an English major and she’s currently doing an internship at the university. Lyra is the sweetest girl I know and she’s super nice to everyone. She’s also very hard-working – if you need something done, chances are she’s already doing it.
What made you want to become Campus Correspondents, and how does the position differ from being a regular writer for the chapter?
Pinja: I’ve been involved with Her Campus Helsinki since its launch and the more I’ve worked for it, the more excited about it I’ve become. So when our previous CC’s told us last spring that they needed someone to continue their work, I pretty much jumped at the opportunity. Well, for starters, CC’s have a lot more work to do. In addition to writing, we also need to make sure that everyone else meets their deadlines, edit articles, plan future content, manage our team, plan for events and publicity and make sure our social media pages are up to date. We also keep in touch with the national Her Campus team. There’s definitely a lot of work to do but I am super excited about the upcoming semester! I could spend hours planning events, polishing our social media strategy and trying to come up with fun ways to recruit new team members as well as motivate our current team.
Lyra: I’ve always enjoyed writing so I felt really lucked out at discovering HC Helsinki and meeting all the incredible talented and dedicated people behind it. This year I decided to try my hands at taking a few more responsibilities and becoming more familiarised with all the behind-the-scenes tasks involved with keeping a webzine running, such as the ones Pinja mentioned. But writing will always have a special place in my heart and I’m hoping to contribute as much as possible in that department as well.
What kind of direction do you want to develop the chapter in now that you’re in charge?
Pinja: I want to make our team proud about making such a cool magazine for women. In the academic world, it often feels like women’s magazines are not very highly appreciated and people might even be ashamed to tell others that they like to read one. However, I’ve never understood how loving fashion or the occasional celebrity gossip would make me any less smart or driven. I want to encourage people to write the best content that they can and not to set limits for what a “women’s magazine” should be. There are so many different kinds of women at our university and we should write for every one of them. There’s nothing wrong with writing about the latest fashion trends but that doesn’t mean that we couldn’t also write about, say mental health issues or horror movies. I want to make Her Campus Helsinki a relevant webzine where the women at our university will always find content that will interest them (be it deep and thought-provoking or light and relaxing) – but also a community. Personally, I love women’s magazines that are inspiring and that encourage women to go and conquer the world in their own way, so that’s what I want to strive for with HC Helsinki, too. Also, I want to grow our chapter and make us more visible on campus. Last year we made it into the silver level, this year we are definitely in for the gold!
Lyra: I agree with everything Pinja said. It’s about time we really embraced different kinds of diversities and acknowledge that there shouldn’t be any predetermined definitions for women or men, and in this case, neither should a women-targeted webzine be confined to certain categories – it can be everything it aspires to be. Our previous Campus Correspondents Laura and Anna did such a wonderful job at building a solid foundation for HC Helsinki and I feel confident that together with the team we can take it to new heights in this upcoming year.
Any exciting things coming up this year that we can start looking forward to?
Pinja: We are definitely having more bake sales, probably one around Halloween and another before Christmas at least, and we are also planning on co-working with some other organizations so stay tuned for that. Also, we are in a process of becoming an official organization under HYY (the student union at University of Helsinki) and if all goes well we might have a bigger event coming up next spring. We are also holding an Instagram contest this fall! Of course, there will also be killer articles coming up every week which I’m pretty excited about!
Lyra: Ah, just thinking about the bake sales makes me hungry! It’s so exciting to be working with the team again after our summer break, especially with the addition of some really promising new blood. This, together with Pinja’s unlimited enthusiasm and my optimism (and love for food!), is hopefully going to translate to even better and more varied content for HC Helsinki. We’re ambitious and the possibilities are endless!
3 reasons why people should join the HC Helsinki team:
Pinja: For me, getting involved with Her Campus Helsinki has probably been the best thing I’ve done at the university. If you have any interest in working in the media or publishing world, this is the best hands-on experience that you can get. You’ll also have a chance to climb the ladder since after Lyra and I graduate, HC Helsinki will need new Campus Correspondents again. I don’t know about you, but I think it’s pretty cool to be able to say that I have my own magazine! Not to mention all the new friends you will make that you probably wouldn’t even have met otherwise!
Lyra: Yes, social media management, photography, writing…you name it, there’s enough creative freedom at HC Helsinki to satisfy your artistic soul, especially since we publish new content weekly. And perhaps most important of all, at the same time that we’re building a community of readers, our team itself is also becoming more and more like a small family where we often have to adjust and share responsibilities – but all the while having lots of fun of course! It’s a great group of people to be working with, so come and join us!