Our final Powerful Woman of Lasell is the beautiful, amazing ray of sunshine Haleigh West. A junior at Lasell, West is majoring in Fashion Design and Production, and minoring in Environmental Studies, Human Rights and Studio Art. If that wasn’t enough, Haleigh is also very involved on campus. This RA in Woodland is also a Peer Health Educator, Vagina Monologues participant, Her Campus Community Outreach Coordinator and contributing writer (all of our Sexposed articles are courtesy of this lovely lady), and Active Minds president who is also in the honors program and works in admissions. Outside of Lasell, West is a part of WWOOF USA which is a network of national organizations that facilitates the placement of volunteers on organic farms.
When asked which female figure from the past/present has inspired her, West responded by saying, “There’s no way to pick just one but to be honest it’s not one woman, but many. I’m surrounded by so many strong women that do so much for the world around them. My sisters and my mom are probably my biggest inspirations. They have such passion for life and work everyday to make the world a better place in their own way. People often forget that to make the world a better place, we have to do the little things, not just the big things.”
While West is very accomplished, it is difficult for her to pinpoint one event or action that she is most proud of. Instead, she says, “I spent a good part of the first two decades of my life sitting back and watching things happen. After coming to college I began to step forward and deal with issues that are important to me, the environment, sexual assault and harassment, equality. I fight everyday to make things better, or at least a little less bad. What’s the point of doing a good thing once and never repeating it? Change doesn’t happen that way. And change starts with educating ourselves.”
Although many seek advice from West daily, if she had one piece to give us all, it would be: “Stop focusing on the people that inspire you. Instead focus on the actions. Let the message these inspirational people stand for sink in and follow suit. Likelihood is that someone doesn’t do good for the attention, they do it for the good of the act. So listen to the message, not the voice. See the action, not the face behind it.”
It is easy to see why West was chosen to end our Powerful Week of Women. This woman uses her power to speak for those who can’t, fight for what is right and watch the world grow in a positive way. You are lucky if you have the chance to become involved with her in any way. Haleigh, you inspire us all.