Names:
Vivien Hastings Carly Pablos
Year:
Sophomores
School
VH:Weinberg
CP: SESP
Hometowns
VH: Wayne, PA
CP: Dallas Texas
Majors
VH: History & BIP
CP: Social Policy & International Studies
Birthdays:
VH: Feb 8 1994
CP: Dec 31 1993
Claim to Fame: They’re starting a new club on campus called iGEM, International Gender Equality Movement, to raise awareness about gender equality issues all over the world!
Tell us about the organization you’re starting on campus!
CP: Our organization is called iGEM, which stands for International Gender Equality Movement. We seek to work through the UN foundation’s program called Girl Up to foster initiatives in developing countries to ensure that all girls are safe, educated, healthy, and just basically have equal rights.
VH; The specific countries that Girl Up works with are Ethiopia, Malawi, Guatemala, and Liberia. There are many initiatives like a leadership initiative and a movement to get girls counted on the birth registry. Sometimes, girls in these countries are born and not counted on the birth system so when they go to get an education or a job there is no record of them ever existing in the country.
What does Girl Up do nationally?
This organization is sponsored by the UN and has chapters all over the country. They’re usually aimed at middle school and high school aged girls. We are one of the first College Chapters so we’ve been working with a rep from the UN foundation to learn how to tailor their program to the college level. We’re so excited to work with them and give them feedback on how our program is going. Right now students at UChicago and Loyola are starting similar organizations on their own campuses.
What will this organization do at Northwestern?
VH: Right now we’re trying to tackle the bureaucracy of being set up as an official Student Organization. We’re hoping to get through this whole process by December or January. But when we do get ourselves established we want to implicate our 3-pronged approach. We want to mix advocacy with awareness and fundraising. For specific advocacy things, we want to have twitter campaigns, write letters to Congress, and call our representatives. For awareness we want to do a lot of social media outreach to people on campus and make them more mindful of what’s going on. We will also reach out to the Evanston and Chicago area. For fundraising we want to set a number for the year and try to reach it. We’ll give the money back to Girl Up at the end of the year.
What events are you looking to put on this year?
VH: Someday we want to host a leadership conference for girls here at Northwestern and the Chicago area to learn about these issues and to learn how to be better female leaders. We also want to partner with Girls on the Run (an organization that promotes fitness and activity for young girls) and host an event with them.
What inspired you to start this club?
CP: I went to a social justice summit in LA this summer and I met a rep from Girl Up who really inspired me. I had heard of the organization before but I didn’t really know much about it. This has always been an important issue that’s for me because I am a girl and I could’ve been in the same situation as these girls if I was born in another country. I think education is really important and I can’t imagine not being able to go to school. After I went home I was thinking that I really wanted to start a club and do something. I saw that Vivien had changed her cover photo to a picture from of the documentary Girl Rising and went I went to like Girl Up on Facebook I saw that Vivien had also liked it also. So I was kinda creepy and I messaged her right away. We talked back and forth about working together.
What is Girl Rising?
CP: It’s a documentary that tells the stories of different struggling girls around the country that’s narrated by celebrities. Anne Hathaway is in it. All the girls face some difficulty in receiving education but they all somehow rise above it. Girl Up is big advocate of this documentary. People all over the country can have screenings of it if they raise enough money. There is actually one here on November 11 that’s being done by One Book One Northwestern.
VH: It’s a really powerful movie. It’s specifically coming up a lot because of a girl named Malala, a 12 year old student in Pakistan who was shot in the face on her way to school this year by the Taliban. She had to receive intensive facial surgery. Then she recently spoke at the UN on this issue, which really sparked the debate.
What are you most excited for about this club?
CM- I’m excited to educate a lot of people on campus. I think we look at things here and we see that they’re so equal for men and women so we forget about the issues in other countries. I don’t think people realize how big of an issue this is.
VH: I’m most excited to get people involved in such a big opportunity for social change because it’s a change through girls. Girls have proven to give back to the community when they make or raise money usually about 85. On the other hand, boys usually give about 35 percent. Right now, in the world aid, only about 2 percent of funding goes directly to girls so I think this is a really a missed opportunity that we can capitalize on to have a huge impact. I think we can really create social change around the world.
Who are your female role models?
CP: My aunt. She runs a nonprofit and she inspired me to go into social activism as a career.
VH: Hilary Clinton and my Mom. She became a swimmer in the first year that title nine took place at the University of Michigan. She saw the entire growth of the program from a time where they had to raise their own money for buses to meets to one of the best swim programs in the country.
What can people who are interested in your club do to get involved?
CP: We aren’t official yet so it’s hard to say right now but the first thing they should do is go to the Girl Rising showing. Our goal is that we are very inclusive and that anyone can join. Once we get approval we’ll advertise and get people to join.
VH: If you want to get more involved then you can apply to be on exec, etc. We already have the PR and Fundraiser filled, but as more people express interest we’ll definitely have more positions that arise. It’s really exciting that we’re only sophomores so we have a lot of time to play around this and hopefully have it as something to leave behind.
When you were a little girl what did you want to be when you grew up?
CP: I wanted to be a teacher.
VH: I wanted to be a paleontologist. Dinosaurs were awesome.
If anyone has any questions or interest in this club you should contact Vivien or Carly!
Carlypablos2016@u.northwestern.edu
Vivienhastings2016@u.northwestern.edu