It was my first week at Pitt. I was one of the hundreds in the herd crowding around the Peterson Event Center, waiting to enter the activity fair. Lost, confused, and unsure of which kind of clubs I was even looking for, I grabbed a map and headed off with my roommate in the search of something interesting.
Writing and community service. Those were the two things I was always involved in during high school and knew I wanted to continue into college. Walking around the basketball court getting bombarded with flyers for this and that, I added my name to so many email lists, still unsure of what I was actually going to sign up for. I was looking at a magazine publication when two girls walked over to me, waving a post-it in my face. “Have you heard of Her Campus before?” one asked. After proceeding to shake my head “no” to every question, I finally heard the word “writing” in their description of the site. “Ooooh, I used to be an editor for my high school newspaper, and I’m really interested in pursuing writing!” I exclaimed. Realizing my spark of interest, the girls handed me a small post-it that read www.hercampus.com. No big flyers, nothing. Just a small post-it that I hung up on my bulletin board and that stuck out to me while I was deciding the following week which clubs to pursue.
I look back on that activity fair now and smile how that moment, and that post-it, has shaped my college experience. A year later, and I’m now Assistant Senior Editor of Her Campus, and I continue every week to write articles and eagerly send them off to all my family, or post them on Facebook to get feedback from friends. It was such an amazing feeling last year when my Oakland Zoo article made it to the Top Chapter Stories. And then another one. And another. Her Campus has given me the opportunity to voice my opinion on a multitude of different subjects, and let people see the humorous and sarcastic side of me that I sometimes hide. It has allowed me to talk about some serious issues and some fun, college-like topics like campus hookups.
Writing opportunities aside, Her Campus is an amazing organization. Many people are turned off from Her Campus because they hear “online magazine” in its description and automatically think they have to be the next J.K. Rowling to sign up. With events each semester like Charmers for Charity, a male fashion show, and a Girl’s Night Out event co-hosted with Rent the Runway, there are so many opportunities to help out with event planning and PR. I originally came into college as a Math major, knowing that I enjoyed math, but mostly afraid to pursue what I was really interested in because of its lacking job field: Magazine Writing. Her Campus has helped me accept that I am meant to be a writing and communication major, and has connected me with many students who have the same plans as myself.
And on top of it all, I get to have fun. People are shocked when I tell them that I’m Assistant Senior Editor after a year of joining, asking me if it’s a ton of work. Sure, it’s a position that requires devoting a lot of time to each article, but I also get to hang out with a group of cool girls (and guys! Her Campus isn’t just for the ladies) who know how to have fun and socialize. I get to be involved in awesome events on campus, and I got to watch our Pitt chapter rise to one of the top Her Campus chapters last year. Her Campus has given me a sense of pride, achievement, and also a sense of how to have fun while creating something amazing at the same time—and, in the end, that’s all I look for at my time here at Pitt.
HCXO
Photos taken from Pitt’s Her Campus Facebook Page.