Leta Stevens: President & Campus Correspondent of Her Campus Purdue
Major: Retail Management, Certificate in Entrepreneurship
Year: 2012
Hometown: Monticello, Indiana
Activities: Zeta Tau Alpha (PC ’08), HCPurdue
Interests: Running, fashion, nail polish, writing
HCPurdue: How did you become involved with Her Campus Purdue?
Leta: It was the second semester of my junior year at Purdue that I joined our Her Campus chapter. One of my friends, Brittany Cole, was posting on Facebook about all of the awesome things she was doing in order to help found Her Campus at Purdue. I messaged her and asked how I could get involved. I tagged along for one of the meetings and jumped on board as a feature writer. Writing has always been a passion of mine so being able to write and use it as an extra curricular on my résumé was perfect.
HCPurdue: What is your favorite part of being Campus Correspondent?
Leta: As a feature writer for HCPurdue I loved writing different articles about fashion and events here at Purdue. It was such a fun way to express myself, talk about things on campus, and spread the word about HCPurdue. When the founding Campus Correspondent was leaving to study abroad, she asked who would be interested in taking her place. Her Campus Purdue was one of my favorite things to work at each week, better than any class, so I told her I would love to do it. It is so amazing to be able to run, expand, and better this organization as the Campus Correspondent. I am currently finishing my second semester in the position and our organization has come such a long way.
HCPurdue: What are some of the challenges of being Campus Correspondent?
Leta: Being Campus Correspondent has a lot of challenges. Being the President of or running some student organizations may not necessarily have weekly or daily duties like being the CC of HCPurdue does. Each week I have to hold content meetings with my writers. We have to update each of the seven features each week. So my job is to make sure we have new, exciting content being written by our writers. Then I have to edit all of the articles and publish all of the articles on the website. Aside from website content, I have constant communication with liaisons from the national branch that I have to keep up with. And I’m doing all of this on top of weekly homework, exams, and work. It is a lot of work and it can be extremely time consuming, but when you’re really passionate about something it is really easy to find time to get everything done.
HCPurdue: What are your plans for after graduation?
Leta: In January, I move to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and I will be starting work at Kohl’s Corporate Headquarters in Menomonee Falls. I’ll be working in the buying offices as a Merchant Analyst. I am so incredibly excited to start my career with such an amazing company!
HCPurdue: How has being a part of Her Campus helped you in your future career?
Leta: Being a part of Her Campus has helped me tremendously with my future endeavors. Writing really helps expand vocabulary and has helped me perfect my communication skills. This summer I was able to write for the Her Campus national page as a contributing blogger for the Intern Diaries section. I wrote weekly about my experiences as an intern and the lessons I learned throughout the summer. People in my office would read my articles and tell me they enjoyed them. Being President and Campus Correspondent of HCP has helped me with my leadership skills and has helped me with delegating tasks (or articles, in this case) to my team.
HCPurdue: What is one of your best memories at Purdue?
Leta: College has been the best four (and a half) years of my life. I have so many amazing memories here and I’ll never forget them. My sorority, Zeta Tau Alpha, played a huge part in that, but I would have to say my proudest moment here at Purdue University was creating a student organization. Last semester, when I became the CC of HCPurdue, I created a constitution for HCPurdue and applied for Her Campus Purdue to become a registered and recognized student organization through the University. After over a month of waiting, my application was approved. HCPurdue has been such a joy for me and I am so happy that I was able to establish and create this as an official Purdue organization so that for many years to come female students can enjoy HCPurdue as well.
HCPurdue: What words of wisdom do you have to incoming Purdue students?
Leta: My words of wisdom would just be enjoy every moment that you have here in college. Your time here at Purdue is limited; take advantage of it. Join clubs and organizations you enjoy, take classes that interest you, change your major until you find your passion. Stay up late, go to parties, find your best friends, take as many pictures as you can, and laugh as much as possible. Once college is over, you don’t get it back… as I look back I wish I could do it all over again and again. It’s been an amazing journey and I wouldn’t trade my time here at Purdue for anything.