Her Campus Rutgers loves women who are empowered and making a difference in their communities. However, sometimes not everyone’s accomplishments, successes, and overall hard work is highlighted or put on display for others to notice. With that being said, we decided to implement our own twist on Women Crush Wednesday. We’re calling it “Girl Power Wednesday” which dedicates one day out of the week to showcase women that are total girl bosses. You can find these amazing women on both our chapter website but also across our social media platforms.
Our first ever GPW goes to Kennedy Castillo, Campus Correspondent at University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Who is Kennedy Castillo? In three words we’ll describe her as a leader, writer, and, overall, empowering woman. You can find her constantly writing and living by the words “Empowered Women Empower Women” because that is what ultimately, drove her to join Her Campus. Today she is the Campus Correspondent at UTRGV and has been since Spring 2018. It was because of her consistent writing and leadership skills that led her chapter members to nominate her to be their leader. Let’s get to know Kennedy Castillo a little bit better:
HC: What is one thing you want others to know about you?
“One thing I want everyone to know about me is that I am still developing my voice as a writer. Perhaps this isn’t the one thing people would expect me to mention, but I think it’s important for people to know. I’ve always been a writer in some capacity. When I was younger my focus was creative writing, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve started to focus on journalistic writing more. Since I’m so new to this type of writing I’ve been experimenting with my voice and the angle I want to take as a writer. Most of my writing up until this point in my life has been focused on topic related to women, but I’ve recently enjoyed writing about topics related to culture and entertainment as well. When people read my articles on Her Campus or any of the publications I write for they’ll notice that sometimes my articles were clearly written by me and other times they’re different from my previous articles and that is because I’m still experimenting when it comes to my writing.”
HC: What are you currently majoring in and what drew you to that major?
“I am currently majoring in Mass Communication with a concentration in Journalism. Originally when I was applying for college I applied for the school of business, which I think was my subconscious way of being “undecided”. After getting involved with Her Campus, taking some communication classes, talking to other students in the communication department and thinking about my future I decided on Mass Communication for my major.
HC: What factors led you to pick UTRGV as your college?
I was accepted to 12 different universities so it was definitely a difficult decision choosing where I would attend college. The biggest factor that led me to choose UTRGV was its close proximity to where I live, because I wanted to remain close to home. Another big factor was financial aid and luckily with grants and scholarships I am able to attend UTRGV free of out of pocket charges, so that definitely led me to choosing UTRGV. More than anything though academics were my main priority, and the fact that UTRGV is one of the highest ranking universities in Texas really led me to choosing UTRGV.
HC: What is one thing you want to accomplish as the CC for UTRGV?
“Originally my goal was to have a team of consistent writers, and we’ve been able to accomplish this goal. Now that we have a team of solid writers and are doing much better than we were one year ago, I’d like to build a bigger presence on campus. Often when I’m speaking to students about Her Campus they are not familiar with HC at all or are unaware that UTRGV even has a chapter. Basically I’d like to build a strong and loyal reader base so that we can be more well known among students.”
HC: What has been the most rewarding thing being the Campus Correspondent at UTRGV?
“Even though this is only my second semester as the CC for HC UTRGV, I’ve had countless rewarding experiences. One particular rewarding experience as CC was at the end of the Spring 2018 semester. Our chapter did not have a chapter level at the time and to my knowledge had never earned a chapter level. A few weeks after school ended we were notified that we were a silver level chapter. This was definitely a rewarding experience for me, because it meant that all our hard work had paid off and the Her Campus national office was recognizing us. It was also very rewarding because my team was happy and seeing the joy they had made earning a chapter level even better.”
HC: Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
“In five years I’ll hopefully have my degree in Mass Communication and be in law school. Hopefully in five years I’ll have published my first book as well. I’d also like to be working for Buzzfeed or Glamour Magazine at the same time as a video and editorial content creator. I don’t know what else I’ll be doing, but definitely, those are some of my goals for the next five years.”
HC: What/Who motivates you?
“A lot of things and people motivate me. On a more personal level my family motivates me, because I want them to be proud of me and I want to be the person they raised me to be. The ladies that are part of HC UTRGV motivate me to be a good leader and to improve my writing skills each day. My professors motivate me to learn and to seek the highest level of education that I can . On a larger scale women like Aly Raisman who is brave, Ellen Degeneres who is generous and Samantha Barry who is incredibly hard working motivate me to be the best version of myself I can be.
HC: What is your definition of #GirlPower?
“#GirlPower is such a simple hashtag but with so much meaning behind it. For so long women have been belittled, not treated like equals and have had their voices taken from them. Luckily in 2018 so many steps have been taken toward equality and females are more empowered than ever before. Girl Power is a way for women from all different backgrounds to band together toward equality and empower each other. Girl power is a way for women to take back their power and to relate to one another. Girl power is something we should be proud of and something we need to teach the future generations to use, because even though in the U.S. women are thriving in other countries they still don’t have a voice and as fellow females it is important for us to spread girl power.”
This is Kennedy Castillo.
Check back here next Wednesday to see what amazing boss babe is featured next! What is your definition of girl power? Mention us on Twitter and tell us!